A work that cyptozoologist and fortean Mark A. Hall started 18 years ago is now complete, thanks to the help of Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum, and historian and author David Goudsward. That book, Merbeings: The True Story of Mermaids, Mermen, and Lizardfolk, is now available from Anomalist Books. We know what you’re thinking, but it’s not what you think. Put aside your notions of beings half-human and half-fish, for there are no such things. Also put aside your fears of things wet and strange, said to be reptilian in nature, which emerge from swamps and rivers and oceans to walk among us. But there are mysteries with an ancient ancestry here and what they are will surprise you.

The fifth volume of the journals of Jacques Vallee has now been published: Forbidden Science 5, Pacific Heights: The Journals of Jacques Vallee 2000-2009. This volume continues Vallee’s insider view into UFO research and the government’s often reluctant efforts to to deal with the issue. Set in the midst of global financial and political upheaval, as well as heartbreaking person losses, Vallee explains how during this decade UFOs could be studied in novel ways and how the government came to seriously revisit the issue in the face of possible threats to national security. Of great interest is how Vallee was drawn into the Defense Intelligence Agency’s secret UFO program known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP); for the first time we see how it developed, as well as its problems and promise. Here, in ten years of carefully curated journal entries, partly drawn from classified research, Vallée shows how a few teams of scientists and physicians have brought about a remarkable reframing of unidentified phenomena.

Authors Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “both specialists in researching anomalous historical aerial phenomena—continue their project of honouring the pioneering work of Charles Fort by re-investigating some of his important cases,” writes Bob Rickard, in the Fortean Times review of their new book, Redemption of the Damned Vol. 2: Sea and Space Phenomena. “Where Fort is shown to have made some errors in reporting or lacked crucial data that was published elsewhere or later…there are many more cases in which Fort is shown to have correctly reported the data on which he offers his distinctive (and often sardonic) conclusions. With these, the authors have been able to consolidate Fort’s discovery with new information from later investigations or publications; we can now have greater trust in these cases. Shough and van Utrecht deserve to be applauded for their diligent labour among dusty archives, the fruits of which serve to underline both the value of research into anomalous phenomena and of re-examining the data … probably the closest forteans can come to being ‘scientific’ about their work.” Bill Chalker, writing in the blog The Oz Files, sums it up saying: “Redemption of the Damned provides seasoned Forteans and new players a wonderful resource that resonates powerfully with contemporary manifestations of the ‘damned.’  Highly recommended.”

The idea of trying to acquire a specimen of Sasquatch to prove its existence is a hugely controversial subject. But that’s what the North American Wood Ape Conservancy has tried to do for a decade in order to obtain governmental protections for the species. Valley of the Apes: The Search for Sasquatch in Area X recounts the determined effort of dozens of academics, wildlife professionals, scientists, among others: their work, challenges, and findings. Obviously they didn’t succeed, or their effort would have made headlines around the world. But as Matt Pruitt says in the Foreword, “The events detailed in this book provide some of the best reasons to be hopeful that a resolution to the Sasquatch mystery is close at hand.” Find out why in this new book by Michael Mayes, the author of Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America.

For those of you who prefer to listen to their books (and those of you who both read and listen), we’d like to bring to your attention the line-up of our current and forthcoming audiobooks.

Our latest audiobook is Dr. Louis A. Frank’s Cosmic Rain: The Controversial Discovery of Small Comets, narrated by Samuel Abbott. This may be the most important book we have ever published.

Our bestselling audiobook at the moment is Jacques Vallee’s Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact, narrated by Michael Hacker. The other two volumes of Vallee’s Alien Contact Trilogy, Confrontations and Revelations, are coming soon. But also available now is Vallee’s The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race, narrated by Michael Butler Murray.

In the same vein, we have Mac Tonnies’s The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us, narrated by Doug Greene.

Switching genres, to cryptozoology, we have Lyle Blackburn’s Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, narrated by Bill Hemberger. And coming soon is Blackburn’s bestselling book, The Beast of Boggy Creek: The True Story of the Fouke Monster.

And last but certainly not least are three classic books by John A. Keel: Operation Trojan Horse: The Classic Breakthrough Study of UFOs, The Eighth Tower: On Ultraterrestrials and the Superspectrum, and Jadoo, all three narrated by Michael Hacker.

If there is an Anomalist Book you’d like to see available, drop us an email.

