The
2004 Anomalist
Book Awards are brought to you by...
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Books...
The Anomalist Book Awards 2004
&
Book List
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What are all
those great books at the top of the
page? These are books that were not considered for the Anomalist Book
Awards for this year
because of my role as their editor or because they were published by
the company I worked for. There will probably be even more such books
next year,
which is why this is likely to be the last year for these awards. (I
will find some other way to tell you about the books I liked best.)
Although you will find a number of reprints in the the list below,
reprints were not considered for these awards either. Also remember
that I have not seen all the books listed below. I am at the mercy of
authors and publishers in this regard; naturally, I can only present an
award to a book I have seen. Many of my choices for awards this year
are
rather hard to get (i.e. are not available through Amazon), so I have
indicated how you can obtain these titles. Please tell them the
Anomalist sent you. As usual, the categories for the winning awards
change from year to year. I 'd like to thank
Loren Coleman (LC) and Dennis Stacy (DS) for their help in choosing a
couple of
awards this year. And for the first time this year, we are presenting
an award
for Multimedia. It's well deserved.--Patrick Huyghe (PH)
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Award
Winners 2004
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BEST
SCIENCE
BOOK
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SCIENCE FRONTIERS II: More Anomalies and
Curiosities of Nature
Compiled by William Corliss
William Corliss publishes a bimonthly newsletter on anomalies and
difficult to explain observations which he has culled almost
exclusively from the major science journals and magazines. This volume
collects about 1,200 items that appeared in his newsletter from
1994-2004 (The first volume covered 1976-1993.) Corliss not only
summarizes each anomaly, sometimes including a brief direct quote from
the original source, but provides a informative and sometimes humorous
commentary about the mainstream’s inability (or
unwillingness) to
grasp its significance. In this way, Corliss is the 20th
century’s Charles Fort. The items are organized by scientific
field -- Archeology, Biology, etc. -- but much of this material you
won’t find in the standard science textbooks. Remember, this
is
material that by definition “doesn’t
fit.” So what do
you get? Items about “Japanese Mini-Pyramids,”
“The
Forests of Mars,” “Processionary Sperm,”
“Monarch Compasses,” “Giant Sea-Bed
Pockmarks,”
“Methane Burps,” “The Naga
Fireballs,”
“Anomalous Geysers,” “Solar Wind and
Hallucinations,” “Calculating Prodigies,”
and more,
much more. If this material doesn’t spark your mind,
you’d
better check your pulse. Only available directly from The
Sourcebook Project, P.O. Box 107,
Glen Arm, MD 21057. Information about Volume One is available here.
--PH
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BEST
ILLUSTRATED
BOOK
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MEET
THE SASQUATCH
by Christopher L. Murphy, with John Green and Thomas Steenburg
What happens when an author of several books on Masonic Philately
discovers that there are Canadian Sasquatch stamps and becomes
interested in the topic enough to begin working with a renowned British
Columbia Sasquatch hunter, the late René Dahinden?
Ten
years
later, this
individual, Christopher Murphy, has produced a coffee-table quality
book that is an iconographic masterpiece. Murphy's
latest work is unbelievably rich in text and illustrations, with more
than 480 photographs, mostly in color, in a large-format, 239-page
book. The experience is a highly visual one, as every page has from one
to six photos or drawings on it. The book is especially
successful for those who follow the Bigfoot and Sasquatch drama from a
British Columbian point of view. Begun as a monograph for the Vancouver
Museum Sasquatch Exhibit, which is scheduled to run from June 2004 to
February 2005, it has
evolved into this volume from Hancock House, a publisher of many
Bigfoot books. The contents encompass Native, historical, and classic
material, and Murphy devotes many pages to an analysis of the
Patterson-Gimlin footage as well. The best part of the book is Chapter
8, "The Physical Evidence and Its Analysis." This chapter
tries,
via photos and text, to make some sense, through a "gallery" and
"album," of the confusing hodgepodge of footcasts, handcasts, fakes,
and track photos claimed for Sasquatch/Bigfoot. Meet the
Sasquatch does have its
shortcomings, however, chief among them is
the fact that some of Ray Wallace’s fakes are still in the
mix
here as real tracks.
While the analysis is not rigorous, it’s a darn good start. Meet
the Sasquatch is clearly a
landmark Bigfoot book. --LC
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BEST
BIOGRAPHY
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IN
SEARCH OF P.D. OUSPENSKY: The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff
By Gary Lachman
Does the world really need another book about the Russian mystic G. I.
Gurdjieff? After all, the existing literature on Gurdjieff would
literally fill a small storage shed. When the book is as entertaining
and thought-provoking as Gary Lachman's In Search of P.D.
Ouspensky, the
answer is a resounding yes.
