This is typically the time of year when book publicists love to send out press releases about new books that have something to do with Oct. 31.

Halloween has become one of those festivities that have grown in popularity over the last few decades. Once relegated to just being a night for children to dress up and go trick-or-treating, Halloween has grown into a commercial holiday right up there with Christmas. For many, it is the centerpiece of the fall season.

For publishers, it’s also the chance to push books that have to do with evil, demons, witches, witchcraft, ghosts and the supernatural in general. Even Roman Catholic publishers have gotten into this game. Thus, see this book: “Diary of an American Exorcist” (Sophia Institute Press) by Father Stephen Rossetti, a priest and well-known exorcist.

Yes, exorcism. This is frequently a subject that shows up in news coverage, as well as popular culture. Every few years, it seems like we see another wave of headlines about the Roman Catholic Rite of Exorcism. Here’s a recent example — an Associated Press report on exorcism rites after civic violence.

Reporters who want to cover this topic need some basic facts, prayers and scriptures. Thus, it would help to have a reference book or two. It’s not enough to have seen the 1973 horror film “The Exorcist,” one of the scariest movies ever made.

Back in April 2020, I reviewed the fascinating book “The Devil is Afraid of Me: The Life and Works of the World’s Most Famous Exorcist” by Gabrielle Amorth, a famous Catholic priest who performed scores of exorcisms over his lifetime.

In this new book, Rossetti details his experiences after having taken part in hundreds of exorcisms. As a press release with the book noted, “The point of this book isn’t to entertain. No: It’s to inform the American people — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — about the reality of the preternatural, and the tangible dangers posed by the evil beings that populate our world just outside our sensory perception.”

I know what some of you might be thinking. Exorcism? In 2021? Come on.