Unexplained

I have more than my share of cryptozoology and paranormal (pity that those two are so often lumped together) texts among my multi-thousand-volume library. Shuker's stands out as a beacon light amid an ocean of foolishness, for his are the words of an objective scientist to truly employs the scientific method and is open to being amazed, not jaded against progress. (By way of contrast, promulgators of the "scientific method" such as CSICOP's Joe Nickell seem utterly unable to approach any mystery with an open mind, declaring it non-mysterious a priori and carefully working backward to those subsets of "the facts" that support their theses.) Shuker weaves a handsome panorama that covers a broad swath of mysteries--ranging from cryptozoological to spectral to religious to geokinetic (I just coined that, but I refer [hopefully obviously] to rocks that move by themselves and that sort of thing)--and does so in a unique and refreshing continent-by-continent basis, giving the feel of a gazetteer with frequent, detailed sidebars. Bravo, Dr. Shuker, for a job well conceived and expertly realized. I shall treasure your balanced portrayal for years to come.

Let me cut to the chase. If the reader is sceptical of the paranormal, this book is a good place to start. Karl Shuker, who actually has a Ph.D. in zooloogy, dissects many of the popular and forgotten mysteries from places all over the world, and from magazines like the dubious Fate and the more credible Fortean Times. He takes the cases, lays out the facts and comes to conclusions by graciously mentioning the scientific evidence and comparing it against what has been said elsewhere and what he witnessed. And if the explanations are too abstruse, then he will entertain with his mordant wit. A competent book in a normally incompetent field. ( If this book appeals to your tastes, I would further recommend Karl Shuker's other books, especially "From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings" which specializes in mysterious animals, the works of Bernard Heuyvelmans, the father of cryptozoology, Ivan T. Sanderson, and Janet and Colin Bord. Most of the other people in the field are really amateurish tin horns (e.g. Budd Hopkins and Whitley Striebert) who are convinced they are doing the work of God. The aforementioned authors are cool and objective in an area rife with hoaxes and misinformation.)

This book has all you ever wanted to know about: Cats with wings, falling frogs, the Loch Ness monster, mysterious black dogs, merfolk, the holy grail, moving statues, crop circles, green children, Stonehenge, Spring-Heeled Jack, the Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, the Cornish Owlman, screaming skulls, wailing banshees, the Devil's hoofprints, rat kings, the Alpine Tatzelworm, werewolves, the Golden Fleece, the Gevaudian beast, vampires, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the prophecies of Nostradamus, Mona Lisa, statues that weep or bleed, levitating saints, sacred relics, stigmata, the Ark of the Covenant, Noah's Ark, salt pillars, shrieking statues, pyramidology, the Star of Bethlehem, riddles of the Sphinx, Lemuria, Living Dinosaurs, Lizard and Death Birds, Elephantine enigmas, Were-leopards, crocodile boys, the Flying Dutchman, ghostly hitch-hikers, man-eating trees, manna, Tibetan wisdom, dancing with cobras, Yeti, Blue tigers and devil cats, Mongolian death worm, magnetic mountains, the Tunguska Fireball, the Jersey Devil, aliens, goblins of Hopkinsville, Mothman, leviathans, the Iceman, Atlantis, James Dean, the Titanic mysteries, King Solomon's mines, anacondas, zombies, the Chupacabras, the Bermuda Triangle, Easter Island, fire-walking, the Bunyip, the mystery of mass whale strandings, and much, much, more. Beautifully illustrated, a must-have book,