The bare facts of the story are enough to fascinate, involving as they
do exotic locales, the enigmatic Easterner who brings an occult
teaching to the West, the literary (and other) celebrities who flock to
his secretive school, claims of miraculous events -- all set against
the background of two World Wars -- and eventually the acrimonious
split between master (Gurdjieff) and his major disciple (Ouspensky).
Better yet, Lachman's writing rises to the occasion. It's one thing to
have a ready-made story, another to lay it out as lucidly and
knowledgeably (he himself spent time in the Gurdjieff system) as
Lachman does here. By focusing on Ouspensky, he also makes this book a
cautionary tale about the relationship between any spiritual teacher
and student: Necessary, but beware the potential pitfalls. By both
parties. --DS
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BEST
JOURNAL
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LA
GAZETTE
FORTÉENNE
Jean-Luc Rivera (ed)
Journals that publish meaty, in-depth articles on Fortean subjects are
few and far between. The INFO
Journal
hasn’t been seen for almost
a decade. Fortean
Studies was
published by the Fortean Times between
1994 and 2001 and lasted 7 issues. And the print edition of The
Anomalist itself was
published between 1994 and 2002 and lasted
10
issues. Today only one such journal survives, and if you can read
French, it is an absolute must buy. Edited by Jean Luc Rivera, La
Gazette Fortéenne
is a beautifully produced 400-page book
of anomalies
that has been published annually since 2002. Some articles are
translated from their first appearance in English, but many are
originals written by authors from around the world. Among
them, you’ll find Pablo Picasso’s "Patagonian
Monsters
(1850-1922)," Marc Hallet's "UFOs and Marian Visions," Paolo
Toselli’s "Phantom Hitchhikers," and Michel Granger and John
Brown’s "Martian Mysteries." You’ll even find
articles from
American authors that have never appeared in English before, like
Robert Durant’s piece on how he learned remote viewing.
Order here.
Don’t miss it.--PH
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BEST
MULTIMEDIA
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FADED
DISCS
by Wendy Conners
Faded Disc is the name of Wendy Conners’ delightful
“Audio
Archive of UFO History.” Conners has done an absolutely
amazing
job of tracking down old tapes and rare recordings of
“flying saucer” personalities, eyewitnesses, and
researchers and has made them available as mp3 files on CDs that are
playable on your computer and on the newer CD players. She has produced
more than a handful of compilations this year alone, including
“Flying Saucers & Four Guys Named George (Adamski,
Van
Tassel, Wiliamson and King),” “Project Magnet:
Wilbert B.
Smith,” “CE IV: An Audio History of Alien Abduction
&
Animal Mutilation 1957-1976,” and two of my favorites
“ETH:
Dr. James E. McDonald,” and “High Strangeness: Men
in
Black, Mothman, Flatwoods Monster & Hairy Bi-Peds in
UFOs.” It’s one thing to read the words
of James
McDonald, for instance, but it’s quite another to hear the
passion in his voice when you listen to the man himself. And
there’s nothing like hearing someone recount an absolutely
bizarre encounter. You might even be able to spot the BS--or not, in
which
case you’ll feel those chills down your spine. Her most
recent
titles include “Cops and Saucers,” and
“The First
Ufologist: Donald E. Keyhoe.” If you have a soft spot for the
Golden Age of Flying Saucers, you’ll want pick up some of
these
titles for your edification and enjoyment. And by doing so,
you’ll be supporting Wendy Connors’ future
retrieval
efforts in UFO history.--PH
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Cryptozoology
(with Maverick
Anthropology)
Raincoast
Sasquatch: Bigfoot, Sasquatch Evidence from Indian Lore
by Robert
Cryptozoology:
Science & Speculation
by Chad Arment
A
Dictionary of Cryptozoology
by Ronan Coghlan
Bigfoot
Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend
by David J. Daegling
No
Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species
by Richard Ellis
The
Best of
Sasquatch/Bigfoot
by John Green
The
Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Fairy
Magic: All About Fairies And How To Bring Their Magic Into Your Life
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Thunderbirds:
America's Living Legends of Giant Birds
by Mark A. Hall
The
Race to Save the Lord God Bird
by Phillip Hoose
In
Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
by Jerome A. Jackson
Bigfoot
Lives: Deal with it!
Chester Moore, Jr.
Meet
the Sasquatch
by Chris Murphy, John Green, Thomas Steenburg
The
Maryland Bigfoot Digest
by Mark Opsasnick
Tasmanian
Tiger: The Tragic Tale of How the World Lost Its Most Mysterious
Predator
by David Owen
Three
Men Seeking Monsters : Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake
Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men
by Nick Redfern
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The Anomalist, PO Box 6807, Charlottesville, VA 22906
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