Mysterious America by Loren Coleman

If The Beasts That Hide From Man was the scholar's approach to cryptozoology, then Mysterious America is the fan's approach. This isn't a lurid and sensationalistic presentation of American mysteries. You won't find any chapters ending with "and hanging in the door handle WAS A HOOK!" This is a fortean fan's dream come true: chapters and chapters of anecdotal stories of the weirdest eye witness accounts you have ever read. All while still holding an element of plausibility. Well, somewhat plausible. The reader may chuckle at tales of mysterious swamp lights and think of ancient tales of will-o-whisps, but such dips into the supernatural are short and serve only to prove how some geological areas have collected strange tales over the years.

The meat of this book is in the presentation of evidences for such oddities as Kangaroos in America, devil monkeys, black phantom panthers, striped American lions, napes, and giant catfish, as well as investigations into old favorites such as the Jersey Devil, Kelly's Little Men, the Minnesota Iceman, and Phantom Clowns. The stories cited cover several centuries of various newspaper reportings and journal entries the author, Loren Colemman, has collected.

Sometimes the reading can be dry, especially when Coleman tries to establish a case for the existance of one creature or the other by long strings of eyewitness accounts. However, the reader can forgive Coleman these lapses in narrative because of the nature of the book. These are tales of cryptozoological beasts. There is no evidence for their existance aside from eye witness accounts.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on phantom panthers and maned mystery cats. There is more going on there than the proverbial circus train/zoo escapee explanation can account for. America is a large enough place, and sometimes we need wonders and the unexplained in a jaded world where everything new is old hat by the end of the weekend. Even if one day the truth about cryptids is more mundane than fortean fans would enjoy, a book like xxx makes the waiting and anticipation wondrous. If the book had any faults, it would be the mentioning of popular fortean subjects like men in black and phantom airships without explanation. Another fault would be a dearth of illustrations and photos.

Still, I learned some things from this book I didn't know before about the world of cryptozoology. I never realized that Western Massachusetts was a hotbed for fortean activity. And I never realized that there were so many tales about teleporting animals in modern America. I may not believe all of it, but the book was a fascinating read. I recommend it.

Available in a Hardback Edition and an Electronic Edition

The Beasts That Hide from Man by Karl P.N. Shuker

Dr. Karl P. N. Shuker is a zoologist and an expert in cryptozoology, animal mythology, and wildlife anomalies. That's what the cover bio states and after reading this book I may not be convinced that bioelectric sandworms inhabit Mongolia's deserts, but I am inclined to believe that Dr. Shuker is one of the most impressive cryptozoological authorities that I have read.

Many cryptozoological books focus on anecdotal stories of fanciful and bizarre scope. The story is usually presented in sensationalistic tones which emphasize drama, mystery, and fantastic theory instead of actual facts. For example, although many cryptozoologists believe in a hairy, flesh & blood hominid called "Bigfoot" that lives a secret life mostly in the American Northwest forests, some go a step further and suggest Bigfoot evades detection because he is actually an invisible, paradimensional alien with psychic powers. Whooboy. Theories like that make me a little embarrassed to associate myself with the hairy beastie. "The Beasts That Hide From Man" doesn't delve into that type of narrative. Anecdotal stories are presented here as ofttimes uncorroborated but intriguing tales that serve as case studies which he then analyzes. Once the evidence for the animal has been presented, Dr. Shuker opines whether he feels the animal is a fanciful tale, an extinct animal, or a creature that bears further investigation.

The book often reads like a biology textbook and not an entertaining yarn of mysterious tales, so don't expect light reading. Theories abound, but none involve hidden civilizations under the Atlantic. It is the most academic cryptozoological book I have read since Grover Krantz' Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry Into The Reality of Sasquatch.

I recommend this book. If your exposure to cryptozoology has only been from the X-files, you may be surprised to learn that most cryptozoological animals don't glow in the dark and phase through walls. Many are most likely old and forgotten animals once thought to be extinct but perhaps still hanging on in the few nooks and crannies Man hasn't developed for commerce yet. "The Beasts That Hide From Man" is full of these types of hidden, or cryptozoological, animals. Of note are the sections on crypto-bats, man eating plants, the probable origins of "dragons", and canine enigmas. Enjoy

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Did you discover Diana Wynne Jone's classic Howl's Moving Castle because of the movie release this past summer? Like so many other adaptations, the movie and the book often don't compare, but unlike other adaptations, this movie did a wonderful job representing the spirit and magic of the book. However, as they say, the book is much better.

Jones does an excellent job painting a new world that exists outside our own. The imagery is beautiful. The world is quaint, and i's serenity is in contrast to the war that is brewing around its edges. The mystery behind Howl's power unfolds intriguingly as the story progresses thanks in part to Sophie, the hatmaker's daughter, who is trapped in an old woman's body. I especially enjoyed the character development. Sophie grew believably as a young woman entering adulthood, old body notwithstanding. Overall the story was warm and amusing. I wouldn't mind reading it again.

I do wish the romance in the book had been less sublime. Too much was left for the final pages of the story leaving the romance feeling rather flat and tacked on. In addition, the final conflict with the Witch of the Waste and her fire demon suffered from the same malady that afflicts much high fantasy - the metaphysical events don't translate well into physical words. I usually see this as a flaw of the author since it is the author's responsibility to translate onto paper what the author conceives in her mind. Perhaps it is just me, but I like to understand what is going on while I read instead of having it explained to me later.

Since I saw the movie first, I am bound to draw comparisons. I must admit that the movie depicted the magic much better than the book, and not simply because the movie was animated. Studio Ghibli seemed to take the most magical moments from the book and re-sewed them together like a patchwork quilt. Much was changed, including characters and story events, but Miyazaki and team once again proved they are masters of wonder. The introduction to Howl in the movie was thrilling and delightful in a way that endeared me to the character far quicker than the book was able to. However, if the movie excelled in depicting the wonder of magic, it paled in depicting character development. Miyazaki's characters are wonderfully developed and entertaining, but frozen in time. They don't really change from the beginning of the movie to the end. Jones, however, wrote growth into each character, even Sophie's mum. In fact, I prefer the ending of the book because the characters believably reached the conclusions of their stories. The movie felt a bit rushed - not helped by the fact that many characters were mixed and matched almost as badly as the Witch of the Waste rearranged her victims.

Overall, Howl's Moving Castle is a wonderful book with a warm narrative that will entertain and hold the interest of any lover of fantasy. I highly recommend it.