Favorite Books of New Members?

I am an avid reader, and love conspiracy related books of all sorts. Here's a few of my picks:

Club Dumas
the Alexandria Link
Angels and Demons

Non-Fiction:

Puzzel Palace
SpyChips
Inside the CIA

I forgot to also add "Inside the Tomb" about the Skull and Bones.

Here is a conspiracy book you may like - not fiction but fact. "Lies My teacher Told Me" - by James W. Loewen

It is one of my favorite books and years ago it first led me to search out the truth and find that many conspiracy theories were true. I am still on this journey of Truth and have never looked back.

It chronicles many of the falsehoods we are taught in school and attempts to explain why we are misled.

A simple example ( from memory) is Christopher Columbus. Ask most people who he is and they will tell you "He discovered America" Nothing could be further from the truth. He never got closer than the Caribbean islands. In contrast Leif Erickson did set foot on north American soil almost 500 years before Columbus. In fact Columbus carried maps of the North American continent with him when he sailed this way that were derived from knowledge that Erickson brought back with him. Other documents in Europe prove the Spaniards were well aware of the New Word and where it was located long before Columbus sailed on his voyage. Columbus was made out to be a hero but in fact he and his men were murderers who were almost responsible for the genocide of the Haitian people because he desired their gold, he worked them and tortured them like slaves until their deaths.

This is the true historical account and not taught to our children in schools.

If you read this I hope you enjoy it as much as I have :-)

anything by neil gaimen, espcially american gods. i read much more than most i believe... i read this about 4 years ago and nothing has it beat. neverwhere and also star dust by gaimen are also in my top 10

Most Harry Turtledove books. I love alternative history.

How about 'dark mission-the secret history of NASA' by Richard C. Hoagland?-Amazing!

Ellen Brown - Web of Debt
Carrol Quigley - Tragedy and Hope
G. Edward Griffin - The Creature From Jekyll Island
John Taylor Gatto - Dumbing Us Down
Zbigniew Brzezinski - The Grand Chessboard

Anything by A. L. Martinez

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Absolutely the funniest book I have ever read. By a longshot!

reply to post by Hefficide


Hefficide, I agree. That book was hilarious, ironic, and a lot of smart @$$ness in it which I love.

I read recently a Book, science fiction, by a Sci-Fi writer from Boston, Richard Bowes, the book was called "Time Rangers."

Another one I enjoyed was a diary like book by Andrew Garcia called "tough trip through paradise" about early pioneers in North America and how they existed w/ the First Peoples.

American Gods is also one of my favorite books.

I also love, love, loved "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright. Evan Wright is a journalist who was embedded with a Marine First Recon unit during the first thirty days or so of the Iraq War. It is extremely good and it can be appreciated no matter what your feelings on the war are. Wright also does a good job at keeping himself invisible and focusing on the soldiers.

"Libra" by Don Delilo also really tickled me. It's basically Lee Harvey Oswald historical fiction following him for childhood to his death. Interesting and a fun read if you like the subject.

The Phineas Poe trilogy by Will Christopher Baer. Weird and gritty neo-noir books. The second in the trilogy isn't great, but the others more than make up for it.

"World War Z" by Max Brooks. This is the be-all end-all of zombie books. Even if you have no interest in zombies, you should check this out because it's that good. Every chapter is an interview with a different person talking about their experiences during "the zombie war." The book is insanely thorough and meticulously researched.

"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. It's a very difficult read and the only book I can categorize as gratuitously violent. It has one of the scariest and most memorable characters ever: Judge Holden. The whole thing reads like a nightmare.

Fiction. Actually it's a trilogy by Stieg Larsson. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl who Played with Fire/
The Girl who Kicked a Hornet's Nest. Contrary to the titles, they are not 'girly' books at all. All titles can be bought from Amazon.com. I have them as paperbacks and e-books.

I have more, but have to find the links.



Cheers.

