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The Anomalist Book Awards
& Book List 2003

Before I begin, I'd just like to mention that the books above were not considered for the Anomalist Book Awards for this year because of my role in either writing or editing them. As the years pass, and the more books like these I'm in some way responsible for, the more difficult it becomes to hand out these awards. However, I will continue do so in an effort to encourage other publishers to seek out and publish books of interest to anomalists. And because of the help of some Anomalist staffers in the award selection process this year, a couple of other excellent books had to be eliminated from the running. Both Loren Coleman (LC) and Richard Hendricks (RDH) had a hand in Linda Godfrey's delightful The Beast of Bray Road, and Richard Hendricks was a contributor to Brad Steiger's truly well done Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places.  Is there anything left, you wonder?  You bet. Here are five we think are worth your special attention.--Patrick Huyghe (PH)

Award Winners 2003


BEST BIOGRAPHY
(UFOs)




Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science
by Ann Druffel


James McDonald was a highly respected atmospheric physicist who developed an interest  in UFOs after a personal sighting in 1954. By the later half of the 1960s he was up to his eyeballs in the UFO swamp, but his brilliant scientific mind saw through the muck to the hard scientific data that science was ignoring. McDonald found many of the sighting "solutions" offered by the Air Force absurd, but his efforts to work with Project Bluebook fell on deaf ears. To everyone's surprise, he reserved his greatest venom for his weak willed scientific colleagues for not taking the phenomenon seriously, or not speaking out about it openly when they did. When McDonald finally went public on UFOs, he used his prestige and well placed connections both in science and government to have the phenomenon recognized, only to have his own reputation tarnished.  Unfortunately, he was undermined by the stresses and tragedies of this personal life, and ended up killing himself in the Arizona desert  in 1971. Ann Druffel is to be commended for taking on this difficult subject, though the biography is not without faults. There is too much of Druffel's own personal baggage showing--her speculations on MJ-12, which have no place in this biography--and not enough context--McDonald's orthodox scientific research during which he carried out his UFO crusade--which does. If I had to put my money on UFOs based solely on one man's probing of the subject, McDonald's work would be it. For McDonald, the reality of UFOs was not an opinion, but a scientific fact. Not surprisingly, his intense 14-year effort for UFO recognition came to naught in this sadly apathetic world. And all that remains in the end is this. Druffel's riveting account is a proud monument to a truly courageous scientific mind. --PH


BEST WORK
IN CRYPTOZOOLOGY




The Kraken and the Colossal Octopus
by Bernard Heuvelmans


Finally! We have waited 35 years for this, the English translation of one of the classic works of cryptozoology Le Kraken et le Poulpe Colossal (Paris: Plon, 1958). But it's more than that. It is clear from reading the book carefully, and noting the end dates used by the author in signing the book, that he wrote and revised this opus in 1954-1957, 1974, and 1994. The 140 photographs and illustrations, poorly printed unfortunately, include modern material as well (such as the Plum Island giant squid and one of cryptozoologist Michel Raynal with a model of the Giant Octopus). The Kraken and the Colossal Octopus is comprehensive, grounded, fundamental to an understanding of future discoveries, and remarkably entertaining. Bernard Heuvelmans was a clever wordsmith, and despite the wealth of material on his subject (mainly the giant squid and the as yet scientifically unrecognized Giant Octopus), he does a superb job in giving the seasoned cryptozoologist or the general reader an all-encompassing chronicle of these remarkable beasts of the sea. Aside from its shameful lack of an index and high price ($145), we applaud this 332-page landmark volume from the "father of cryptozoology," who died in France at the age of 84 in August of 2001.--LC


BEST HISTORY





A Secret History of Consciousness
by Gary Lachman


Gary Lachman (aka Gary Valentine author of New Yorker Rocker) seems to have left behind his rock music roots and ventured deeply into intellectual history, first with  Turn Off Your Mind, an entertaining look back at the dark side of the sixties,  and now with this unorthodox history and science of consciousness. Lachman finds the attempt by science to explain consciousness  in terms of atoms and molecules and the physical laws that  govern them both misguided and unfounded. From there he sets off on a white-knuckle intellectual adventure presenting the views of a gamut of "alternative thinkers" on human consicousness, philosophers, scientists, and occultists, ranging from Friedrich Nietzsche, William James and Henri Bergson, to Jullian Jaynes, Andreas Mavromatis, and Stan Gooch, as well as Madame Blavatsky, Colin Wilson, Rudolf Steiner, P. D. Ouspensky and Jean Gebser. If some of these names are not familiar to you, you're in for a treat.  If you found some of their works oblique and heavy going, Lachman provides a masterful synthesis of their ideas without being superficial. Standing atop so many distinguished shoulders, Lachman argues persuasively that consciousness not only shapes what's inside our heads, but the outside world we perceive as well. What he ends up discussing at great length is the evolution of consciousness, from the group mind of our forebearers to our current individual analytical consciousness that "granulates" the world into separate units of experience. Speculation about the next step in this evolution of consciousness culminates Lachman's heady stew.--PH




