William J. BirnesBesprekingen

What can I say? This is a really interesting and odd combination of in-world ideas and out-of-world recipes, including multiple recipes for Plomeek soup and commentary on how dried seafood makes anything look Klingon (food-wise) for the cameras. The recipes are not professionally written—they're about the level you'd expect to get from your grandma's recipe file—which somehow makes the whole thing very charming. They are all for very basic foods in what I would call an extremely standard American style; I'm not likely to cook them but they're definitely what I grew up on. I'm actually tickled pink by the whole thing.

How do you ruin a book with a name like that? Wrap a textbook in it.

It might not actually be a bad book if one is looking for an anthropological view of superstition and paranormal belief and their effect on the American political system, but I was just looking for some fun and slightly spooky stories about haunting in America. You know, what it says on the tin.

Ah well, another one off the TBR; progress is progress.

There are some real gems in this book, particularly the recipes provided by the cast and crew (Robert Picardo's penne with asparagus is a regular meal for me now). However, equally, some of the selections are a dubious and the cooking instructions could've done with a bit more editorial care in places. Be warned: the chili pepper ratamba stew is a high-grade lachrymatory agent. Satisfyingly rounded out by background on how the prop cuisine was actually created for the show.

A unique artefact for the curious Trek fan.

UFO's usually generate a definitive response in a person with a "no way that's crazy" attitude on one side of the coin and a "yes I believe/yes, why not" attitude on the other. As you may have guessed I'm definitely a believer in UFOs even though I have never seen one myself. Part of the reason is that, in general terms, there's far more evidence for them than any of the gods worshiped by major, and not so major, religions around the world. There's photos, movies and eyewitness accounts from people of all stratas in life including a famous report filed by former American President Jimmy Carter. Military jets have chased and fired at them, commercial airline pilots have had near collisions with them, radars across the world have recorded them and yet some people still don't believe in UFOs. Whether you believe or not I would recommend 'Unsolved UFO Mysteries' as it's not to deep or complicated and sets out the facts of ten major UFO cases/subjects, each with its own chapter, with information on the investigations and what facts and evidence were uncovered. The narrative is strong and well formatted, and I would expect nothing less of veteran UFO researcher William J Birnes (better known as Bill Birnes from the History Channel show UFO Hunters) as he really knows the subject inside and out.
Even though each chapter deals with a certain UFO case/subject, such as the infamous Phoenix Lights for instance, the ones chosen are varied enough not to become repetitive and I'm very thankful that the most famous UFO case of all, the UFO crash at Roswell in 1947, isn't included in this book as even ten years removed from being submerged in this culture I'm still all "Roswelled out"! What is included are a few cases that could very well be hoaxes...'The Screaming Alien' whose sole witness was featured on SyFy's 'Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files' in the first series where he failed a voice stress analysis test and was presumed to be lying about his encounter and also 'The Gulf Breeze Mystery' which, even to a seasoned UFO reader such as myself, seems very far fetched. However, both these cases make fascinating reading and will no doubt give you chills and the evidence for these cases are presented "as is" with no definitive side chosen (fact or fiction) by the authors.
What we have then is a book about several different UFO cases written from the perspective of two obvious UFO believers but they do take into account any major counter arguments put forward by investigators who didn't reach the same conclusions as they did. It's a very eye opening read and I read all 290 pages in one sitting such was my fascination with the subject matter. The only negative aspect of the book is that the authors often speak of photos taken of the UFOs, evidence left behind, alien implants etc but no photos are included in the book. Had they included the photos, many of which are easily found online for the major cases investigated, I would have given this a slightly higher rating. As it is I still thoroughly enjoyed submerging myself back into the UFO realm for a few hours and I look forward to expanding into more deeper UFO reading in the near future. If you're already a reader of UFO literature then this book would serve more as a digest than anything substantial. For the rest of us, believers or not, it makes for some entertaining, and sometimes disturbing, reading.

The title of this one can easily throw off a potential reader, which is a little irritating. There is nothing about hauntings in this book, as the title implies. Instead, the authors follow the history of spiritualism - psychics, mediums, etc. - throughout American history. We learn about the popular spiritualists of the day, their seances, etc. We also learn about a few popular politicians, such as Abraham Lincoln, who used mediums to help them make decisions.

The writing was easy to follow, though, for me, a little too rambling at times. The one huge problem I have with it is that the authors never once so much as mentioned Edgar Cayce. I don't know how anyone can write a book that supposedly encompasses spiritualism, yet not once bring up Edgar Cayce's name.

However, I did enjoy the chapter on women's role in spiritualism and its importance for the women's movement. The authors offered a unique perspective I have not seen in any other books.

Libro sconvolgente in 10 capitoli. Dopo il primo introduttivo, vengono poi descritti uno a uno i più efferati (e pazzi) signature killers (Jeffrey Damer, solo per citare il più recente) con il loro modus operandi e la loro firma. Si tratta di capitoli sconvolgenti. L'ultimo capitolo abbozza un'analisi interessantissima sui motivi che creano nella società moderna americana questi mostri, con osservazioni applicabili anche all'europa attuale (mancanza della famiglia e televisione in primis). Se siete donne da leggere di fianco al proprio partner!½

The Chicken a'la Sisko is to die for - and as a bonus, can be made in the crock pot.½

A fun book. The recipes are ok, the real clincher for me was the assortment of intervies with the set designers on how they achieved the food shown on the show. Much of it is not replicatable for a party setting, as it was done with uncooked shellfish.