Graphic Novels:
Alan Moore - From Hell
Manu Larcenet - Ordinary Victories
Art Spiegelman - Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Normal Books
Jack Kerouac - Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, Big Sur,
(Tthere was an esquire article that described what men do or should do depending on different ages. somewhere, maybe age 24, they say that you should trade out Kerouac with Hemmingway. I have not read Hemmingway but the idea of saying farewell to Kerouac books is sad although I really can't finish Dr. Sax... ug (Kerouac is not for everyone though))

Just a few of my favorites:

Brave New World
1984
Naked Lunch (everything by Burroughs, actually)
A Clockwork Orange
Lord of the Rings (yes, I read it long before the movies came out)
Atlas Shrugged
The Wanting Seed
Tropic of Cancer
The Chronicles of Narnia
Fahrenheit 451
Slaughterhouse 5

There's too many to list, really but those are the first that come to mind. And pretty much anything relating to audio, audio recording and music composition.

If we're listing comic books, then the Sin City series is probably my favorite.


-TheAssoc.

Surpised that "Foucaults Pendulum" did not get a mention here on ATS. Catholicism, tenplars, black madonnas, stonehenge and all kinds of good stuff.

A new book

The book is "Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Astonishing Implications for our Future." 2011. By Jeffrey Bennett. Princeton University Press. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-14988-2.

Bennett is an astrophysicist, author and educator and lives in the USA. The book is primarily about the search for extraterrestrial life. However, Bennett had some personal and seemingly UFO related early childhood experiences which he tells us about. My post today will concentrate on pulling out his views on UFOs as expressed in this book.

Preface:

"It has been a long time but I distinctly recall the sounds and sights of my alien friends." This is how Bennett commences his work, by recalling his childhood perspective of what he perceived as visitations by aliens.

He then goes on to say "I am now in my fifth decade of life, and I have not seen or heard from my friends since I was a teenager. I still believe they are out there, somewhere, but I am no longer convinced that they really visited me in my bedroom."

Personal sighting?

"I'd always wanted to see a real UFO - something in the sky that I could not explain and that would therefore qualify as an unidentified flying object. Then, even without proof, I could at least hope that I'd seen an alien space craft." (p.22.)

Finally he did see a UFO, a light, about the brightness of Venus, as well as the planet Venus in the sky. It brightened then faded, concluded "...I cannot conclusively identify the light I saw in the sky as a meteor or as anything else, which means I can truly claim to have seen an unidentified flying object. However, I cannot automatically conclude that my UFO was an alien spacecraft." (p.23.)

Science and the UFO:

"I tell this story not to discredit other UFO sightings but rather to emphasise what I consider to be the most basic difference between science and beliefs. Science is supposed to be based on verifiable evidence, while beliefs are matters of faith or opinion. I could believe with all my heart that I really did see an alien spacecraft, but if you don't believe me, there's nothing that either of us can do to convince the other." (p.24.)

His views on UFOs:

On an alien invasion hypothesis: "The mere fact that we are still alive therefor proves that no one with intentions on our world has visited us lately, because if they had, the world would already be theirs." (p.59.)

On crop circles: "...we are talking of beings who we should expect to possess technology at least 50,000 years beyond ours. If they chose to make their presence known, does it really seem possible that they'd decide to do it by drawing patterns in wheat fields?" (p.59.)

On crashed UFOs: "Claims of debris from alien crashes are hardly more plausible. Indeed if you assume that debris from places like Roswell really is from alien spaceships, the most remarkable thing about it is that alien spacecraft material doesn't look all that different from ours." (pp59-60.)

On hard evidence: "The bottom line is that virtually any claim of "hard" evidence of alien visitation quickly collapses under its own weight of implausibility. " (p.60.)

A rider: "But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and I'll be the first to admit that it's still possible that aliens are visiting us. In fact, based on the argument I've made about the number of civilisations, it seems difficult to believe that they're not..." (pp60-61.)

Evidence:

"With extremely high confidence we can conclude that any aliens who are visiting Earth are so far beyond us that there's virtually no chance of them leaving evidence behind by accident. If they want us to know they're here, they'll tell us." (p.61.)

Proviso:

"And yet, I still won't tell anyone who claims to have seen a UFO that they're wrong. Because with all this considered, there are still laws of which we are unaware, perhaps allowing them to do things like "cloaking" their spacecraft to prevent us from seeing them." (p.61.)

