• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

A Good Read: Book Suggestions & Recommendations

I've just finished reading Truth-Proof by Paul Sinclair, very interesting with all kinds of forteana in there. I do feel that he somewhat underestimates Cold War shenanigans in the North Sea, which would explain some of the stuff off Flamborough Head... fishing boats snagging massive objects in their nets - almost certainly Soviet submarines (or NATO submarines for that matter). Some of the aircraft lost in conjunction with unidentified lights may well have been the result of cat-and-mouse dogfights against intruding Soviet aircraft testing British air defences. I also didn't read too much into the search for an aircrew recovering a wrong body - not really a coincidence, since far more attention was being paid to objects in the water than normal; if the second aircraft hadn't gone down, the body from the first aircraft some weeks earlier might never have been found, since no-one was looking for it any more. Not to mention that unexpected corpses probably turned up in the water from time to time due to aforementioned Cold War shenanigans.

However, that is a minor gripe, because I really enjoyed the book, and it also introduced me to the Rudston Monolith, which I had somehow managed to miss all these years. How did I not know about this! Some years ago I used to visit the region from time to time, and would have certainly gone to look at the monolith if I'd known about it. Great stuff about lightforms, a werewolf/dogman, phantom black dogs, alien big cats etc. etc. and the author has really put in the legwork, talking to local farmers and fishermen. I'll now be heading off for Volume 2...
 
Hi guys I’ve enjoyed all of Paul’s books and since the area is quite near to where I live have had a few good walks around the wolds and the coast line .Never seen anything though
 
I just finished this one and liked it:

The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Traveler - Giles Milton
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...t?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=DiEBfAgnvU&rank=1

From a Goodreads review (not mine):
Milton doesn't exactly nail the solution: that's probably impossible after all this time. But he does do some heroic research both in the archive and in the real world. In the former, he traces many of the original sources from which Mandeville (if indeed this is the author: even his identity is disputed and mysterious) derived some of his stories, and shows how he elaborated them far beyond what any mere copyist would do. In the latter he find confirmation for elements in the Travels that have been perplexing, including (for example) verifying that Mandeville's descriptions of certain statues in Constantinople, while now wrong, were correct for the dates he claimed to be there. Some of the most dramatic scenes occur in St Catherine's monastery in Sinai, difficult to reach even now, where Milton searches through Crusader graffiti looking for a Mandeville coat of arms, as well as viewing manuscripts that have remained untouched for over a thousand years.

This one is OK, and I learned a lot about the context of the war and the role of Jordan in it:

No Shadows in the Desert: Murder, Vengeance, and Espionage in the War Against ISIS - Samuel M. Katz
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=vhZJHCDxPN&rank=1

From a Goodreads review (not mine):
Covers the start-up of ISIS through the fall of ISIS.
The parts of the book that would have been the most interesting, which are the details of how the Jordanian intelligence agency (GID) recruited and received information enabling them to get information on ISIS leaders, is often not reported at all, as it is still classified. That made me feel like a huge part of the story is missing, making the book somewhat unfulfilling at times.

And I abandonded these two, though they might be something to your taste. They are certainly well written and well researched but too dark for me:

The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World - Sarah Weinman
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=KkkjyTraj0&rank=1

From a Goodreads review (not mine):
Sarah Weinman’s The Real Lolita is perhaps unique in the annals of true crime because of the double mystery it explores. The first mystery: to discover the real girl behind a half-forgotten news story, the kidnapping in 1948 of eleven-year-old Sally Horner by fifty-year-old pedophile Frank La Salle and their subsequent twenty-one month odyssey from Camden, New Jersey to San Jose, California. The second mystery: to discover the relationship between Sally and her fictional counterpoint Lolita by sifting through the hints and evasions the writer left us in his notes and comments, and breaking through the barriers thrown up by his wife Vera, the fierce and jealous defender of Vladimir Nabokov and his legacy.

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up - Richard Lloyd Parry
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18877989-people-who-eat-darkness?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_12

From a Goodreads review (not mine):
This is a page-turner in which very little happens but a whole lot is discovered, about Japan particularly, and also about the grand-canyon-sized gulf of mutual squalor called the sex trade. It’s a sad and, well, banal story – Western girl goes to foreign parts to make some big money and never comes back. One day she walks out into the sunshine and eight months after that she’s dug up from a grave by the sea. [...] For people like me who like to get their sociology from true crime books, this is a must-read. For those looking for a shred of optimism about the state of male female relations in the early 21st century, it’s a must to avoid. Four stars.
 
Last edited:
Creating the Qur’an (Shoemaker, Stephen J.)

