Each are fascinating and controversial and warrant your attention. Some are controversial and targets of intense debate.
I hope to review each in more detail later, but as the year is counting down fast, with too much on my plate, at the moment I'll just do some very brief comments on how each has struck me to so far:
"A Trojan Feast - the food and drink offerings of aliens, fairies, and sasquatch" by Joshua Cutchin from Anomalist Books - for a first book in the field of anomalies this is an excellent foray into a controversial area - definitely "food for thought" in the Fortean way - a lot of intriguing information, speculation and analysis.
"Walking Among Us - the Alien Plan to control Humanity" by David Jacobs from Disinformation Books - definitely a controversial continuation of the trajectory set out by his "Secret Life" and "The Threat." The totality of the evidence rests on David Jacobs hypnotic regressions and the dynamic interplay between researcher and subject. Underlying this but unstated is the "Emma Woods" controversy, which needs to be properly assessed and understood, Rightly or wrongly, it affects our take on the the research that David Jacobs has done. I would have liked to have seen DNA evidence to back up the extraordinary claims put forward, but there is none. My own book "Hair of the Alien" offers a take on the the value of anchoring the extraordinary claims underpinning abduction claims with carefully examined biological evidence. So much is riding on this and regression data and what witnesses say is insufficient to validate the scenario. David Jacobs doesn't shrink from the implications of his narratives but his intense focus cries out for a more comprehensive approach anchored in physical evidence and rigorous analysis. This one is guaranteed to fuel controversy and debate.
"Illuminations - the UFO experience as a parapsychological event" by Eric Ouellet, PH.D from Anomalist books - having delivered lectures last year and this year - "UFOs, Alien Abduction & Contact: The Parapsychological Connection" and "Strange Brew: Are parapsychology and ufology compatible?" I was looking forward to this book. Straight away I am caught in a frustrating impasse when Dr. Ouellet argues there is no compelling physical evidence for UFOs. As a physical scientist, with a background as a chemist, I baulked at that straight away. One could argue that the physical evidence may not prove an alien reality, but a physical reality, yes. Dr. Ouellet needs to ignore the physical dimensions of the UFO problem in order to sustain attention for the hypothesis that UFOs are "US." We create them and they are symbolic creations full of parapsychological import. Well Ouellet overlays the so-called MPI - model of pragmatic information - which emerges from Walter von Lucadou's quantum entanglement takes on RSPK (poltergeist) (which have been somewhat tested in parapsychological circles and not been validated (via Drs. Watt & Tierney)). Quellet also largely ignores the entity problem, so pressingly overlaid in UFO reports, but largely absence in polt reports. Some very strange sociological and symbolic takes emerge from Quellet's strained analyses to the point where I was feeling I was seeing "the emperor's new cloths" being put on display - an interesting flawed bridge extended too far, which needs to be more soundly anchored in the type of cases that it might even do some limited exposition to - UFO cases where the paranormal connections are strong, not the UFO wave modelling and the lack of coherent analysis, where the MPI model seems such a poor fit often leading to odd symbolic "connections" (if thats what you would call them - 1952 Washington DC - Democratic convention, the 1989-91 Belgian wave - the NATO headquarters star, 1980 Rendlesham event with the 1983 Greenham Common peace quilt, 1961 Betty & Barney Hill case with the freedom bus rides! By this stage I was convinced any symbolic connection could have been pulled out of the hat, and could be equally as unconvincing. Some nice initial modelling but some reworking and close personal field work with cases that yields lots of psychic overload - try the Dorothy Izatt case from Vancouver, on Dr. Ouellet's Canadian doorstep, which even had a lot of parapsychologists looking at it and coming away startled by the apparent reality of the milieu that surrounded the witness.
"Return to Magonia - Investigating UFOs in History" by Chris Aubeck & Martin Shough is an excellent study that confirms Anomalist Books leading position in the publishing of great books on anomaly studies - a very impressive contribution to the study of pre-1947 UFO events that has much to offer to modern day UFO study.
"Halt in Woodbridge - an Air Force Colonel's 35 year fight to silence an authentic UFO whistle-blower" by Peter Robbins is a potent contribution to the controversy that has blown up around Colonel Halt's attempts to "white out" Larry Warren from the Rendlesham saga. This book joins and informs the already heavily laden debate about the 1980 Rendlesham UFO controversy. It will take the dedicated researcher to properly unravel the realities at play here.
Philip Mantle's new Flying Disk Press has a fascinating first offering: "UFOs over Poland - the land of high strangeness" - I have always liked well researched regional takes on the UFO subject and this is a good one, well worth your attention.
The UFO field continues to generate a lot of interesting books that deserve your attention. These are some of them. Enjoy.
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