Beyond UFOs:

Having discussed the UFO phenomenon in early parts of the book, the rest of it discusses the subjects of what is life; life in the solar system; life among the stars, and SETI. "So now, we really are ready to move beyond UFOs. I hope I've convinced you that even if UFOs are real, we probably won't be able to find the hard evidence that science demands to prove it." (p.61.)

For anyone interested I post on the Australian UFO blog ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com...

Another new book I have read.

My latest new book discovery at my local library is "The Search for Aliens: A Rough Guide to Life on Other Worlds" by Piers Bizony. 2012. Rough Guides. London. ISBN 978-1-40538-324-0 (click here.) This 260 page book takes a look at the origins of life; the search for life on Mars; aliens at the movies; SETI; the search for extrasolar planets; plus one chapter headed "Kidnapped by Aliens." This post covers this particular chapter, the subject matter of this blog.

Introduction:

"Why do thousands of people believe that extraterrestrial spacecraft have already visited us? How can we distinguish between credible "close encounter" accounts and credulous nonsense? Just because you've seen an alien in your bedroom doesn't necessarily mean you're insane."

Project Blue Book:

The author takes a brief look at the USAF Project Blue Book (click here) and the work of Dr J Allen Hynek (click here) for that project. "Far from investigating alien corpses in hidden bunkers, Hynek was encouraged to find natural explanations wherever possible." (p.215.)

Loose definitions of CE1s to CE3s follow. The project's demise in 1969 is noted "...further funding could not be justified 'either on the grounds of national security or in the interests of science.'" (p.217.)

Under this sub-heading, there is also a short note that "The UK's National Archives contain a wealth of ufo-related material..." (p.217.)

Roswell:

"The most famous UFO story of modern times..." is covered in just over one page of text. "A succession of old timers, publicity chancers and one or two genuinely puzzled witnesses have come forward over the years to tell their versions of the Roswell story..." (p.218.)

There are mentions of projects Mogul ( click here) and High Dive ( click here) as official explanations for the Roswell event. "Some conspiracy theorists point out that although Mogul was underway in 1947, High Dive didn't start until the 1950's. But how would they know? And are these conspiracy theorists actually being paid by the US government to sow further confusion?" (p.218.)

The author's conclusion? "Roswell and almost all other UFO sightings have prosaic explanations. Those few cases that remain completely mysterious are just that, products of our lack of explanation, not proof of alien contact." (p.220.)

Area 51:

A quick overview of Area 51 ( click here) includes the statements: "Frequent reports of triangular UFOs in the skies around Groom Lake in the 1980's are best explained by the sinister shadow of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter..." (p.220.) "No matter how sleek the styling of Groom Lake's military machines, none are proof of extraterrestrial technology being hidden at Area 51, nor of airplanes retro-engineered from advanced alien counterparts that crash-landed decades ago." (p.220.)

Alien abductions"

This area of UFO research is covered in four pages. "Leaving aside the frauds and self-publicists, hundreds of perfectly sane people genuinely believe they've been visited by aliens. Just because a person believes in something, doesn't make it true." (p.222.)

Dr John E Mack's ( click here) work is cited, followed by a quick look at the incubus ( click here) and succubus and accounts of their existence throughout recorded history.

Sleep paralysis:

One explanation put forward for alien abductions is sleep paralysis and the author takes a page and a bit, to explain this hypothesis. "It's not surprising that some people may interpret this kind of physical and psychological experience as an alien abduction." (p.224.)

After mentioning the work of UK psychologist Dr Susan Blackmore, the author writes "Blackmore is not alone in thinking that many abduction narratives owe their origin to biological and neurological causes, rather than extraterrestrial interventions." (p.225.)

"Alien looking aliens:"

"The strangest element uniting almost all 'close encounters of the third kind' witness reports is that the aliens appear more or less human, or at least humanoid." (p.225.)

The author argues that "Even if aliens did happen to come from a world just like ours, they still wouldn't look like us, because of countless tiny variations in their evolutionary history." (p.226.) "...it becomes obvious that creatures from other worlds are not under any obligation to look like humans." (p.227.)

Resources:

This section of the book includes sections on astrobiology sources material. There is a section headed "Technical papers" which includes Blackmore and Cox's 2000 paper "Alien Abductions: Sleep Paralysis and the Temporal Lobe" from the European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies, 2000. pp.113-118.