The Death of a Prophet The End of Muhammads Life and the Beginnings of Islam (Stephen J. Shoemaker)

Two very good books about the beginnings of Islam. That's just as mysterious, complicated and speculative as the beginnings of Christianity.

I just skimmed the books. Very well researched but too specialistic for a layman.
 
Last edited:
Visited this nicely weird art exhibit today:
https://v2.nl/events/exhibition-becoming-geological

They had a table with books related to the exhibit. This art book was fascinating. I know this exists and has been scientifically documented:
20221211_164447.jpg
20221211_164348.jpg
20221211_164428.jpg
 
Looking for my copy of 'Time Storms' by Jenny Randles, some great reports included, love anything by Jenny Randles!
I got my copy of this on Amazon, gawd knows where its gone now, but I enjoyed it very much, It, in my opinion explained about the UFO element of seeming to be in a weird place when encountering UFOs, I loved it, will probably have to repurchase. And I agree with you she is a great writer.
 
Picked up this book to read because of the beautiful cover, turns out it's a novel about Victorian London and Jack The Ripper, and it's great - 'Nine Buck's Row by T. E. Huff from 1973:

View attachment 61733

Bucks Row was renamed Durward Street after the murder. The murder took place near the Board School:

114290A9-E23A-40D2-91A8-447D4F2F7564.png


bucks-row-murder-site-body-outlined.jpg


Buck's Row, 1888. The Murder Site Is Outlined In White

The locus in 2010:

bucks-row-today.jpg


The site where the murder occurred is the gap, this side of the wall in the foreground of the photograph

https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/bucks-row-then-and-now.htm

maximus otter
 
Bucks Row was renamed Durward Street after the murder. The murder took place near the Board School:

View attachment 61739

bucks-row-murder-site-body-outlined.jpg


Buck's Row, 1888. The Murder Site Is Outlined In White

The locus in 2010:

bucks-row-today.jpg


The site where the murder occurred is the gap, this side of the wall in the foreground of the photograph

https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/bucks-row-then-and-now.htm

maximus otter
Great research and beautiful photos!
I suppose that wall helped shield him from sight?
 
I have not read this because it has literally just been published, but it looks and sounds very interesting.

Sample here looks very well researched and excellently presented:

https://read.amazon.co.uk/sample/B0...E3VFQ33TS&sid=261-0953188-7577026&ref_=litb_m

It appears to be a proper academic text (by an academic) with popular trappings. If Ronald Huttton puts his stamp on it, you can't go far wrong.

FkmGwVyWQAEh5Bb.jpeg.jpg


'This terrific book is that of a historian at the top of her game, bringing all her knowledge, research skills, and writing ability to the task. In so doing, Marion Gibson has made an important addition to our knowledge of Elizabethan witchcraft. But the text is also written for a more general audience and is engagingly written with that audience in mind too. Thus, the book has all the virtues of a 'crossover' study that will appeal both to the academic specialist and the more general reader. It demonstrates that good history writing can be erudite as well as entertaining.' Philip Almond, University of Queensland 'This terrific book is that of a historian at the top of her game, bringing all her knowledge, research skills, and writing ability to the task. It demonstrates that good history can be erudite as well as entertaining.' Philip Almond, University of Queensland 'Marion Gibson is a very well-established and respected scholar with a particular reputation for expertise in the kind of sources she uses so effectively in this book. She is able to combine here first-rate academic research with a popular and accessible literary style. The book takes a very famous English witchcraft case and supplies genuinely new material by which that case may be understood, both by a close rereading of the celebrated text and by a contextualisation of it in a range of hitherto completely untapped local records.' Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol 'Marion Gibson is able to combine here first-rate academic research with a popular and accessible literary style.' Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol 'An excellent monograph and contribution to the field of witchcraft studies.' Diane Purkiss, University of Oxford

Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fascinated by witches' stories for nearly thirty years, she is the author of Reading Witchcraft (1999), Early Modern Witches (2000), Witchcraft and Society (2003), Witchcraft Myths in American Culture (2007), Imagining the Pagan Past (2013), Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft (2017) and Witchcraft: The Basics (2018). In addition she serves as General Editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Magic.
 
Last edited:
Let me once again plug the foto graphic novels of Chris Reynolds. The atmosphere is wonderful, and is produced without spectacle.
Downloaded this today and very happy with it:
https://www.amazon.de/-/nl/gp/aw/d/B08TZ7DMS3/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1672427729&sr=8-1

Screenshot_20221230-201412_Kindle.jpg

Dream stories from Prowl Car International. We look at a map, then at the city, then we move onward. We continue, driving, discovering a bowery. Still at the northern end we discuss an inland harbour, and encounter a flat river junction. We see Jane in the park, and think about dredging. Then we encounter ghosts, then Medusa, until we are aboard the actual ghost ship. We discuss sea safety and meet the Martell company. We arrive and float, meet the blind and see what's outstanding, before we finally achieve our rewards.
 