BEST SCIENCE





Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
by Steven Strogatz


Why do thousands of fireflies flash in silent, hypnotic unison along the tidal rivers of Malaysia every night? Why do traffic jams occur even when there's no accident or other apparent cause? Why do women roommates sometimes find their menstrual periods in sync? What caused hundreds of Japanese children to fall into seizures while watching an episode of Pokemon? What triggers riots, fads, and mass hysteria?  Why do pendulum clocks--inanimate objects!--swing in unison when they are within a certain distance of each other? All of these astonishing feats of synchrony occur(ed) spontaneously.  Does the universe have a tendency to synchronize; does it have an overwhelming desire for order? You wouldn't think so given the laws of thermodynamics, which suggest that the opposite is true--that nature tends toward increasing disorder. Yet the universe is full of structures--galaxies, cells, ecosystems, and humans beings--that have managed to assemble themselves and behave in sync.  "This enigma," notes author Steven Strogatz, a Cornell University mathematician, "bedevils all of science today." In a compelling, often personal account, Strogatz explores the new science of synchrony (not to be confused with synchronicity), which brings mathematics, physics and biology to bear on the mystery of how spontaneous order occurs at every level of the cosmos, from the nucleus on up to the universe. But what does it all mean? Not even Strogatz ventures to answer the question.  Terms such as spontaneity, synchrony, and complexity may be familiar to us, but the nature and extent of their scientific causes as well as interrelationships and interdependence, have yet to be fully revealed. In other words, a science book for anomalists.--PH




BEST  GHOST STUDY




Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley
by Judith Richardson


Judith Richardson’s Possessions is a refreshing break from the typical (American) ghost book.  Ghostly tomes generally come in three flavors.  Vignettes of local legends and personal encounters.  Feel good affirmations offering proof of survival of the soul after death.  How-to books aimed at the burgeoning amateur ghost hunter market.  Allowing for name and place variants, most read remarkably the same.  Competent, but plodding the same old spirit path.  Richardson examines the cultural context of ghost stories and what these stories reveal about the inhabitants of a specific landscape.  In particular, she focuses on the Hudson Valley in New York state, showing how the complex dance of place, aesthetics, artists, cultural traditions, romance-seeking tourists, and diverse populations mutates folkloric specters over time to reflect contemporary concerns.  Here, Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman rubs up against the likes of the metamorphic career of the horse-dragged female ghost of Leeds and the apparitions that haunt T. Coraghessan Boyle’s contemporary novel World’s EndPossessions began life as a dissertation, and may put off the casual reader with its lingering hints of academi-speak and emphasis on literature.  But for the reader looking for something meatier than the frisson of rattling chains or scrutinizing orbs for facial features on poor quality snapshots, Richardson enlarges our understanding of how ghosts possess our imaginations.  Ghost tales aren’t static; parts are retained, some lost, others unconsciously altered to fit the current zeitgeist.  It’s not a new concept, but one often ignored.--RDH

Book List 2003


Anomalies, Forteana, and General Mysteries


Crop Circles: Signs of Contact
by Colin Andrews and Stephen J. Spignesi


Witch-Hunt : Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials
by Marc Aronson

The Physics of the Paranormal
by Kenneth W. Behrendt

The Secrets of the Vaulted Sky: Astrology and the Art of Prediction
by David Berlinski

Curious New England: The Unconventional Traveler's Guide to Eccentric Destinations
by Joseph A. Citro

Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture
by Bill Ellis

Science and the Paranormal: Altered States of Reality
by Arthur J. Ellison

The New Encyclopedia of the Occult
by John Michael Greer

Warriors of the Wasteland: A Quest for the Pagan Sacrificial Cult Behind the Grail Legends
by John Grigsby

Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld
by Patrick Harpur

The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination
by Patrick Harpur

Hans Holzer's the Supernatural: Explaining the Unexplained
by Hans Holzer

Doing Business in the Adirondacks: True Tales of the Bizarre and Supernatural
by Eugenia Macer-Story

The Haunting of the Presidents: A Paranormal History of the U.S. Presidency
by Joel Martin and William J. Birnes


Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult
by Richard Metzger

 The Paranormal: A Bishop Investigates
by Hugh Montefiore

Crop Circles: Evidence of a Cover-Up
by Nicolas Montigiani

A History of Terror: Fear & Dread Through the Ages
by Paul Newman

In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
by Mary Beth Norton

Into the Bermuda Triangle : Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery
by Gian J. Quasar


Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown
by Nick Redfern

Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley
by Judith Richardson

The Third Level of Reality: A Unified Theory of the Paranormal
by Percy Seymour

Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and the Unexplained
by Brad Steiger

The Occult: The Ultimate Book for Those Who Would Walk With the Gods
by Colin Wilson


The Road to Delphi: Scenes from the History of Oracles
by Michael Wood


Critics & Debunkers

A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America
by Michael Barkun

Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking
by Robert E. Bartholomew  and Benjamin Radford

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions
by Robert Todd Carroll

Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Godel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscientific Topics
by Martin Gardner

Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind the Legend
by Daniel Harms, John Wisdom, III Gonce, John Wisdom Gonce III

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
by Terence Hines

Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality
by John Horgan

Moon Landings: Did NASA Lie?
Philippe Lheureux

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: Dispelling the Hysteria
by Scott Maruna

Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims
by Massimo Polidoro

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda
by Amy Wallace


Cryptozoology

Raincoast Sasquatch: Bigfoot, Sasquatch Evidence from Indian Lore
by Robert Alley

Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America
by Loren Coleman

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep
by Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe

Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans
by Richard Ellis

The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf
by Linda S. Godfrey

The Kraken and the Colossal Octopus
by Bernard Heuvelmans

The Great New England Sea Serpent: An Account of Unknown Creatures Sighted by Many Respectable Persons Between 1638 and the Present Day
by J. P. O'Neill

The Locals: A Contemporary Investigation of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch Phenomenon
by Thom Powell

The Beasts That Hide from Man: Seeking the World's Last Undiscovered Animals
by Karl P. N. Shuker



Forbidden Archaeology and Ancient Civilizations

Ley Lines and Earth Energies: An Extraordinary Journey into the Earthªs Natural Energy System
by David R. Cowan with Chris Arnold


Solomon Falcon of Sheba: The Tomb and Image of the Queen of Sheba Discovered
by Ralph Ellis

The Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus
by Frank Joseph

Lost World : Rewriting Prehistory---How New Science Is Tracing America's Ice Age Mariners
by Tom Koppel

Genesis Unveiled: The Lost Wisdom of our Forgotten Ancestors
by Ian Lawton

1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies

Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America
by Robert M. Schoch


Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island
by Jo Anne Van Tilburg



Maverick Anthropology

Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin's Theory
by Michael A. Cremo

Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark: Amazing Revelations of the Incredible Power of Gold
by Laurence Gardner


The Genesis Race: Our Extraterrestrial DNA and the True Origins of the Species
by Will Hart


Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland
by Eddie Lenihan

Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body
by Armand Marie Leroi

True Vampires: Blood-Sucking Killers Past and Present
by Sondra London

Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children
by Michael Newton


Strange Talents

Distant Mental Influence: Its Contributions to Science, Healing, and Human Interactions
by William Braud

The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a "Psychic Spy" for the U.S. Military
by Lyn Buchanan

The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Obsession, Perfume, and the Last Mystery of the Senses
by Chandler Burr


Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization
by Dan Burton and David Grandy


Nostradamus and the Lost Templar Legacy
by Rudy Cambier


Diary of a Psychic
Sonia Choquette

Magic and Witchcraft: From Shamanism to the Technopagans
by Nevill Drury

The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema
by Lon Milo Duquette

Confessions of a Psychic and a Rabbi
by Uri Geller and Shmuley Boteach

The Phaselock Code : Through Time, Death and Reality, The Metaphysical Adventures of the Man Who Fell Off Everest
by Roger Hart

Born Knowing: A Medium's Journey-Accepting and Embracing My Spiritual Gifts
by John Holland, Cindy Pearlman