For those interested I post at the Australian UFO blog at ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com...

"UFOs & Aliens. Is There Anybody Out There?" edited by Michael Pye and Kirsten Dalley. It is published by New Page Books. 2011. Pompton Plains, NJ. ISBN 978-1-60163-173-2. The book consists of a series of essays. For those who haven't come across this new book and would like to see if any of the essays would make good reading in full, I will post some details.

1. A Cosmic Watergate: UFO Secrecy. Stanton T Friedman.

Friedman argues that governments can keep secrets from the general public, and provides examples such as the Manhattan Engineering District; the U-2 aircraft; and the Corona spy satellite program. "In sum, it is very clear that various agencies of the United States government had and and continue to have the capability of keeping secrets, and have intentionally and consistently withheld facts and information regarding - and even actual wreckage of - alien spacecraft." (p.24.)

2. The Real X-Files. Nick Pope.

Pope recounts the story of the release of the UK government's UFO files, highlights some interesting cases, such as the 1957 Milton Torres interception; the 1991 Al Italia aircraft near-miss; the Bentwaters 1980 incident and the 1993 Cosford event. "These are exciting times. As of this writing, numerous countries are releasing their UFO files." (p.45.)

3. Doubt Beyond reason. Gordon Chism.

Chism details a personal observation of an unusual object, in 1958 in Nevada. he then explores three factors which he believes steer people away from acceptance of the UFO phenomenon. "I believe that all of these things - our fear of losing status, our tendency to follow the group consensus, and our use of faith and denial to override logic - have enabled us to reject the existence of aliens and UFOs." (p.56.)

4. An Alien Intervention. Jim Moroney.

Jim had a personal abduction encounter in 1987 which he describes, along with details of an abduction in the Yukon, and the 1994 Rawa, Zimbabwe event. "It is no longer of question of when extraterrestrials will confront us, but rather the much more difficult question of how they will interact with us." (p.79.)

5. Alien Abduction: Fact or Fiction? Kathleen Marden.

Marden reviews a range of non-terrestrial explanations for the UFO abduction phenomenon. Using the details of a number of well known abduction cases, she argues that these appear to be more than of psychological origin. "Clearly, alien abduction investigation is firmly planted on the frontiers of science. As in any science, the careful, methodical collection and evaluation of credible evidence over an extended period of time, along with political change, might bring about a paradigm shift. But until then, the controversy will rage on. " (p.102.)

6. Cosmic Peeping Toms: UFOs and Invisibility. Micah Hanks.

Using case studies, Hanks suggests that "...extraterrestrial craft might be lingering in our aerospace without our knowledge, thanks to an advanced technology that renders them invisible to the naked eye, and perhaps even to advanced radar equipment as well." (p.108.)

7. The Kingman Affair. Nick Redfern.

Something crashed near a place named Kingman, Nevada in May 1953. Redfern examines and discusses the known facts, and interestingly comes down on the side of a non-extraterrestrial explanation. namely, that the object was a military drone aircraft with monkeys on board.

8. Roswell in Perspective: The Human response to an Extraordinary Event. Donald R Schmitt.

Schmitt, a long time Roswell researcher asks us to "...ignore the minutia and instead to focus on the human aspect of this story." (p.138.) The basic core story is outlined, arguing the words of the witnesses who have come forward should be heard.

9. Star Travel: How Realistic is it? Stanton T Friedman.

Friedman's second essay in this book shows that some experts in the past have been proven wrong in their statements. Discussing the possible role of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Fission propulsion systems have been tested in the past. "Given our own technological progress, which shows no signs of slowing or abating, the stars may soon be within our reach..." (p.165.)

10. The UFO Problem: Toward a Theory of Everything? John White.

White argues that "...based on the evidence, it seems clear that no single explanation can cover every experience and event..." (p.168.) White sees that three solutions could contribute to an overall conclusion. These are the extraterrestrial; terrestrial and the metaterrestrial - (outside ordinary space time.)

If interested, check out my posts on the Australian UFO blog at ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com...

Has anyone ever heard of Daniel Quinn his book ishmael is very interesting it so is alot of his work but it basicaly has the same ideas repeated but still good stories.