What We're Reading: Tracy

Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai, by Michael Dylan Foster.

Japanese folklore is particularly rich in fascinating monsters, specters, and other supernatural creatures. Known collectively as yokai, they have a pervasive presence in Japanese art and literature. Foster's academic study of the yokai and their place in Japanese culture is a timely release, as yokai now turn up frequently in world-wide pop culture, including comics and video games. (The animated Hellboy film, Sword of Storms, features scores of yokai in its storylines.) Read with the lights on.