Dream Telepathy: Scientific Experiments in the Supernatural
by Stanley Krippner,
Montague Ullman  and Alan Vaughan

A Secret History of Consciousness
by Gary Lachman

Turn Off Your Mind
by Gary Lachman 


The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal
by Lawrence L. Leshan

The Last Alchemist : Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason
by Iain McCalman

Shamanic Experience: A Practical Guide to Psychic Powers
by Kenneth Meadows

Twin Telepathy: The Psychic Connection
by Guy Lyon Playfair

The H.I.S.S. of the A.S.P
by David Ritchey

The Sense of Being Stared at: And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind
by Rupert Sheldrake

The Crystal Children: A Guide to the Newest Generation of Psychic and Sensitive Children
by Doreen Virtu

Luck Factor: Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life, the Four Essential Principles
by Richard Wiseman
 


Otherwise Unorthodox

The Shadow Club: The Greatest Mystery in the Universe--Shadows--And the Thinkers Who Unlocked Their Secrets
by Roberto Casati

Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation
by Joao Magueijo

Hacking Matter: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of Programmable Atoms
by Wil McCarthy

In the Blink of an Eye
by Andrew Parker

Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
by Steven Strogatz



The Other Side

Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits from Your Energy Field
by William J. Baldwin

Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life After Death
by Stephen E. Braude

Muldoon, True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory
by Rocco A. Facchini

The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce: Interdimensional Communication and Global Transformation
by Wynn Free and David Wilcock

Dreaming in Real Time: The Shanti Shanti Story
by Linda Forman

My Proof of Survival: Personal Accounts of Contact With the Hereafter
by Andrew Honigman, Editor

Small Town Ghosts
by Barb Huyser

The Birth Called Death: The Remarable Story of One Woman's Journey to the Other Side of Life
by Kathie Jordan

The Ghost Next Door: True Stories of Paranormal Encounters from Everyday People
by Mark Alan Morris


The Lost Secret of Death: Our Divided Souls and the Afterlife
by Peter Novak

The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death
by Grant Solomon, Jane Solomon, Arthur J. Ellison

How to Be a Ghost Hunter
by Richard Southall

Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places
by Brad Steiger

European Cases of the Reincarnation Type
by Ian Stevenson

Wisdom from the Great Beyond: A True Story of Life With a Ghost
by Jan Von Denmarc

How to Hunt Ghosts : A Practical Guide
by Joshua Warren

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that talks to the Dead
by Christine Wicker

A Glimpse of Heaven: The Remarkable World of Spiritually Transforming Experiences
by Carla Wills-Brandon


UFOs, Aliens and Abductions

Mystery Airships in the Sky
by Steven A. Arts

Night Orbs
by James Bunnell

UFOs, Prophecy and the End of Time
by Sean Casteel

Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters With Ufos
by Jerome Clark


Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural
by Lynn Shofield Clark


Alien Energy: UFOs, Ritual Landscapes and the Human Mind
by Andrew Collins

UFOs Are With Us--Take My Word
by Leo Dworshak

Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science
by Ann Druffel


Alien Conspiracy: Unraveling the UFO/Alien Mystery
by Chris B. Evans


XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It
by Simon Goodwin

 
Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life
by David Grinspoon

Contact With Beings of Light: The Amazing Story of Dorothy Wilkinson-Izatt
by Peter Guttilla

Unlocking Alien Closets: Abductions, Mind Control, and Spirituality
by Leah A. Haley

Connecting the Dots: Making Sense of the Ufo Phenomenon
by Paola Leopizzi Harris


Morning Glory: Diary of an Alien Abductee
by Gloria Ann Hawker

Sight Unseen : Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings
by Budd Hopkins and Carol Rainey

Calling on Extraterrestrials: 11 Steps to Inviting Your Own Ufo Encounters
by Lisette Larkins

The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of Ufo Religions
by James R. Lewis (Editor)

Picturing Extraterrestrials: Alien Images in Modern Mass Culture
by John F. Moffit

UFO Religions
by Christopher H. Partridge (Editor)

Cosmic Company: The Search for Life in the Universe
by Seth Shostak and Alex Barnet

Hitler's Flying Saucers: A Guide to German Flying Discs of the Second World War
by Henry Stevens


Battle of Los Angeles - 1942: The Silent Invasion Begins
by Terrenz Sword

Where is Everybody: Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life
by Stephen Webb


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