You are certain you left the envelope on the kitchen counter. Now it’s gone. No one else lives in the house. You look all over for it. The next day, you walk into the kitchen and there it is: the envelope is on the kitchen counter, right where you left it. Mary Rose Barrington calls this phenomenon JOTT, for Just One of Those Things. She has been collecting and categorizing various types of jott for more than a decade. Here for the first time, the phenomenon is given a book-length treatment, JOTT: When Things Disappear… and Come Back or Relocate – and Why It Really Happens, just published by Anomalist Books. These might seem like trivial incidents but when they resist conventional explanations–it’s your faulty memory, your faulty perception, your inability to report facts correctly–they have far-reaching implications. Bravo, Mary Rose, for bringing attention to these subtle rifts in the fabric of causality!

It’s been a dozen years and nearly 100 books since we started Anomalist Books. We’ve published many books that others have called “innovative” and “important.” But never have we published a book that we thought had the potential to be a game changer—until now. We firmly believe that Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausatity, and the Unconscious by Eric Wargo is likely to be that book. Wargo has tackled the difficult issue of time and our very personal relationship to it. He proposes that we are actually four dimensional creatures, that our future affects our present, and that we have knowledge of that future (precognition), just as we have knowledge of the past (memory). It’s a bold, challenging work that has garnered advanced praise from such people as Rice University’s Jeffrey Kripal who says: “I consider Time Loops to be the most significant intellectual work on a paranormal topic in the last fifty years …. Not only does Eric Wargo show us how strong the evidence for precognition really is—already a major accomplishment. He gives us scientific, psychological, and interpretive tools for thinking about these phenomena in strikingly original ways.”

No, this has nothing to do with the subject that’s been so much in the news these days. As the subtitle to Joshua Cutchin’s new book, Thieves in the Night, makes clear, this is A Brief History of Supernatural Child Abductions. We are talking here about otherworldly beings who seek to steal that which parents hold most dear. Joshua Cutchin traces this primal concern from antiquity to the modern era—beginning with worldwide tales of faeries, changelings, spirits, demons, and monsters, before examining more contemporary phenomena such as Sasquatch kidnappings, alien abductions, and mysterious disappearances in national parks. Folklore, medicine, science, and spirituality all come together in this richly detailed work, producing a truly uniquely scholarly perspective on these thieves in the night. Another masterwork by the great Cutchin!

Readers of Avrel Seale’s new book, Monster Hike: A 100-Mile Inquiry Into the Sasquatch Mystery, see classic qualities to the book, tossing out associations to Walden Pond, Moby Dick, and Jack Kerouac. Andrew Griffin, in Red Dirt Report, writes: “There is something Walden-ish about Monster Hike that I did not anticipate when I first picked it up…I’m glad I read Monster Hike because I appreciated Seale’s honesty and wonderment, even at his age [50], when we are told that believing such creatures exist is plain silly. Seale gives us some positive philosophy, personal insights, a bit of Texas history and a sense that pushing forward is what keeps us all asking those big questions.” Nick Redfern cranks up the praise in his Mysterious Universe review: “It’s a witty, amusing and adventurous saga of one man’s quest to try and uncover the truth of what lies at the heart of the Sasquatch mystery…. In a highly entertaining fashion, [Seale] details the planning, hazards, and hopes that go with a road-trip in the dense woods and forests of East Texas…As the book progresses…we see Seale become a modern day equivalent of Captain Ahab, while the legendary white whale has mutated into a massive, hairy hominid…If—when he was hanging out at Big Sur in the 1950s—Jack Kerouac had encountered a Bigfoot and he was a bit older, this is the book he would have written.”

How do you maintain your skepticism when your sense of wonder is being throttled by astonishing paranormal events? It’s not easy, but that’s exactly what James McClenon managed to do during his years-long investigation into a sitter group where he witnessed rapping sounds, table levitations, poltergeist phenomena, earthquake effects, and other startling physical events. The phenomena he witnessed grew to include ostensibly spirit-written messages found within a sealed container called a mini-lab specially designed to preclude the possibility of fraud. The group was known as the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), founded in 1961 by John G. Neihardt, the famous poet and author of the best-selling book Black Elk Speaks. The full story and context of this remarkable investigation is told in The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery.

It’s not often that a researcher attempts to tackle a fortean mystery and manages to come up with a convincing evidence-based explanation. But that is exactly what Michael Mayes has done with regards to the black panther mystery in the United States. In Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America, Mayes examines every possible angle of this phenomenon and digs into the science for a truly fresh approach to an animal that science says does not exist. This fully illustrated, full-color book contains the best photographic evidence available on these large, black, long-tailed cats. It’s a book that Illinois State University zoologist Angelo Capparella says “brings a refreshingly scientific and analytical perspective to the gathering of extensive data and the assessment of large black cat sightings.” An essential volume for zoologists and cryptozoologists alike.

