Explores the causes in the wake of notorious screw-ups: the Boston molasses spill (a five-story tank rupture killed 21 people), Tacoma’s “Galloping Gertie” bridge collapse, the Challenger, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, the Ford Pinto, the MGM Grand fire, etc. “Reveals the reasons behind 35 astounding technical failures that made headlines and history. Each event is recalled in riveting detail, with full discussion of the causes, casualties, legal ramifications and corrective actions taken. Relive the horror and the lessons learned.” GR

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 275 pages
Illustrated

Exploring 250 dream-related topics in alphabetical order (the A’s start with Abraham, the B’s with Bed-Wetting, the C’s with Joseph Campbell), this heavily illustrated tome skates across the globe and the centuries. It provides snatches of information about an improbably diverse range of subjects from the spheres of art, ethnography, history, literature, science, philosophy and religion, providing bibliographical notes after each entry for further study. MH

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 416 pages
Illustrated

This reference guide covers not only the familiar unexplained phenomena such as the Yeti, the Bermuda Triangle, Area 51 and the Loch Ness Monster, but also such lesserknown enigmas as bloody rain, the Chinese Wildman, and Thunderbirds. This book brings back fond memories of, and nostalgia for, the von Daniken years of the early ’70s which were rife with such volumes. Unlike those books, Clark’s provides many firsthand accounts which give a fresh look at unexplained phenomena. He carefully annotates and footnotes his sources on nearly every page and includes such revered sources as Fate magazine and UFO Quarterly. Many scholarly references are sited in his documentation of cryptozoölogy. Often the mundane solution he offers to certain mysteries takes the edge off the glamor. For example, the phenomenon of bloody rain is casually dismissed as buzzard vomit descending upon unwary pedestrians. Clark ties together his variety of sources without being preachy, proselytizing, patronizing or paranoid. MM

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 443 pages
Illustrated

Hoaxes have been perpetrated in every field of human endeavor. This volume chronicles dozens of amusing examples of political pranks, literary lies, supernatural scams, religious ripoffs, historical humbugs, scientific swindles, infamous imposters and more. Consider the 10-foot Cardiff Giant, the fake Fossil Man “discovered” in 1869. P.T. Barnum was so incensed at the money-making hoax, he had a copy of it made—and charged people to see it! Or the Vinland Map, purportedly drawn by the Vikings in America centuries before Columbus, which later tests showed couldn’t have been drawn before 1917. Or the fake Vermeer, Christ and the Disciples at Emmaeus (actually forged by Hans van Meeregen in 1937), which was brought into question when the face of Christ was discovered to resemble a photograph of—Greta Garbo! GR

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 244 pages
Illustrated

“Uncover the stories behind recent headlines for 26 highly sensational, highly publicized celebrity trials and court battles, including those of O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss, the Menendez brothers, John and Lorena Bobbitt, the Woody Allen/Mia Farrow custody case, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson’s settlement, the Harding/Kerrigan conflict, and William Kennedy Smith. Profiles set the scene, identify the principals, report the verdict and analyze the decision.”

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 210 pages
Illustrated