Who's your date today? Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz.

Where'd you go? Hawaiian Breeze, in Wallingford.

What'd you eat? I had the hawaiian barbecue sampler—barbecued short ribs and chicken with rice and macaroni salad ($12.95).

How was the food? It was good! There was way too much meat for one person—smaller lunch plates would be ideal—but it was sweet and tangy. The macaroni salad was mayonnaisey, but delicious.

What does your date say about itself? "...the story of the American occult has remained largely untold. Now a leading writer on the subject of alternative spirituality reveals the facts behind the fictions." Documentarian Ken Burns calls it "fascinating" and "compelling."

Is there a representative quote? "As a teenage boy in the late 1810s and early 1820s, Joseph Smith of Palmyra was locally known as a clairvoyant guide who could track down hidden treasure using a "seer stone"—a smooth rock, variously opaque or marked with magic symbols, that he placed in his hat and gazed into to gain the power of second sight."

Will you two end up in bed together? Yes! With a few reservations. I don't think there's another book that has all this information in one place. It is fascinating stuff. But my main reservation has to do with the fact that this book is so fucking dry and it doesn't need to be. Horowitz takes all this fascinating stuff—I love how he ties the Mormons into mesmerism and the spirituality trend in America at the time—and makes it as dull as possible. But despite his best efforts, it's still an interesting read, and it's not credulous at all.