Warren Smith (2) (1931–2003)

Too bad I didn’t read this in October. This book seems hastily (and cheaply) compiled, a “true stories of the supernatural” type book I used to have dozens of purchased at the school book fair when I was a kid, ala Daniel Cohen, though I think he was a better writer. The stories here are somewhat “storified,” turned into a format akin to tall tales. I did enjoy the tongue-in-cheek cheesiness of this book, but most of these stories were already familiar to me. The one- or two-page show more stories within are the typical tales of prophetic dreams, ghost stories, psychical phenomena, and strange historical facts. The last quips about “even our best scientists cannot explain” just cracked me up, especially now, since some of the phenomena in these stories can be explained scientifically as well, just being plain old grifts.
The stories I enjoyed the most in this book are: The Women Who Exchanged Bodies (man this story does not elaborate how screwed up it really is for the modern woman’s mind being thrown back permanently to the middle ages), Biting Fangs of the Invisible Monster (I think this one was illustrated in a Twilight Zone comic book I had as a kid), Woman with the Seeing Eye Tongue (hee-hee, I just like the title), The Ape Woman of Patang (its just so cheesy but also low-key racist), Ghostly Lady of the Lake (a classic ghost story with a gruesome apparition), The Witch with the Wicked Eye, The Physician’s Unusual Visitor (a classic savior from beyond the grave ghost story), The Strange Birth of Robert E. Lee (a buried alive story – but seriously screw that traitor), Washington’s Grieving Girl Ghost (a classic screaming phantom ghost story), The Woman Who Drove into the Past (frankly, this is also a ghost story of sorts), Her Corpse was Never Buried (the tale is just gruesome – but not elaborated on at all), The Prophetic Letter (man, this is a classic flash fiction tale of the uncanny), Vision of the Horrible Hag (it was and weird creepy), Ghost Curse on the Kennedy Clan (classic ghost story but the lack of explanation almost ruins it), Green Ghost of the Queen Mother’s Castle (classic castle ghost story), Deadly Love Spell of the Secret Statue (just weird and almost Lovecraftian), The Empress with the Smell of Death (just a good almost spooky tale), Occult Tombstones and Eerier Epitaphs (I love this kind of stuff; it also reminds me of Stories on Stone by Charles L. Wallis which I have only pecked at at this point), Did She Disappear into Another World? (actually a little frightening), The Modern Vampire Who Drank Women’s Blood (I’m just a sucker for “true” and true-crime vampire tales – to a point), Wedding of the Witches (it’s just bizarre), The Woman with the Flaming Breasts (I just love the trashy title), Japan’s Cult of Female Vampires (need I say more?), and Books from Beyond the Grave (it’s not good but I love the idea, very Lovecraftian).
My least favorite stories are: They Walked into Another Century (this is the one where a pair of English school teachers think they walked into the past at the palace at Versailles, it's not particularly well told here), India’s Seven Year Old Mother (um, I don’t think the supernatural is to blame here – Yikes!), The Headless Women of London Tower (a too-short survey of the ghosts of Henry the VIII’s executed wives), The Reincarnated Spirits of Atlantis (it concerns Mme. Blavatsky, so nuff said), The Killer Poltergeist (it’s the Bell Witch, but too briefly told), and Was the Girl from Another Dimension? (it’s just a version of the Green Children of Woolpit legend).
Would I recommend this one? Not really, unless you're really in the mood for some aged cheese. Remember, this thing was published in 1968, so some low-key racism and sexism run through the book, but never in any great quantity. There are better versions of almost all these stories elsewhere. I was surprised there weren’t any UFO stories here, though (I had a small collection of those types of books as a kid as well). show less

More 70s "fringe" madness, which I loved and believed at the time. I do understand Agent Mulder of the X-Files heart-felt cry of "I want to believe," but the theories in this book are far more hollow than the Earth. Great fun, though, if taken with a pinch of salt.

A ripe piece of insanity straight from the top of the 1970s-80s occult speculation heap. Various theories about how our planet is hollow are thrown out with little attempt made at consistency. The prose is occasionally breathless an manic and the book is sort of brilliant in a way with the author's strange catch-all attitude to conspiracies and crackpot ideas. Crazy but intensely imaginative.

This book is filled with various true accounts of personal brushes with the unexplained: incidents of parapsychology; the paranormal, unexplained disappearances at sea, anomalies of medicine and the occult. While I certainly enjoyed reading most of these stories, I must say that this book wasn't entirely riveting to me. I found that the stories, while interesting, just weren't as detailed as I would have preferred. I give this book a B+!