You can count the number of must-read UFO books on one hand, but there is no doubt that John A. Keel’s Operation Trojan Horse is one work that deserves that honor. Anomalist Books has just reprinted Keel’s classic study of UFOs. This edition, authorized by the estate of John Keel, largely follows the original book, first published in 1970. A few corrections from the “updated” 1996 edition have been included, but we chose not to reprint the grumpy preface to the 1996 book or the few hastily added sentences that were little more than a failed attempt to make the book appear new. These tacked-on “updates” were not only unnecessary, they actually diminished the power of the original work, tainting it with an aging writer’s bitterness and negativity. Put simply, the original Operation Trojan Horse is a brilliant deconstruction of the UFO mystery. And its message is one that UFO researchers have largely still not come to grips with more than 40 years later. Those with an interest in this subject who choose to ignore this book, do so at their own peril.

Our big, very popular, scholarly book, UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry by Michael Swords, Robert Powell, et al., has received the recognition it deserves from Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries. The review, authored by R. Fritze of Athens State University, appears in the February 2013 issue. It states, in part: “The bibliography of the UFO phenomenon is vast but often dreary. This straightforward study of the limited topic of government responses to sightings of UFOs…is an exception…Their narrative is firmly based on the available sources. The writing can be dense and sometimes convoluted, reflecting the military sources that form the evidence. A useful resource of the study of a controversial topic.” Summing up the review are these much-appreciated words: “Recommended. All levels/libraries.”

The reviews of our expanded reprint of John A. Keel’s first book, JADOO, are in, and they contain nothing but superlatives and flattering comparisons to some very well known literary figures, past and present. First up we have Nick Redfern, writing in Mysterious Universe: “What is Jadoo about? Well, if I was to say to you: ‘Try and imagine a story that is part-Raiders of the Lost Ark, part-Kerouac, part-Bukowski, part-The Da Vinci Code, and part-Hemingway and you have Jadoo,’ maybe that would help…If you want to learn about what the man who made Mothman famous (and who, in turn, was made famous by it) was doing long before Point Pleasant, West Virginia, dragged him, magnet-like, into its creepy confines, then buy and read Jadoo.” Next up is Micah Hanks writing in the Gralien Report; in Jadoo, he says, we see Keel,  “the skeptical journalist as he meanders the fringes of civilization…Jadoo chases Keel’s life of mystery and strangeness back to it’s humble beginnings, and shares with us all the tragedy, humor, hardships, and enigmatic wonder of a young adventurer whose notes on life in other parts of the world might challenge the finest American journalism of his day, easily on par with the likes of Hunter Thompson and Jack Kerouac.” Wow.

It’s a science that keeps a low profile. But its results have the potential to change the face of science itself. The science is parapsychology and its findings have been put to use in fields from archeology to medicine. Who are the men and women of parapsychology? Who are the brilliant, talented individuals who have spent most of their lives exploring the mysteries of consciousness? Why did they choose to enter such a controversial field of science? Why did they persist in their investigation and risk being ostracized by many mainstream scientists? What advice do they have for young people entering the field? The answers to these questions and more can be found in this new book entitled Men and Women of Parapsychology, Personal Reflections, Esprit Vol. 2, edited by Rosemarie Pilkington. The book contains mini-autobiographies of 21 pioneering researchers from the United States and Europe, including Larry Dossey, Stanley Krippner, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Tart, Rex Stanford, Russell Targ, Roger Nelson, and John Palmer. This work is the second in a series edited by Rosemarie Pilkington, the first being Esprit, Men and Women of Parapsychology, Personal Reflections, Vol. 1, which features the stories of 12 other notable researchers.

“Welcome to the world of Nick Redfern,” begins Peter Rogerson’s review in Magonia of Monster Diary, the latest saga in Nick Redfern’s ongoing series of worldwide road-trips in search of strange creatures and terrifying beasts. It’s a world that ” … seems to be dominated by strange experiences, strange characters who tell him tales of stranger and nastier things and even stranger and nastier doings…I see Nick Redfern as being in the tradition of the story teller, who like John Keel, uses folkloric themes in his work but weaves around them a storyline. This is really a book to be read out loud, perhaps before a roaring log fire in the Rampant Ram, or better still round the camp fire, throwing a fitful light into the darkness and casting sinister shadows.” Sydney Squidney at Good Reads liked the book, too: “I recommend this book for people who are tired of the interruptions and measured humiliations of arrogant humans who prefer to stay willfully ignorant and thus who dismiss the well cognizable ‘more’ that is offered by this world. There is a voice here for those who have been up close and personal with things they don’t quite understand, but know what’s out there.” But best of all is the praise that comes from none other than Brad Steiger: “Nick Redfern has produced another excellent title …I always enjoy reading his take on some of the classic monsters which have haunted the British countryside for centuries. What he adds to his usual reportage of monsters of the moors is a theory that some of these entities may well be spectral memories and ghostly projections. To me, this theory makes a great deal of sense. I have always wondered just where the Brits got the notion that black panthers were terrorizing their roadways when no panthers have ever existed in Great Britain in known history. Psychic projections do make for better explanations. Redfern expands this thoughtful theory to extend to Bigfoot and other such creatures. Perhaps the paranormal will not be welcome in this territory by those who faithfully search the woods for signs and proofs of Old Daddy Bigfoot’s actual, physical reality. After suggesting a paranormal explanation for a good many Bigfoot sightings, Redfern contends that some of those witnesses who have reported encountering Mammoths, Loch Ness-type water beasts, and saber-toothed tigers may have actually seen ghosts of these prehistoric beasts. And why not? …As a major Redfern fan, I definitely recommend this book as one of his best.” No wonder it’s been named the “Best Autobiographical Cryptozoological Book of the Year,” 2012, Cryptomundo.