John Alexander’s new book, Reality Denied: Firsthand Experiences With Things That Can’t Happen—But Did, received more pre-publication praise (taking up four pages at the beginning of the book) than any book we have ever seen. It includes praise by people such as Raymond Moody, Eben Alexander, Larry Dossey, George Noory, Annie Jacobsen, and many others, as well as a foreword by Uri Geller. And post-publication the praise has continued. Editor Andrew W. Griffin of Red Dirt Report writes: “For Alexander, the ‘reality’ that most of us have come to know and accept throughout our lives actually is quite alien if given the opportunity to peer behind the veil that drapes over our sometimes drab and predictable existence…There is a lot to digest in Alexander’s book, one that had the spirit of exploration and adventure… A great addition to my library.” In his review of the book on the RVIS website, remote viewer Paul Smith writes: “A life-long explorer, [Alexander] has leveraged the skills learned in decades of military experience ranging from combat in Vietnam to consciousness research for the Pentagon, and his academic and civilian skills and experiences… to produce a book that, to say the least, debunks the debunkers… This is not just a book about these kinds of phenomena. This is a book that is deeply informed by someone who has actually ‘been there.’ Be prepared to change your mind.” And over at Mysterious Universe, Nick Redfern writes: “Reality Denied is a definitive supernatural road-trip…Alexander’s book reminds me of John Keel’s Jadoo, in the sense that this is one man’s quest to hit the road and understand the truth behind multiple, mysterious phenomena…John Alexander’s book gives us a great deal of material to ponder on—the most obvious and important being that there is far more to reality than meets the eye. Way more…”

Lyle Blackburn has written three books on cryptozoology and fans and critics alike continue to sing his praises. Of his latest book, Beyond Boggy Creek: In Search of the Southern Sasquatch, D.C. McGannon of The Monster Guys writes: “Lyle Blackburn shows his cards once more as not only an esteemed researcher in the field of cryptozoology, but also as an adept and careful storyteller—a modern day folklorist in his own right…Mr. Blackburn guides us into an unforgettable tapestry of chilling, first-hand experiences and long-term, respected research…With his trademark down to earth storytelling and the rich history and research to back up those stories, this offering by Lyle Blackburn should not be overlooked.” Even critics admit that Blackburn is “knowledgeable” and his books are “well researched,” as Jerome Clark does in his review of the book in Fortean Times. And Sharon Hill in her review on Doubt and About says: “I appreciated the solid descriptions of famous accounts like Honobia, Area X and the Myakka ape account. I’ve not seen these done in a popular book. Therefore, this book serves, as the author’s others, as a useful comprehensive source for the subject and a must-have reference for anyone interested in cryptozoology.” The fact that Lyle is an avid outdoorsman gives this book an added authenticity, as Nick Redfern notes in his review for Mysterious Universe: “Lyle is a skilled and atmospheric writer: he sets the scene, draws the reader into the stories, and provides captivating case after case. There is another reason why this book is an important one for Cryptozoology: Lyle is someone who spends a great deal of time in the woods, swamps and wild places in the South. In other words, most of the material presented in the book comes from Lyle’s own, personal investigations and interviews – which is always a good thing.” Indeed!

Jacques Vallee was kind enough to provide a foreword for David Booher’s new book, No Return: The Gerry Irwin Story, UFO Abduction or Covert Operation?  In it, Vallee writes: “I believe two major themes stand out from the insights we can derive from David Booher’s work: First, the virtue of a patient, long-term perspective on cases that seemed forever lost in amnesia or hidden in secrecy; and second, the critical need for an intelligent alternative to the shoddy, pop psychology of hypnosis that has come to masquerade for ‘research’ in numerous reports of UFO abduction.” That idea is echoed by Ron Westrum, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Eastern Michigan University, who calls this book “a model of a competent UFO close encounter investigation.” But it’s also more than that, as Nick Redfern notes in his review on Mysterious Universe: “Booher has written an absorbing, unbiased and genuinely fascinating story. It’s Booher’s own, personal search for the truth of a young man whose life was forever changed on a dark night back in the fifties. You should read this book.” Jerome Clark, in his review in Fortean Times, agrees: “No Return is admirable work, clearing up – to the limited extent possible – a curious case from the early UFO age, among the first to hint that even higher strangeness was lurking just over the horizon.”

Sometimes, when you want to find out the truth, you have to go out there and find out for yourself. That’s just what Texas author Avrel Seale has done. Nevermind the naysayers—science, government, and mainstream society—there is no better knowledge than personal knowledge. In Monster Hike: A 100-Mile Inquiry Into the Sasquatch Mystery, Seale probes this controversial subject not just with boots on the ground in the Sam Houston National Forest, but on the page with curiosity and literary flair. If you are considering hitting the trailhead to find out for yourself, do yourself a favor and read this book before you go. A truly different Bigfoot book.