The Unexplained by Karl P.N. Shuker

I've had this book for a while but, although I'd dipped into it to browse a bit, I hadn't actually read it until this weekend. This is the 2009 edition of a book first published in 1996; I should say first of all that the cover almost immediately popped off the book. The book itself is fine; it's just that the glue securing the cover to the spine isn't sticky enough to keep it in place.

Anyway, the book is a sort of encyclopedia of the strange, set out by area of the world. It starts with Great Britain and Ireland and ends with Australasia and Oceania, covering pretty much the entire world in between. As with Shuker's other books, the entries are well-researched and well-written, although they're short. I'd have liked more in-depth treatment, but that's not what this book is about. It's just an overview.

But it's a much better overview than most books of this sort. Instead of repeating the same old 'solutions' to mysteries, Shuker presents evidence instead of declaring things just generally spooky or laying everything at the feet of extraterrestrials. It's a lot of fun to read, either straight through or just to browse, cover or no.

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Extraordinary Animals Revisited by Karl P.N. Shuker

I tried hard to read this one slowly, savoring it. I do love this guy's books. Extraordinary Animals Revisited is an updated edition of Dr. Shuker's 1991 book Extraordinary Animals Worldwide. Shuker is a zoologist with a strong interest in cryptozoology--the study of animals that may or may not actually exist, or which are poorly understood, thought to be extinct, or which show up in places far from their known habitats, etc. It's a fascinating field and Shuker ranges widely, discussing the legends surrounding the deathshead hawk moth in one chapter, exploring the possible real-life birds that were inspiration for the phoenix myth, covering the types of unknown canids reported all over the world, and examining extinct birds that might not necessarily be extinct after all.

It's endlessly fascinating, full of details and anecdotes. I eat this stuff up. I didn't realize that some people might find it a little bit dry in spots until I was reading aloud to Jackie (she was a captive audience since she was using my computer for something) from the chapter about unusual mice and rats.

I don't find it dry at all. If you can't keep track of Latin names of animals, you can just mentally bleep over them. Don't worry, none of this will be on the final.

I appreciate that Shuker doesn't focus on the old crytozoological standbys, like the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti. Like his other books (this is the third of his that I've read), he digs a little deeper than most writers to find the overlooked and obscure. The book has an extensive bibliography and recommended reading section as well as an index. Oh, and there's even a chapter on hoaxes.

If you're interested in animals and the mysteries of the natural world, but you're sick of poorly researched articles on Bigfoot, you really need to read Shuker's books.

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Dr Shuker's Casebook by Karl P.N. Shuker

I hadn't really intended to review any nonfiction books on Skunk Cat, but I just finished Dr Shuker's Casebook and loved it so much I just have to share.

Karl P.N. Shuker is a zoologist whose interest in undiscovered, misplaced, mythical, and unusual animals led him to a career as a cryptozoologist. I own another of his books, The Search for the Last Undiscovered Animals (originally published as The Beasts that Hide from Man), and love it too, so I was thrilled when my mother bought me Dr Shuker's Casebook for Christmas.

In this book, Shuker ranges away from his usual cryptozoological topics, although he does talk about mysterious animals and monsters too. The book is partly made up of updated and expanded articles he's had published in various journals, and is partly new writing. It's pretty clear that anything Shuker found interesting made its way into the text: flying men, merfolk, UFOs and USOs, rains of fish and frogs, ghosts, and all sorts of other topics. It makes for fascinating reading.

What I love most about Shuker's writing is the way he presents possible solutions to mysteries. He doesn't have an axe to grind; he's certainly not a crank. He approaches the data as a scientist first and as an interested person second, which means he looks first for logical explanations and then suggests more fanciful theories--but he doesn't usually endorse any particular solution. He lets the reader draw conclusions. It's nice that he assumes his readers are as intelligent and thoughtful as he seems to be.

I love also that he writes about lesser-known topics. I love well-written, well-researched books about mysterious phenomena, but a lot of the mysteries Shuker writes about are either new to me or ones I've seldom read about.

Shuker's writing reminds me a lot of Willy Ley's cryptozoological essays from the mid-20th century, which is why I've shelved Shuker next to Ley in my library. I never thought I'd find anyone who could capture my imagination and intellect the way Ley does. Thank goodness Shuker has written a lot of books. I'm going to have to collect them all.

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