A Treat of Tricks

Nicholas Rogers. Halloween: from Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2003. 

Recently a work colleague commented on how Halloween was being taken over by intimidating teenagers, displacing the little kiddies. But as this book shows, the festival was always a period of riotous behaviour of the sort which drives David Blunkett* into furies, a period of cultural invention and jesting.
🔻

The Geller After-Effect

Uri Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair. The Geller Effect, Jonathan Cape, 1986.

Uri Geller (or Spurious Feller as Nina Myskow might prefer) sits down with Gullible Guy, a crate of Barbican and a box of bagels to chronicle the latest escapades in the life and times of the Cutlery Kid, 

🔻

Professional Prickers

P. G. Maxwell-Stuart. Witch Hunters: Professional Prickers, Unwitchers and Witch Finders of the Renaissance. Tempus, 2003. 

In this study of learned and folk witch hunters, Maxwell-Stuart continues his revisionist examination of the witchcraft panic, arguing that we cannot judge those involved from the Olympian peaks of the the twenty-first century.

▼

Leap too Far

Gordon Cooper with Bruce Henderson. Leap of Faith: an Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown. HarperCollins, 2000. 

Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gordon Cooper's day of fame was nearer to 40 than 30 years ago, which is perhaps why his memoirs are spiced up with UFO stories.

⛛

Georgia on my Mind

Jim Miles. Weird Georgia: Close Encounters, Strange Creatures, and Unexplained Phenomena. Cumberland House, 2000. 

Some of the best Fortean writing these days takes the form of regional studies, and this one by Jim Miles, who is an economics teacher by profession and a historian and Fortean by avocation, has produced a huge round up of Georgian Forteana. 

▼

Bad Astronomy

Philip Plait. Bad Astronomy: misconceptions and misuses revealed, from astrology to the moon landing 'hoax'. John Wiley and Sons, 2002.

In the first of series of books on 'bad science', astronomer Philip Plait examines a range of misconceptions about astronomy, including a range of pseudo-sciences from Velikovsky to UFOs.

⛛

Sense on Conspiracies

David Alexander. Conspiracies and Coverups . Berkely Books, 2002. 

A popular introduction to the world of conspiracy theories, with sections on everything from the sexual politics of the JFK and FDR eras, to the wild tales of Roswell. 

▼

All Together Now!

Robert Trundle. UFOs: Politics, God and Science. European Press Academic Publishing, 2000.

When someone who lays claim to being an academic philosopher writes a book on any topic, however controversial, the reader might expect to see logically presented, cogently argued points, and a superior ability to critically evaluate evidence and sources. Surely even a UFO book by such a writer should be one that forces to take notice of its arguments.

▼

Remote From Reality

Tim Rifat. Remote Viewing: what it is, who uses it and how to do it. Vision Paperbacks, 2001.

Tim Rifat's formula for writing this stuff is to take some old fashioned magic and superstition, dress it all in a coating of technical sounding verbiage from a variety of disciplines to blind with science, and serve with a salad of paranoia and conspiracy theories, with a topping of motivational and management crap. Serve cold.

⛛

Hearing Colours

John Harrison. Synaesthesia: the Strangest Thing. Oxford University Press, 2001.

A leading authority on the subject of synaesthesia outlines the research and experiments conducted by his mentor Simon Baron-Cohen and himself on this curious confusion of senses. 

⛛

American Monsters

Philip L Rife. America's Loch Ness Monsters. Writers' Club Press, 2000. 
Philip L Rife. Bigfoot Across America. Writers Club Press, 2000.
Philip L Rife. America's Nightmare Monsters. Writers Club Press, 2001 
⛛
This trio of books shows different patterns in the dissemination of monster stories, and how these can be seen to gradually seen to drift away from the paws and pelts cryptozoologists.

Sex and Saucers

C L Turnage. Sexual Encounters with Extraterrestrials: a Provocative Examination of Alien Contact. Timeless Voyager Press, 2001. 

C L Turnage is not, as you might expect from the books title, a male writer for Playboy or Hustler, but a female American ufologist and member of the Ancient Astronaut Society. 

⛛

The Middle Ground

Eva Pocs. Between the Living and the Dead: a perspective on witches and seers in the early modern age. Central European University Press, 1999.
⛛

Eva Pocs' study of Hungarian witch trials, shows that these trials were rather more transparent than those in the West, allowing more of the folkloric background to be discerned behind the ecclesiastical presuppositions. 

Old Time Ufology

Brad Steiger. Project Blue Book: The Top Secret Findings Revealed. Ballantine, 1977.
🔻

Fair to Middling

Len Ortzen. Strange Stories of UFOs. Arthur Barker. 1977
🔻

A Book of Wonders

Bob Rickard and John Michel. Phenomena: a Book of Wonders. Thames & Hudson, 1977.
🔻

Tantalising hints of the contents of this book have been appearing in Fortean Times over the past year or so, making us eager for its appearance. The wait was worth it. In this large format, lavishly illustrated Fortean primer, the authors have concentrated on establishing and demonstrating the fundamental unity of the whole range of strange phenomena. 

All About Mysteries.

World of The Unknown Series. All About UFOs; All About Ghosts; All About Monsters . Usborne Books. 1977.
🔻

Without a Clue

Charles Berlitz. Without a Trace. Souvenir Press, 1977.
🔻

UFO Occupants

Coral and Jim Lorenzen. Encounters with UFO Occupants. Berkley Medallion, 1976.
🔻

For Your Coffee Table

Roy Stemman. Visitors from Outer Space. Aldus Books, 1973.

🔻

Iberian Investigations

Vincente-Juan Ballester- Olmos. Catalogue of 200 Type-1 UFO Events in Spain and Portugal. Center for UFO Studies, 1974.

🔻

Nothing to See Here

Michael Hervey. UFOs, The American Scene. Hale, 1976.

🔻

The Past is Human

Peter White. The Past is Human. Angus & Robertson, 1975.

🔻

It is perhaps inevitable that books refuting the claims of von Daniken and his confreres shall be written in a more sober style, less amenable to those who take their information on such matters in easily consumed nuggets of sensation. So it is with this book, to a disappointing degree.

Looking for Life

Carl Sagan. ( ed) Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI). MIT Press, 1976.

🔻

Biblical Blunders

Eric von Daniken. Miracles of the Gods. Souvenir Press, 1975.

🔻

History Lesson

David Michael Jacobs. The UFO Controversy in America. Indiana University Press, 1975.

🔻

Pendulums and Megaliths

T. C. Lethbridge. Legend of The Sons of God. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972. 

🔻

Sceptics and Skeptics

David Marks and Richard Kamman. The Psychology of the Psychic, with a forward by Martin Gardner. Prometheus Books, 1980. 

Felix E. Planer. Superstition. Cassell, 1980. 

🔻

MUFON Proceedings

MUFON.  Proceedings of the MUFON UFO Symposium, San Francisco, July 7-8th, 1979. 

🔻

The Etherian invasion

John De Herra. The Etherian Invasion. Hwong Pub. Co., Los Alamitas, CA. 1978. 

🔻