Cleaning out my downloaded book collection. This was a strange one:

Dostoyevsky's Stalker and Other Essays on Psychopathology and the Arts - Michael Sperber
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=pzd7PZUCFo&rank=1

A sample:

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and Autoscopic Illusion
An autoscopic illusion is the external perception of one’s body, which appears to an individual as though it were in a mirror. It is seen clearly, appears suddenly and without warning, and imitates the person’s movements. The appearance is usually brief, and in most cases the “dislocated body image” is seen at dusk. The person usually retains a certain detached insight into the unreality of the experience and reacts with bewilderment.
In this chapter, we explore the relationship of sensory deprivation to autoscopic illusion in connection with the novella “The Secret Sharer” (1909) by Joseph Conrad (1857–1924).
The Secret Sharer takes place aboard an unnamed ship. The captain, also nameless, feels apprehensive during his first week in command of a ship with which he is unfamiliar and a crew with whom he has never before sailed.
One night, taking a walk alone on deck, he discovers a man swimming near his boat. ...

Another sample:

Chapter Ten - The Unabomber, the Underground Man, and Asperger Syndrome - “Autistic Acts of Malice”
Asperger considered that such responses stemmed from the profound humiliation experienced by the stigmatized child:
Autistic children are often tormented and rejected by their classmates simply because they are different and stand out from the crowd. Their conduct, manner of speech and, not least, often grotesque demeanor cries out to be ridiculed. Children in general have a good eye for this and show great accuracy in their mocking of conspicuous character peculiarities. Thus, in the playground or on the way to school one can often see an autistic child at the center of a jeering horde of little urchins. The child himself may be hitting out in blind fury or crying helplessly.5

As mentioned in the previous section, in his first year as an undergraduate at Harvard, Kaczynski came to the conclusion that he needed sex-change surgery and scheduled an appointment with the campus psychiatrist to arrange it, but was unable to discuss this when the time came. He stated:
As I walked away from the building afterwards, . . .I said to myself why not really kill the psychiatrist and anyone else whom I hate? What is important is not the words that ran through my mind but the way I felt about them. What was entirely new was the fact that I really felt I could kill someone. My very hopelessness had liberated me because I no longer cared about death. I no longer cared about consequences and I said to myself that I really could break out of my rut in life an[d] do things that were daring, irresponsible or criminal.6
...

This one was weird too:

Dying to be Ill: True Stories of Medical Deception - Marc D. Feldman, Gregory P. Yates
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=ubaMaEYhLB&rank=1

Book description (not mine):
In this book, Dr. Marc Feldman describes people’s strange motivations to fabricate or induce illness or injury to satisfy deep emotional needs. Doctors, family members, and friends are lured into a costly, frustrating, and potentially deadly web of deceit. From the mother who shaves her child’s head and tells her community he has cancer, to the co-worker who suffers from a string of incomprehensible "tragedies," to the false epilepsy victim who monopolizes her online support group, "disease forgery" is ever-present in the media and in many people’s lives.

From the reviews (not mine):
Things I learned that I didn't know before I read this: 1. People with Munchausen's not only fake illnesses, they actually will cause themselves to actually be ill (for the attn). That is to say - they love themselves nothing more than an open wound/IV and some poop to smear in there to get a good infection. 2. 7000 things my family did are completely textbook, and reading about the enablers (MBP parents often will have a codependent enabler) makes me insanely furious for obvious reasons 3. Every time you think to yourself, no, people/parent/whomever didn't really do XYZ thing because that is too crazy, you're just making it up and blowing it out of proportion, read this book to remind yourself you're not crazy, it did happen, it was not ok. 4. How am I still alive?
 
Last edited:
There are some very interesting titles here:

https://beijingchannel.substack.com/p/books-on-xis-shelf

Your host thought it might be interesting to look at Xi’s bookshelf, which was in the background of his New Year speech on Dec. 31.

There are plenty of sources that took a look at the pictures shown on his bookshelf, so to supplement them, this newsletter will focus on what’s behind the pictures, the books.

Below is a list of all the books your host was able to make out from open-source photos. Unfortunately, some of the books are blocked by the frames, so it’s worth noting that this will be an INCOMPLETE list of the books.
 
Back
Top