John A. Keel died on July 3, 2009, but his works survive. With the permission of his estate, we have just reprinted his first book, JADOO, which appeared in 1957. Whether or not it is “the greatest book ever written on the black magic of the Orient,” as it’s been called, we can say for certain that there will never again be another book like it. Jadoo, a Hindi word meaning “Black Magic,” captures a world that is now lost to us—the strange, dark, mysterious world that was once called the “Orient.” It is the story of a real-life Indiana Jones of the 1950s named John Keel, who went on to write The Mothman Prophecies, which was made into a movie starring Richard Gere in 2002. This revised edition of JADOO contains material that the original publisher deleted from the book, specifically a warm and melancholy chapter on Keel’s love life in Egypt. In this new edition you will also find a review of the book written by Keel himself under a pseudonym, a few photographs from his files, a sample of his travel notes, and a proposal for a follow-up book to JADOO. If you read the book long, long ago, it’s time to read it again. The book has aged very, very well.

Nick Redfern’s lifelong quest in search of this planet’s mystery creatures, which he has chronicled in a long series of books, continues with Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures. In this transatlantic trek, Redfern is hot on the trail of…a Mothman-like creature in Wisconsin; giant eels that lurk in the canals of Birmingham, England; a spectral mammoth and a ghostly big-cat in American woods; Bigfoot in New Mexico; a Chupacabras in the wilds of Oklahoma; vampire-like beasts roaming the valleys of Wales; and California’s very own shape-shifting Skinwalkers. Monsters do exist. Monsters are among us.  But it turns out that many of them are not all they seem to be. They may appear to be flesh-and-blood creatures, but is that what they really are? This is certain to be another controversial work by the ever prolific Nick Redfern.

You know already that many of our print books are also available as ebooks. You can get them for Amazon’s Kindle, for Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and in Apple’s iBookstore. Now our books are also available on Kobo for their eReaders, which use electronic ink screens. Kobo is big in Canada, where they are based, but they’re also making big inroads internationally. If the name “Kobo” has you puzzled, it’s an anagram of the word “book.” Get you Anomalist Books for Kobo here!

Most Anomalist Books are now available through the Expresso Book Machine. What does that mean? That means you can walk in to more than half a dozen bookstores in the United States (and many others worldwide), order the book you want, and have it printed in front of you faster than you can make a cup of coffee. Yes, that fast! Expresso Book Machines are now installed in the following bookstores:

Harvard Bookstore
Cambridge, MA, 02138

University of Washington Book Store
Seattle, WA, 98105

Northshire Bookstore
Manchester Center, VT, 05255

University of Utah Library
Salt Lake City, UT, 84112

McNally Jackson Bookstore
New York, NY, 10012

Village Books In Fairhaven
Bellingham, WA, 98225

Tattered Cover Bookstore
Denver, CO, 80202

Flintridge Bookstore
La Canada, CA, 9101

Find all Expresso Book Machine locations here.

Search for any of our books here.

If you find that one of our books is not listed, let us know and we’ll look into it. Email us.

The intersection of historical mysteries and psychic powers holds a special fascination for us. That’s why we published Edward Olshaker’s Witnesses to the Unsolved: Prominent Psychic Detectives and Mediums Explore Our Most Haunting Mysteries. In his recent review, Nick Redfern described the book’s premise: “Olshaker’s work is a study of psychics who have used their skills and talents to try and resolve a number of deaths, all high-profile, many shrouded in deep mystery, and a great deal…linked to swirling conspiracy, cover-up, and political intrigue.” The author, he continues, “carefully offers the cases, data, victims and investigators and—when that is all done—succeeds in making a strong case that the conclusions of the various psychics…should not—and indeed, cannot—be dismissed. Something weird and significant does appear to be going on.” In sum, Redfern calls it “a refreshingly different, informative, open-minded and highly thought-provoking book.”  Tom Ruffles of the Society for Physical Research was a little more reserved in his praise for the book, criticizing the author-journalist for being ” vague on the protocols he employed with the psychic detectives…” Ruffles also found it “frustrating that no-one says ‘yes, so-and-so did it,’ or provides information on previously unknown suspects, even though the verdicts of the psychic detectives are often some distance from the accepted versions of events.” Nevertheless Ruffles concludes his review with high praise for the book: “Olshaker has made a fascinating attempt to apply psychic abilities to some intractable mysteries of recent years, and has definitely highlighted very strange goings-on, whatever the explanation. He and his collaborators are to be applauded for their efforts, and this book should be read by anybody interested in psychic detection.”