OVER THE EDGE

Dorion Sagan. Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches From the Edge of Science. University of Minnesota, 2013.

In this collection of essays, Dorion Sagan, the son of the astronomer Carl Sagan and the biologist Lynn Margulis, covers a range of topics around the boundaries of science and philosophy. Here he vigorously defends the Gaia hypothesis, and presents the argument that life not only modulates the atmosphere but has also affected the structure of the planet itself, including the development of plate tectonics.
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PROPHETS IN PRINT

Jonathan Green. Printing and Prophecy: Prognostication and Media Change 1450-1550.  University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2012

Many people think that the first book ever printed (in moveable type) was the Gutenberg Bible (properly the 42-Line Bible), which appeared at Mainz in Germany in 1454. In fact, several small works had already been produced by the same press, including editions of the elementary Latin grammar of Donatus, these lacking the ‘harmonious layout’ of the later bibles, due to the technical problems with the new medium.
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BACK FROM THE DEAD

Sam Parnia, with Josh Young. The Lazarus Effect. The Science That Is Erasing the Boundary Between Life and Death. Rider, 2013

This is a book in two parts; the first part is the scientific part, the one that explores the dramatic new breakthroughs in bringing back people from what is traditionally assumed to be death, after much longer periods than used to be thought possible. It was these techniques that lay behind the astonishing survival of the footballer Fabrice Muamba last year, a survival essentially due to the coincidental presence of a leading cardiac consultant in the crowd.
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MONSTER PARADE

Matt Kaplan. The Science of Monsters. Constable, 2012.

Books on monsters seem to be like the proverbial buses these days, coming in packs. In this book science writer and explorer Matt Kaplan gives a tour of a variety of monsters from the Minotaur to King Kong, from dragons to werewolves, from ghosts to aliens, from Leviathan to the Terminator.
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DEAD AND ALIVE

Erlendur Haraldsson. The Departed Among the Living: An Investigative Study of Afterlife Encounters. White Crow Books, 2012.

A place where the dead are seen as very much among the living is Iceland, judging by Haraldsson’s study, based on surveys and follow up interviews in 1974 and 1980. Selected from this material were 449 accounts, presented in brief memorates, broken down into over thirty categories, covering themes such as the nature of the experience, the relationship between the percipient and the deceased, how the deceased died, circumstances surrounding the experience, etc.
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LABOURING UNDER A DELUSION?

The controversial Guido Fawkes political website seems to be trying to take over from Magonia as the leading UFO blog. After revealing the Sun's apology to aliens it now alerts us to a politically sensitive alien adultery story. Even the rumours about astounding goings-on between consenting adults at Number 10 could not prepare us for this:

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INVENTING UFOLOGY

Fred Nadis. The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey. Tarcher Penguin, 2013.  

Ray Palmer was hailed by John Keel as ‘the man who invented flying saucers’ through his exploitation of the subject in the science fiction magazines he published in the 1940s and ‘50s. Some have challenged Keel’s assessment, calling it ‘fatuous’. This book goes a good way to presenting a more balanced viewpoint.
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CERTIFIABLY SERPO

Len Kasten. Secret Journey to Planet Serpo: A True Story of Interplanetary Travel. Bear and Company, 2013.

If you are one of those lucky souls like me, who had never heard of this nonsense before, here is a brief synopsis. Hitler got power through the support of a secret Japanese cult in contact with the Reptilians, which allowed the Nazis to develop all sorts of secret weapons, that for some obscure reason they chose not to use to win the war.
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NO COMMENT

 

The Sun, June 13 2013 (Thanks to Mediaguido)

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Carl Watkins. The Undiscovered Country: Journeys Among the Dead. Bodley Head, 2013.

Carl Watkins takes us on a truly haunting journey, through the realms of the dead as envisaged by the people of England over the last 650 years, from the fifteenth century to the end of the First World War. In the beginning was the traditional Christian world-view of Last Judgment, the Resurrection of the Dead, still envisaged in the middle of the nineteenth century in John Martin’s The Great Day of His Wrath.
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FIRST READ: RETURN OF THE ROMANTICS

Arthur Constance. The Inexplicable Sky. Werner Laurie, 1956.

It was here that I first read the story of Ernie Suddart the Bradford lorry driver who claimed to have met small aliens jumping down the street, and of Mr Wood who had seen a bullet shaped thing on Roundhill Street in that town, and of Captain Howard and the flying shaped changing things seen over Newfoundland.

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BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT NOTHING

John Leslie and Robert Lawrence Kuhn (editors). The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything At All? Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

The editors of this book have selected extracts from the works of philosophers, physicists and theologians who have tried to consider the question posed in the title. These extracts are presented and discussed under five main headings, so I think it might be helpful to prospective readers of this book to give brief summaries of some of them.

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MONSTERS IN THE FILING CABINET

Nick Redfern. Monster Files. New Page, 2013.

Well, it’s closing time at the Arkham Wetherspoon's, and we’ve had a lively evening in the company of Nick Redfern and his gang of strange buddies. We moved from our old meeting place, The Rampant Ram after the unfortunate incident of the rail replacement bus and the headless coachman.

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ARCHAEOLOGY - MILD AND WILD

Preston Peet (Ed.) Disinformation Guide to Ancient Aliens, Lost Civilizations, Astonishing Archaeology and Hidden History. Disinformation Books, 2013.

'Disinformation' has been online since 1996. Its aim is to become an indispensable source of “alternative” news and information. To this end it has also published books, of which this is the latest. There is no evident checking or validation of the stories that they host, although this looks to be an intentional policy designed so as not to prejudge any particular strand or article.
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