Folk Horror to Folk Gothic

Dawn Keetley, Folk Gothic (Elements in the Gothic) Cambridge University Press (1 February 2024)

Folk Gothic begins with the assertion that a significant part of what has been categorised as folk horror is more accurately and usefully labelled as Folk Gothic. Through the modifier 'folk', Folk Gothic obviously shares with folk horror its deployment (and frequent fabrication) of diegetic folklore. 

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The Known Unknowns

Robert Powell. UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don’t Know).‎ Rowman & Littlefield (2 April 2024)

Robert Powell, a founding Board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, has studied the UFO subject for 17 years. His work is encapsulated in UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don't Know) which provides a scientific rationale for the reality of non-terrestrial craft that are intelligently controlled. 

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Mystical Histories

Richard H. Jones. A History of Mysticism. ‎State University of New York Press (1 April 2024)

This book offers a historical overview of mysticism in the world's major religious traditions. Beginning with a chapter on the nature of mystical experiences, A History of Mysticism then turns to a discussion of mysticism's prehistory in shamanism and the early use of psychedelics. 

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Psychic Pscandal

Gerald O'Hara. Spiritualisms' Scandal: Mediumship in America. Independently Published (5 March 2024)

The summer of 1960 saw the Spiritualist world rocked by scandal, arguably the greatest to hit the movement. This author calls the scandal "Rifflegate." The editor of the Psychic Observer, America's leading psychic newspaper, and a paranormal investigator filmed six blatantly fraudulent séances in infrared. 

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Magical Mystery Tours

Roly Smith. Short Walks to Curious Places: Exploring 50 of Britain's Ancient Sites, Myths and Legends. Conway. (28 Mar. 2024)

Embark on an extraordinary journey through the British countryside, leading to mysterious sites, ancient wonders and legendary landscapes to uncover 50 of the most intriguing walks in Britain. 

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Nowt So Weird as Space

Harry Cliff. Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe. Picador. (28 March)

Experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff offers an eye-opening account of the newly discovered strangenesses of the universe that could transform our understanding of the fundamentals of physics and of reality. 

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Fairyland, Our Fairyland

Morgan Daimler. Fairy: The Otherworld by Many Names. Moon Books (29 March 2024)

The world of Fairy has intrigued humanity across folklore and literature for as long as we have written records and into the modern period. 

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The Matter of Britain

Oliver Smith, On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain. Bloomsbury Continuum (28 March 2024)

Almost 500 years ago, pilgrimage was outlawed in England. In this book acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith travels across Britain to create an entirely modern pilgrimage - finding the holy places across the country that time has left behind. 

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Dragonlore

Robert M. Sarwark. The Dragon in World Mythology and Culture. McFarland. (29 March 2024)

Dragons are everywhere, seemingly hidden in plain sight. These mythological reptilian monsters date far into known human history in nearly every part of the world and are still prevalent in today's media and entertainment. 

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Drowned Out

Gareth E. Rees. Sunken Lands: A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds. Elliot & Thompson. (March 21, 2024)

From Stone Age lands that slipped beneath the English Channel to the rapid inundation of New Orleans, Gareth E. Rees explores stories of flooded places from the past – and those disappearing before our eyes.
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Cult Life

Jamie King. Cults: Coercion and Control: The World's Most Notorious Cults (And the People Who Escaped Them).‎ Summersdale (14 March 2024)

Belief system or brainwashing? Captivated or captive? Community or cult? Uncover stories of the world's most infamous cults in this true crime compendium...
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Coprophobia

Chris French and Richard Wiseman. The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure the Paranormal. MIT Press (19 March. 2024)

Ghostly encounters, alien abduction, reincarnation, talking to the dead, UFO sightings, inexplicable coincidences, out-of-body and near-death experiences. Are these legitimate phenomena? If not, then how should we go about understanding them? 

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Frights from the Garden of England

Robert Bard. Paranormal Kent.  Amberley Publishing (15 March 2024)

In this book Robert Bard takes readers on a spine-tingling journey around Kent to some of its most haunted locations. He discovers tales of ghostly apparitions, unexplained events and paranormal phenomena. 

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Space Between Space

Anthony De La Vara. The Space Between the Space: Forensic Image Analysis of Energy and Non-World Dimensional Beings.‎ Palmetto Publishing (5 March 2024)

Anthony De La Vara, with 16 years of his professional career spent in the field of STEM, specifically Software & System Engineering, and the last 10 years in Engineering Project Management, meticulously outlines, defines, and validates much of what a Channel or Medium encounter with their clients in terms of frequencies channelled such as spirits, ancestors etc. 

