The long-awaited third and final volume of the highly praised Fátima Trilogy is now out. Fátima Revisited: The Apparition Phenomenon in Ufology, Psychology, and Science was compiled by Fernando Fernandes, Joaquim Fernandes, and Raul Berenguel; and translated from the Portuguese and edited by Andrew D. Basiago and Eva M. Thompson. It includes a Foreword by William J. Birnes and an Introduction by Ralph Steiner. In this anthology, an international panel of leading scholars subjects the legendary apparitions to the scrutiny of modern scientific analysis. Various points of view are examined: Could there be a simple physiological explanation for the experience? Was mind control involved? Were the witnesses in altered states of consciousness? Or was it all related to the UFO contact experience? The list of contributors is impressive. They include anthropologist SCOTT ATRAN, psychologist IRENE BLINSTON, psychotherapist JANET ELIZABETH COLLI, anthropologist RYAN J. COOK, physicist ERIC DAVIS, historian DAVID M. JACOBS, human consciousness pioneer STANLEY KRIPPNER, and astrophysicist JACQUES F. VALLÉE – all from the U.S.; engineer FERNANDO FERNANDES, historian JOAQUIM FERNANDES, psychologist VITOR RODRIGUES, psychiatrist MARIO SIMÕES, and researcher RAUL BERENGUEL – all from Portugal; as well as the British neurophysiologist FRANK McGILLION, the Belgian physicist AUGUSTE MEESSEN, the Brazilian psychotherapist GILDA MOURA, and the Canadian neuroscientist MICHAEL A. PERSINGER.

Extreme Expeditions: Travel Adventures Stalking the World’s Mystery Animals by Adam Davies is getting a lot of thumbs-up reviews. The first to appear was entitled “Monsters! Booze! Jungles! Guns!” at Nick Redfern’s blog, There’s Something in the Woods… Wrote Nick: “If you’re looking to find out what really goes on behind-the-scenes during the course of a quest for monsters in exotic locales, then this is most definitely the book for you…Easy to read, packed with adventure, intrigue, humor and (of course) monsters, Extreme Expeditions is a book that’s entertaining, informative, memorable and instructive…” Then came Matt Bille’s review, entitled “A terrific read,” in Matt’s Sci/Tech Blog. The book, wrote Bille, “is not your average cryptozoology book. Davies spends a minimum of time rehashing old evidence and instead tells a rollicking first-person adventure tale…The book is a jaunty, sometimes profane tale of colorful but basically sane people making a sincere, sometimes dangerous effort to solve zoological mysteries.” Bille liked the book so much, in fact, that he wants Davies to do an encore: “I look forward to a sequel, if Davies survives his future expeditions long enough to write it.”

William Corliss, who publishes the wonderful Sourcebook Project volumes, also runs a small mail order bookstore. He’s very picky about the books he selects, but he did select Strange Company: Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II by Keith Chester to headline his May-June 2008 book list.  Here is what he had to say about the book: “Usually we avoid the never-ending flood of UFO books, but we have always been puzzled by the so-called “foo fighters” that mystified World War II-pilots in all theaters of combat. Their reality is supported in Chester’s book by over 100 baffling sightings by well-trained observers. Chester’s book is thoroughly researched. There is a strong foundation of 138 sightings of strange lights and even “structures” from 1931 to 1945. Most came from aircraft crews from both sides during the 1939-1945 conflict. A fascinating [sighting index] enhances the textual descriptions by displaying in one place the incredible variety of unexplained phenomena. No fewer than 520 notes give the book even more details, as do photographs of official reports and correspondence. All displaying total mystification!”

