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
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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