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Words from Beyond

Gavin Steingo. Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity. University of Chicago Press (1 March 2024)

In Interspecies Communication, music scholar Gavin Steingo examines significant cases of attempted communication beyond the human―cases in which the dualistic relationship of human to non-human is dramatically challenged. 

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Seeking Information

Courtney Block. Researching the Paranormal: How to Find Reliable Information about Parapsychology, Ghosts, Astrology, Cryptozoology, Near-Death Experiences, and More. ‎Rowman and Littlefield (15 March 2024, Paperback Edition)

The paranormal has long been a hotly contested topic, especially in academia. Most people are entertained by the paranormal or casually read a few books they come across on the topic, perhaps assuming that these topics are nothing more than campfire fodder. 

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Life on Mars

Robert Zubrin. The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet. Diversion Books (7 March 2024)

Robert Zubrin, world-renowned space authority and founding president of the Mars Society, taps today’s newest science and most dogged research to foretell in astounding detail the brave, new Martian civilization we will achieve when (not if!) humankind colonizes Mars.

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Hate Mail

Chris Ferrie, Wade David Fairclough & Byrne LaGinestra.

42 Reasons to Hate the Universe: (And One Reason Not To) Sourcebooks. (6 February 2024)

If you've always suspected the universe was out to get you... you were right! Yes, the universe we live in is cosmically beautiful and mysterious and all that crap. But it's also a bit of an asshole. After all, remember that you are just a group of atoms structured in a specific way for barely long enough to try to understand this thing we call existence. 

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Hunting the Griffin Through History

A. L. McClanan. Griffinology: The Griffin's Place in Myth, History and Art. Reaktion Books (1 March 2024)

Griffinology is a fascinating exploration of the mythical creature’s many depictions in human culture. Drawing on a wealth of historical and literary sources, this book shows how the griffin has captured the imagination of people for over 5,000 years, representing power, transcendence and even divinity. 

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Asgard to Valhalla

Heather O'Donoghue. From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths. ‎ Bloomsbury Academic. (22 February. 2024)

From Asgard to Valhalla takes readers deep inside Odin’s cavernous hall and tells of the adventures, tragedies and lessons of the Viking Gods. Here, Heather O’Donoghue skillfully uncovers both the history and legacy of these myths to provide the authoritative student text on Old Norse mythology.
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Selling Space

Mary-Jane Rubenstein. Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. University of Chicago Press. (February 2024)

As environmental, political, and public health crises multiply on Earth, we are also at the dawn of a new space race in which governments team up with celebrity billionaires to exploit the cosmos for human gain. 

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Nordic Folklore Today

Thomas A Dubois. Folklore in the Nordic World. University of Wisconsin Press (29 February 2024)

In seven concise chapters that document both the history of Nordic folkloristics and the ongoing vivacity of Nordic folklore today, Thomas A. DuBois demonstrates how the informal, traditional elements of a culture or subculture are an integral and vibrant part of the Nordic world. 

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East Side Stories

Marie Carter. Mortimer and the Witches: A History of Nineteenth-Century Fortune Tellers. Empire State Editions. (5 March 2024)

Under the pseudonym Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B., Mortimer Thomson went undercover to investigate and report on the fortune tellers of New York City’s tenements and slums. When his articles were published in book form in 1858, they catalyzed a series of arrests that both scandalized and delighted the public. 

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Among the Hutsuls

Anthony Amato. The Stark Carpathians: Ritual, Text, and Authority Among Ukraine’s Hutsuls.‎ Lexington Books. (15 February 2024)

The Stark Carpathians: Ritual, Text, and Authority Among Ukraine's Hutsuls addresses rituals and texts in a small mountainous area located in today's Ukraine. The residents of this remote region are known as the Hutsuls. This book argues that Hutsul rituals and texts, cast as ancient and extraordinary, had more mundane roots.
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Curses!

Laura Salah Nasrallah. Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses: Magic, Aesthetics, and Justice ‎ Cambridge University Press (31 January 2024)

Ancient Christians and their non-Christian contemporaries lived in a world of 'magic.' Sometimes, they used curses as ritual objects to seek justice from gods and other beings; sometimes, they argued against them. 

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