UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record by Leslie Kean

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s probably accurate to say that most people think of UFOs–Unidentified Flying Objects–as being craft controlled by extraterrestrials. This is to say that few people think of UFOs as being quite literally what the acronym stands for, objects in the air that are unidentified. Since the modern UFO era began in the 1940s the subject has, especially in the U.S., been treated as one not worthy of serious study or investigation. Project Blue Book, the Air Force group tasked with checking out UFO reports, was closed down in 1969 with a summary that essentially said “UFOs lol!!”

UFOs (the book) argues the case for returning to the serious study of UFOs, advocating the U.S. government take a leadership role as the world’s leading technological power. With the current congress stuffed full of climate change deniers, it seems a less likely prospect than when the book was published in 2010, but stranger things have happened. Many are documented in this book.

The book’s chapters switch between the author’s advocacy for serious investigation, with ideas on how such investigation could be organized in the U.S., to first person accounts of UFO sightings from credible witnesses ranging from commercial and military pilots to generals and even a state governor. Throughout, none of the witnesses nor Leslie Kean, the author, assert that UFOs must be alien-controlled craft. Instead, she describes herself as a militant agnostic, refusing to commit to what UFOs are because we simply don’t know yet. She doesn’t deny that extraterrestrial craft may be the likeliest explanation.

On the question of the validity of UFOs as a phenomena, she is much more certain. There are hundreds of well-documented sightings (often by multiple credible witnesses) with physical evidence, radar tracking and photographs that stand up under the scrutiny of modern image analysis. In light of all the evidence, Kean argues that the question isn’t if “UFOs are real” but rather, what are they? She repeatedly comes back to a primary reason for investigating and that is the unknown nature of the UFOs, coupled with their physics-defying properties (ignoring gravity, being able to move instantly and silently at great speed and so on) and the tendency for so many to appear near sensitive sites like military bases and nuclear power plants makes them potential threats.

I wonder how many skeptics will read this book and come away buying into Kean’s arguments. Her case is well-researched, detailed and presented without sensation, but as she admits, the taboos surrounding the subject are strong and have become ingrained over the last half century, especially in government circles, where admitting to the reality of UFOs–whatever they may be–is tantamount to acknowledging that with our current technology, there is little to nothing we can do to control or if need be, defend against them.

If you have any interest in the subject, this is a highly recommended read.

Plus come on, UFOs are neat. And scary.

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Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of King’s thrillers, with no supernatural elements, and because of that it has a decent ending, a plus right from the start…er, finish.

Mr. Mercedes is a book with few surprises. The good guys have their flaws but they’re all nice people. The bad guy is a psycho with loads of issues but not so much that you feel any real sympathy for him, more pity than anything.

The good guys–recently retired police detective Bill Hodges, a teenage boy who helps the Hodges with various chores, and a woman in her mid-40s with mental issues–are sufficiently clever enough to put together the identity of a mass killer that Hodges couldn’t collar before retiring. The villain, the 30ish Brady Hartsfield, is portrayed as a man brilliant with technology but one who also shifts between thinking of everything and being strangely careless and sloppy. In a way the depiction of the protagonists and antagonist reminds me of Stoker’s Dracula, where the heroes easily outmatched the vampire. Here the retired Bill Hodges and helpers make all the right guesses and even when they slip up they recover in time. Brady not so much.

King gets most of the technical details right, though there is some over-explaining, particularly by one character to another. There is the expected noble sacrifice and the brief final scene is a cute callout to Halloween.

The way I’ve described the book probably makes it sound predictable, even boring, yet King’s writing is smooth enough I found myself willing to forgive the flaws. It also helps that I don’t read a lot of thrillers so I’m likely easier to please in that regard.

Thumbs up, then. This is better than King’s sloppiest work but falls short of his best.

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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shirley Jackson has apparently fallen out of favor these days, though many still get exposed to her work in school through the classic short story, “The Lottery.”

A take on the Gothic ghost story, The Haunting of Hill House applies some modern touches by having the characters gather at the house under the pretext of a scientific investigation of the alleged ghostly phenomenon, a nod, perhaps, to Stoker’s use of science to battle Dracula in the self-same novel (I was amused at just how poorly the ol’ vampire managed against the array of instruments and techniques used against him).

Hill House does not surrender so easily and focues its malice on an emotionally vulnerable woman named Eleanor. While the characters are at times a little too busy saying clever and silly things to each other, Jackson still does a nice job of casting the house as a sinister character of its own. This is as much a tale of psychological terror as it is about things that go bump in the night.

Worth reading if you are interested in one of the early modern horror classics.

One warning if you are reading the Penguin Horror edition — Laura Miller has an opening essay that is filled with spoilers. It would probably have been better at the end of the book.

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The Funny Thing Is… by Ellen DeGeneres

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Funny Thing Is… a stand-up routine in book form, but it’s Ellen and not finding at least some of this material funny is the equivalent of hating kittens.

If I ever meet Ellen I expect her to be naked and flossing her teeth.

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Bag of Bones by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is what I’d call a mid-tier King novel, not as good as the classics but better than others. I actually preferred the first third of the novel where it’s mostly about the writer struggling to overcome the sudden death of his wife and the early stages of a child custody case. It’s still a decent read once the spooky shenanigans kick in but becomes less interesting somehow.

There’s also a graphic rape scene that, while vividly depicted, struck me as unnecessary. I think any rational adult understands rape is awful without having the act described in explicit detail.

Still, it had a better ending than Cell. 😛

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