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Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America | 
 enlarge | Author: Jerome Clark
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Category: Book
List Price: $85.00
Buy New: $59.99
You Save: $25.01 (29%)
New (9) Used (6) from $52.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 417382
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 369
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 1576074307
Dewey Decimal Number: 001.94097309034
EAN: 9781576074305
ASIN: 1576074307
Publication Date: June 21, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Organized geographically, Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America explores the history of bizarre natural phenomena in all 50 states. Showers of insects, pillars of fire. Cattle mutilations. Hollywood horror films have nothing on the bizarre, freaky, and downright odd phenomena of nature chronicled in Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America. Warning: this encyclopedia causes goosebumps, spine shivers, and cold sweats. Can the sky quake? Can sand play music? Have UFOs been sighted in your town? Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Mysterles of North America crosses the centuries and travels America to chronicle the strangest natural phenomena, the most bizarre scientific findings, and events from history that defy rational explanation. Conveniently organized by region, state, and locality, this one-volume, illustrated encyclopedia maps a landscape straight out of The Twilight Zone. From apparitions in the sky to inhuman skeletons from the earthand everything in betweenstrange phenomena expert Jerome Clark, author of ABC-CLIO's Extraordinary Encounters: An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings, sifts through the legends, the hoaxes, and the science. Authoritatively researched, coolly considered, the entries in Unnatural Phenomena will expand the most skeptical reader's sense of the possible. The truth is out there...the evidence is in here.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Sure to be a classic May 25, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Clark and ABC-CLIO have rendered a priceless service to Fortean readers and researchers alike with this collection of 645 entries spanning the years from 1729 to 1935. The vast majority are verbatim quotations of newspaper stories commonly cited only in footnotes by other authors (or with excerpts taken out of context, frequently misquoted). Every library should own a copy of this book, and no serious researcher or would-be writer on Fortean subjects will begrudge its cost.
Eyewitness accounts defy rational explanation April 12, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
North America has seen some of the strangest natural phenomena in the world: some accounts yet to be proven and possibly fantasy; others well researched, documented science. UNNATURAL PHENOMENA: A GUIDE TO THE BIZARRE WONDERS OF NORTH AMERICA is a compendium of the former of these eyewitness accounts, gathering findings and events from the last 200 years that keep defying rational explanations, from strange lights and sky battles to sea monsters and huge flying starfish ghosts. Each documented sighting includes a description and a dated source reference. This could've been reviewed under 'New Age' but many a science student will find it fascinating, and not to be missed.
A great book January 28, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful reference book full of material that will inform much future research.
Such books are made for libraries, most often, and have high prices due to the time it takes to comply them, their length, the amount of time to edit and produce them, and more. A criticism of the price from someone that borrowed one from a friend seems immature to the extreme and should be removed from consideration as a valid critique.
Buy it if you have the money. But please, don't whine if you don't.
false claims about my book and me January 28, 2006
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
As the author/editor of Unnatural Phenomena, I apologize for the immodest five stars. Unfortunately, Amazon won't accept a submission without a rating, and what the hell, I am fond of the book. It is among my own favorites of the ones I have written. This is not being written, however, to praise my own efforts but to correct some serious misinformation in T. Christopher Smith's review.
First of all, the book is not self-published. As Smith could easily have determined, ABC-CLIO is a successful, highly regarded publisher of reference books for libraries and the academic market. I am somewhere between stunned and perplexed by this sentence: "But remember, [Clark] is the one setting the price tag, not the retailer." Where in the world could Smith have gotten this impression? The retailer had everything to do with setting the price, and the author precisely nothing. Then Smith follows a baseless claim with a malicious charge, based apparently in mind reading with faulty reception, that "money now seems to be [the author's] only motivation." What did I do to deserve this?
As Smith would have learned with even the most minimal research, reference books are very expensive. I wish they weren't, but I have no say in the matter. If I had had some say in the matter, I would have liked Unnatural Phenomena to be a trade paperback, selling in the $15-17 range, so that just about everybody who wanted to read it could afford it.
I'm glad that you liked the book, Mr. Smith, but next time you feel the compulsion to throw around nasty charges, you would be better advised to make sure you know what you're talking about.
 Entertaining and very broad range of subjects August 28, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Not really organized like a traditional book this is really a collection of newspaper and magazine articles from the early 1800's through the mid-1900's. The original articles are repeated verbatim complete with comments, misspellings, and colloquial word usage. I found this to be one of the endearing qualities of the book. The author takes a very broad look at unnatural phenomena and includes everything from strange things falling from the sky, to strange apparitions, animals, visions, and just about anything else you can think of that has been reported over the last two hundred years. While it is interesting reading it is not a book that I would suggest if you are looking to do a serious study of strange phenomena. On the other hand, if you are just looking for some light reading and a collection of incidents as reported by the media you will probably find this an entertaining read. The articles are all arranged by state instead of by type of phenomena so it is easy to look through your state and see what has been reported over the years. Unnatural Phenomena: A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America is a recommended read for anyone interested in this subject or light enough reading for the merely curious.
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