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    An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

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Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, July 2017





Native American Mounds In Alabama:
An Illustrated Guide to Public Sites
by Dr. Gregory L. Little

Archetype Books
P.O. Box 9025
Memphis, TN 38190
2017, 65 pages, 8 ½” x 11” Paperback, US $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-9655392-8-9

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Alabama has a tremendously rich Native American history. In fact, contrary to what one normally reads ancient archaeological sites in Alabama, its Indian Mounds and earthworks, have in recent years been discovered by the hundreds – making it tough on archaeologists at present to keep up with it all – with thousands more sites believed to still be out there and yet to be discovered – particulary in remote mountaineous areas around Talledega and the Choccolocco Mountains.

This beautifully illustrated and pictorial guidebook will introduce you to this incredible and ancient historical realm. You will learn about 23 Alabama site locations with Indian Mounds and earthworks, some dating back as far as 5,000 years, with modern museums at some of these locations that help to orient visitors to their respective sites, with authentic Native American artifacts and educational displays of different kinds, including audio and video presentations, and helpful staff who are standing by to assist and to answer your questions.

Greg Little, and his wife Lora, have been crisscrossing the North American continent since about 1982 visiting hundreds of sites, collecting vast volumes of information on this subject and taking thousands of photographs. Greg is the author of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016 & 2009) and Path of Souls (2014). Few are better qualified and more competent to act as your guide to the rich history, the beauty and majesty of such locations that have sadly, for far too many, become mere musty, dusty and forgotten historical pages displaced in time. Greg brings the past alive, gives us a genuine depth, breadth and deeply meaningful background to it, revealing thought-provoking insights into the ancient Native Americans of Alabama, details about them, touching upon their lifestyles, and their most sacred customs, rituals, and spiritual beliefs in an afterlife.


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Bigfoot In Kentucky
[Revised and Expanded 2nd Ed.]
by Barton M. Nunnelly

Triangulum Publishing
2011, 2017, 255 pages, Paperback, US $16.95
ISBN: 978-1545112427

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Kentucky's Barton M. Nunnelly is an outdoorsman who not only claims to have researched and investigated eyewitness accounts of the legendary and controversial Bigfoot from one end of Kentucky to the other, but describes himself as a serious Cryptid researcher and investigator who claims to have had his own face-to-face encounters with Bigfoot, a water monster, black panthers, and the legendary Thunderbird. A self-taught writer and illustrator, who illustrates many of the accounts of eyewitnesses he has interviewed and whose accounts are detailed in this book (and an excellent illustrator he is), Mr. Nunnelly has assembled a most impressive collection of cryptozoological data from the Bluegrass State.

Nunnelly also describes newspaper accounts going back to the 1800s that described “giant” skeletal remains, in one instance discovered in a cave and in another instance in an Indian Mound. Early settlers in Allen County had named an area with a number of caves “Monkey Cave Hollow,” because they claimed that there was a race of “monkeys” that lived in caves there, which they claimed to have hunted to extinction over 100 years ago. However, Nunnelly interviewed a witness who described how he and others in a car one night in 1990 got a real close look at a tall creature who looked like a cross between an orangutan and a Neanderthal. He wondered, could some of these early reports of giant skeletal remains and the creatures of “Monkey Cave Hollow” and other locations all across this state have been what today we refer to as Bigfoot?

There are so many detailed accounts in this book, that it's both fascinating and mind-boggling at the same time.


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UFOs Over Florida:
Humanoid and Other Strange Encounters
in the Sunshine State
by Albert S. Rosales

Triangulum Publishing
2017, 257 pages, Paperback, US $16.95
ISBN: 978-1545451687

Reviewed by Brent Raynes

Hundreds of extraordinary UFO accounts can be researched and investigated in the Sunshine State of Florida, and that's exactly what Florida-based author Albert S. Rosales has done here. Listing his cases in chronological order, Rosales begins in Apalachicola, way back in 1818, when several residents of that community reported a 5 foot tall “baboon.” While some may not wish to mix their Greys, Nordics, and other more common UFO-related alien visitor descriptions with Bigfoot-type stories, the jury is still out on this one, and as you'll read in this book UFO “window” locations like Brooksville had their fair share of both UFO and Bigfoot cases, and over the years a number of respected and prominent ufologists like Stan Gordon, John Keel, and Don Worley speculated on a connection.

Being a fairly seasoned student of ufology myself, I recognized a number of the old classics like Brooksville's contactee John Reeves (who I personally met in 1973), the harrowing James Flynn Everglades encounter, the Norman Chastain (met him too) Blount Island incident, and a few more. But I was pleased and delighted to read of many (the vast majority really) that I was not familiar with. I was intrigued to read of a number of fascinating 1950s contactee type accounts.

Florida has had it all when it comes to UFO encounters and Mr. Rosales has done an excellent job of documenting and assembling in this book so many of these thought-provoking accounts for us to read and ponder.


Monday, December 09, 2024