The new issue of the British magazine Alien Worlds features Nick Redfern’s review of Martin Kottmeyer’s new book, An Alien Who’s Who. “Kottmeyer has done something that few authors seldom do,” writes Redfern, “he leaves his own views and beliefs at the door, and instead provides the reader with entertaining – and otherwise very hard to find – summaries on alleged other-worldly entities that have supposedly been manifesting before select members of the Human Race for decades. Kottmeyer relates their bizarre, unverifiable and at times completely false tales, prophecies and warnings. And, in a roundabout way, he amply demonstrates that for all the attempts to legitimise Ufology as a serious science, it is still a subject that is packed with odd and unusual characters with weird names and even weirder motivations…An Alien Who’s Who is vital reading for anyone and everyone that wants to learn more about some of the strange, other-worldly beings said to have visited our planet and whose exploits, without Kottmeyer, would otherwise be lost to the fog of time.” Did he like it? Try this: “Martin Kottmeyer’s book is damned good fun and highly informative.”

We’ve never met Adam Davies but from all indications he seems to be as nice a guy as you’ll ever meet. And there’s no question that when it comes to hands-on cryptozoology, he’s got a passion for it like no one else in the world. He doesn’t claim to be an expert on the subject; in fact, he defers to people like Loren Coleman and Karl Shuker when it comes to actual knowledge of the cryptids themselves. But we don’t know of anyone else who spends just about all their vacation time — and much of their discretionary income — traveling to some of the world’s most inhospitable and unexplored places looking for mystery animals such as the mokele-mbebe, Nessie, Selma, orang pendek, Almas, and the Mongolian Death Worm. Congo? He’s been there more than once. Sumatra? Ditto. Mongolia? Check. And Norway and Scotland, too, though we’re not claiming these are either inhospitable or unexplored! You’ve probably seen Adam on documentary programs on television and his discoveries have made headlines in newspapers around the world. Quite remarkable for a mild-mannered Civil Servant in the UK, wouldn’t you say? But don’t let your guard down. His new book, Extreme Expeditions: Travel Adventures Stalking the World’s Mystery Animals, is a very raw travel adventure. The warning label we put on the book might strike you as humorous and in a sense it is. But it’s all true. “FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY: Foul language, excessive drinking, sexual situations, and encounters with some creatures of the natural world that would scare young children and more than a few adults as well.” Enjoy.

We have just published what may be the most unusual reference book of all time: a who’s who of reported extraterrestrials–-nearly a thousand of them. That’s right. SETI is still searching for the existence of aliens, but we already have their names. Ashtar, Xyclon, Teletron, Sananda, Umaruru–-so many names, so many aliens. Who can keep track of them all? Thankfully, you don’t have to. An Alien Who’s Who has done it for you. The indefatigable Martin S. Kottmeyer has sifted through the writings of hundreds of UFO contactees, ufologists, and experiencers to bring to you not only their names, but also their views on God, Earth’s future, eternity, politics, and how we should run our lives. Seriously. Or not. Includes an Alien Who’s Where, a long essay on when Venusians were cool, a foreword by Greg Bishop, illustrations by Charles Berlin, and more.

We are proud to announce that we have reprinted Jacques Vallee’s “Alien Contact Trilogy”: Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact; Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact; and Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception. Though the books were first published more than a decade ago, Dr. Vallee views this trilogy as his ultimate statement on the phenomenon. If you read the books when they first appeared, we suggest you read them again to place what has happened since then in the proper perspective; if you have never read the books and have any interest at all in the UFO phenomenon, you owe it to yourself to read what many consider to be the most intelligently argued treatment of the mystery ever penned by a scientist. It’s probably fair to say that no scientist has put in as much time and thought on the UFO subject as Dr. Vallee. His works are chock full of field investigations, historical analyses, and bold but logical speculation. Dr. Vallee thinks different. Once you have read this trilogy, we are sure you will never think about UFOs in the same way again.

