A snappy UFO memoir-tapestry from a music journalist-turned-publicist.
A nonfiction account of an unruly, largely civilian-based group of investigators, activists, and misfits who pushed for government disclosure of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences visiting Earth.
In this book’s early sections, public relations specialist Keller describes his background as a journalist covering the Minneapolis music scene (and yes, Prince does make a cameo). In the early 1990s, he decided to change lanes and try to sell a magazine article about advocates urging government officials to reveal “the Truth” about UFOs—one that had been kept hidden ever since the alleged crash of alien craft in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The effort consumed Keller, who came to believe that he witnessed an alien presence as a boy; he was in a park with a friend and saw a red “cherry bomb”–like sphere, which he later interpreted to have been some kind of diagnostic tool. Keller immersed himself in the UFO–enthusiast underground, connecting with the charismatic Dr. Steven Greer of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence—an organization that believed humans could productively communicate with enigmatic, basically benevolent alien visitors using meditation, lights, and sound. Although Keller’s future wife feared that he might be joining a cult, the writer started working for CSETI in a public relations capacity, which brought him into the orbit of Washington, D.C., insiders, astronauts, shamans, and many other figures. Along the way, mainstream media started taking UFO–sighting claims—and secret government/military involvement in them—seriously, perhaps initially inspired by the popularity of the Fox TV show The X-Files.
In these pages, Keller clearly expresses his anger with both UFO skeptics and overboard conspiracy theorists, noting that many people in the ufology field seem to suspect everyone else of being CIA spies. He also reveals how conferencegoers endlessly promise “disclosure”—someone in the government admitting to the reality of space aliens—but never follow through with providing it. Overall, this enjoyable account free-associates through its colorful narrative in a manner that may, for some readers, call to mind the style of fellow Minnesotan Garrison Keillor (who also makes a cameo in these pages). At the same time, Keller’s narrative voice is effectively reminiscent of the style of the late Hunter S. Thompson—particularly his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), as both books center on smart, savvy individuals grappling intellectually with extraordinary, otherworldly stuff that they just can’t shrug off. Keller’s story is loosely framed by fondly expressed flashbacks of a college Space Pen Club, a jejune campus group known for Dadaist stunts and named for a popular writing gadget. He particularly details his dissatisfaction with mainstream media, especially CBS News, which he asserts is either inept or colluding in UFO coverups; however, he does give props to a 1990s Fox show called Sightings. Early on, Keller also reveals that he initially shunned another key UFO pop-culture touchstone—Whitley Strieber’s popular alien-abduction memoir, Communion (1987)—because he didn’t like the movie version.
A snappy UFO memoir-tapestry from a music journalist-turned-publicist.Pub Date: June 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950743-55-1
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Calumet Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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