Philosopher Stephen Braude’s books are known for their original and penetrating insights, and his latest book, Dangerous Pursuits: Mediumship, Mind, and Music, says psychologist Stanley Krippner, “is no exception.” Hoyt Edge, writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, calls Stephen Braude “…the most prolific of the late 20th- and early 21st- century philosophers writing about parapsychology, and his work in the philosophical aspects of parapsychology has been the most influential in this field for the past several decades…” Braude, says psychologist Charles T. Tart, is “not afraid to wrestle with complexities others skim over…like mediums who cheat sometimes, or just what is this ‘person’ that we think might survive death.” In his review of the book in Fortean Times, Tom Ruffles notes that “Braude’s rigorous approach is a corrective to shallow thinking in psychical research, and there is much of value here for anyone wishing to delve into the topics in more depth than is often the case in the literature.” But don’t think for a minute that this is another dry philosophical tome. “The author’s wit, honesty, and tenacity shine throughout his writings…” writes Kenneth C. Turner in his review of the book for the Journal of Parapsychology. For Ruffles, the first and final essays, in particular, are “really ‘on the edge’ – exploring areas about which we seldom think.”

Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht have produced the first detailed study of Charles Fort’s groundbreaking book, The Book of the Damned, a century after its first publication. In Redemption Of The Damned: Vol. 1 Aerial Phenomena, the first of two volumes, both in full color, the authors have tackled all 82 of Fort’s anomalous observations in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, and atmospheric optics and subjected them to detailed critical scrutiny against period maps, investigation reports, and additional first-hand testimony. Kim Møller Hansen of Scandinavian UFO Information calls it “an insanely thorough and admirable detective work documented on more than 400 closely packed pages, over 800 notes and, not least, very interesting photos, drawings, maps, tables, etc.” Jerome Clark, writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, agrees: “The research that has gone into Redemption is nothing short of staggering…Redemption is a worthy and necessary addition to the small library of scientifically and informationally weighty UFO volumes.”  And John Rimmer nails it in his review in Magnolia : “Damned fine research . . . Each case is a model of how historical Fortean investigation should be done. . . . This is a remarkable achievement of not just Fortean study, but more general historical study…”

James McClenon has earned near universal praised for his latest book, The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery, on a mediumistic sitter group (SORRAT) that witnessed a host of table movements, table levitations, poltergeist phenomena, earthquake effects, and other startling physical events. Gerhard Mayer of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, is of the opinion that “James McClenon has written a courageous book which reflects his scientific curiosity, openness, and commitment to a ‘high-risk’ research topic. The kind of field study the author has described in detail is of great importance because it touches the core of paranormal macro-phenomena in the Western world. And it covers all the accompanying emotions, such as astonishment, doubt, skepticism, but also the excitement of having extraordinary experiences and getting in touch with something unexplainable. An important book.” Robin Carlile in Magonia gets to the heart of the matter when he writes “It seems the author reaches the conclusion that there is almost a need for some element of fraud to ‘prime the pump’ so that rapport can be built with the entities. The essential ingredient appears to be an unconditional belief in the entities, and when this is harnessed in a group, very powerful emanations can follow. The question then is whether such entities actually exist, or have been conjured up from the dark recesses of the human mind, collective or individual…I found the subject matter and content of this book highly illuminating,” Charles Emmons, a fellow sociologist at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, put it succinctly: “This is truly a ‘supernatural mystery’ bedeviled by the ‘trickster.’ A classic.”

Forty years ago, world-renowned University of Iowa space physicist Louis A. Frank found evidence that would lead to a startling discovery: Every minute several huge “snowballs” break up as they approach the Earth and deposit a large cloud of water vapor in our upper atmosphere. His conclusion, based on data from the Dynamic Explorer 1 spacecraft acquired at the limits of detection, created a storm of controversy among scientists. This is the story that was told in the first edition of this book, The Big Splash, published in 1990. But the story does not end there. Less than a decade later, Frank’s discovery of these previously undetected small comets was confirmed when images were received from cameras aboard a different spacecraft named Polar. The news of this “vindication” of Frank’s provocative theory in 1997 made the front pages of several large metropolitan newspapers, including The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Post. Cosmic Rain: The Controversial Discovery of Small Comets—a large format, full color, greatly expanded edition of The Big Splash—tells this never-before-told follow-up, in Frank’s own words, of the confirmation of the existence of small comets and the harsh criticism he faced from colleagues for upsetting so many scientific applecarts in the process.

“At long last,” George M. Eberhart begins his lengthy review of Karl Shuker’s Mystery Cats of the World Revisited: Blue Tigers, King Cheetahs, Black Cougars, Spotted Lions, and More in the Summer 2021 issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. “After 31 years, the first book by noted British zoologist and cryptozoologist Karl Shuker has been expanded and updated. Mystery Cats of the World  first appeared in 1989 and was the only book to review feline cryptids worldwide. In this 2020 edition, Shuker repeats this admirable achievement, and in the process gives us a solid overview of current knowledge of felid evolution, taxonomy, and genetic variation. In fact, the only feline mystery cat he does not describe is Hello Kitty. This edition will leave you purring with cryptozoological delight.”