No, we’re not talking about the recent New Hampshire primary here. We’re talking UFO politics, which is as fiery and contentious as American politics these days. Our headline also happens to be the title of the two-page review of Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited that appeared in the October 2007 issue of Magonia by Peter Rogerson. It’s just what you would expect from a review in a journal that covers “Contemporary Vision and Belief.” It’s Rogerson’s belief that “the Hill story reads like a product of the human imagination.” Yet, Rogerson can’t help but drop a bombshell near the beginning of his review.“This is probably the first detailed reinvestigation of the Hill’s story in years…Right from [the first paper, by Dennis Stacy] there is a surprise. At a crucial point in Barney’s first encounter, where the public accounts have him grabbing a jack for protection, it is now revealed that he got a out a .22 caliber pistol which he had hidden in the trunk (importing guns into Canada is illegal). That’s an important point…”

So, yes, Encounters at Indian Head is finally beginning to get its day in the sun. Brockport Professor Stuart Appelle, in the course of reviewing another book on the Betty and Barney Hill story in the Winter 2007 issue of the Journal of Scientific Explorations, mentions our book, which was edited by Karl Plock and Peter Brooksmith: “This books contains a series of absolutely certain, yet diametrically opposed, opinion pieces stemming from a small conference in 2000.” Another reviewer, this time in Fortean Times, happens to mention our book as well – also in a review of that other book, and in much the same way – by describing the book as “a collection of papers by various hands whose responses to the story range from thoughtful acceptance to diligent scoffing.” Reviewer P.L. Frankson then follows this with a quick compliment, saying that the book under review is “a considerably less interesting read than Encounters…”

But the prize mention goes to Rebecca Rule, whose review of Encounters at Indian Head commanded a full page spread in the The Concord Monitor and other newspapers in New England this past weekend. After setting the stage for those not familiar with the Betty and Barney Hill story, Rule explains how the book came about, and then writes: “The 10 essays by nine experts range from highly technical and footnoted to deeply philosophical. We hear the Hills’ story from many perspectives…Encounters at Indian Head is an earnest attempt to fathom the unfathomable. It’s about much more than Betty and Barney and what happened to them. It’s about what we believe and why we believe it.” At the end, Rule kindly tosses off a flattering comment in our direction: “Anomalist Books specializes in ‘well-researched work on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries.’ It has quite a catalog. Check it out..” Thank you, Rebecca!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our authors for their wonderful works and our readers for their support. Come visit us next year. We have quite a bit in store for you. A classic trilogy reprinted; a new one completed. A cryptozoological adventure. An extraordinary encyclopedia. And a who’s who the likes of which you have never seen before. And much, much more.

Stephen Wagner “heartily recommends” Brad Steiger’s Worlds Before Our Own, as well as Strange Guests and Shadow World, in his warm review of the book at About.com. Says Wagner: “Obviously, I have always been fascinated by discoveries and human experiences that don’t fit into the standard templates of what conventional science and even religion would have us accept…This fascination also includes archaeological discoveries that do not fit neatly into the timelines currently laid out in scientific texts…Yet these discoveries exist, annoying as they may be to the commonly accepted theories. Brad shares my excitement and wonder about these anomalies, which is why I gleefully relish books like Worlds Before Our Own. These anomalous findings – and there are thousands of them – stand out as real evidence that there very well may have been civilizations (possibly advanced) that pre-date any we are aware of.”

Likewise, Brent Raynes seems to appreciate the new history presented in Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon by Joaquim Fernandes & Fina D’Armada. In Alternate Perceptions, he writes: “This book…is a full-blown, indepth and thoroughly researched exploration of the facts in this extraordinary case. Not a few paragraphs devoted to some of the highlights of this astounding case, but a truly detailed presentation and compilation of the evidence and its similarities to the global UFO phenomenon. Originally published in Portuguese, the authors, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina D’Armada, conducted an extensive amount of original research that should be loudly applauded. Also their close examination and comparisons to all of the case details and the parallels that they isolated from UFO cases in various parts of the world, establishes an even much stronger and greater case for what ufologists have been writing and saying about the extraordinary Fatima events for so many years now. Easy to read and filled with wonderful illustrations and graphs, this is a great addition to any ufologist’s or parapsychologist’s library.”