Book picks similar to
Shadows of the Dark by John Zaffis


paranormal
non-fiction
horror
paranormal-occult

Okinawa Kwaidan, True Japanese Ghost Stories and Hauntings


Ron L. Dutcher - 2013
    The stories vary in time, dating back to the 16th century to the present day, but each story has a way of getting under your skin. You will be thinking about these stories long after you have put the book down.Most of the stories are set in Okinawa, Japan's southern tropical islands, where the bloodiest battles of World War II were fought. As you might imagine, several stories focus on the war, the soldiers who fought and the civilians who endured.Some of the stories included are:The Grim ReaperThe truth behind the train responsible for the most suicides in Japan.The Nago NightwalkerSomething dark is lurking along highway 505.Haunting at Bise.What did Company H of the 6th Marines find on their recon mission in 1945? The Wreck of the Indian OakWhat really came ashore during that 1840 Typhoon?And nine more chilling stories."A very good read." Anne Poe Lehr, late cousin of Edgar Allen Poe

Running to Extremes


Lisa Tamati - 2012
    In Running to Extremes, she attempts to answer that question and many more about ultramarathon running. In the past few years, Lisa has taken part in some of the most gruelling races on earth. Not content with having run the Badwater Ultramarathon once, she's been back and done it a second time. She's also completed the Gobi March and a race in the Egyptian Sahara. However, none of these could have prepared her for her greatest challenge to date: La Ultra, a 222-kilometre non-stop race over two Himalayan mountain passes. Running to Extremes tells the stories behind these races and provides plenty of advice for runners of all levels and distances. Filled with training tips, gear lists, information on nutrition and supplements, advice on mental preparation and, most importantly, a focus on how to keep yourself healthy while training and racing, it will inspire and motivate runners and non-runners alike.

Where's Me Plaid?: A Scottish Roots Odyssey


Scott Crawford - 2013
    Armed with a newfound swagger, the author transforms a much anticipated, romantic holiday with his wife into a decidedly unromantic, though highly romanticized roots tour with comic results. Crammed into their tiny rental car (a Fiat Crumb or some such model), the couple scour the countryside, from castles to trailer parks, looking for something more to commemorate Crawford history than a family crest refrigerator magnet - and ultimately discover something altogether richer: a thriving country with the most beautiful and haunting scenery imaginable, a romantic history full of blood, intrigue and heroism, and some of the friendliest and most fiercely loyal people in the world. Award-winning travel writer Scott Crawford resides in the British Virgin Islands. A professional educator, he has a keen interest in travel and history, which infuse his writings. Where's Me Plaid is his first book.

Unholy Pilgrims: How One Man Thought Walking 800 Kilometres Across Spain Would Sort Out His Life


Tom Trumble - 2011
    So he takes up an offer to go on a seriously long walk – the ancient Christian pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the domain of the devout.Despite his good intentions, Tom's route takes him into every bar along the way while crossing paths with the loopy and the wise, the pious and the distinctly ungodly. He finds himself contending with song-happy evangelists, unlikely scholars and enlightened globetrotters, and randy backpackers out to bed every pilgrim they meet. Not to mention his own very restless demons, some of which lead him to confront troubles he thought he'd left at home.Unholy Pilgrims is an irreverent and engaging take on figuring out what the hell to do with your life.

Family Secrets: The scandalous history of an extraordinary family


Derek Malcolm - 2017
    The secret, though, that surrounded my parents’ unhappy life together, was divulged to me by accident . . .’ Hidden under some papers in his father’s bureau, the sixteen-year-old Derek Malcolm finds a book by the famous criminologist Edgar Lustgarten called The Judges and the Damned. Browsing through the Contents pages Derek reads, ‘Mr Justice McCardie tries Lieutenant Malcolm – page 33.’ But there is no page 33. The whole chapter has been ripped out of the book. Slowly but surely, the shocking truth emerges: that Derek’s father, shot his wife’s lover and was acquitted at a famous trial at the Old Bailey. The trial was unique in British legal history as the first case of a crime passionel, where a guilty man is set free, on the grounds of self-defence. Husband and wife lived together unhappily ever after, raising Derek in their wake. Then, in a dramatic twist, following his father’s death, Derek receives an open postcard from his Aunt Phyllis, informing him that his real father is the Italian Ambassador to London . . . By turns laconic and affectionate, Derek Malcolm has written a richly evocative memoir of a family sinking into hopeless disrepair. Derek Malcolm was chief film critic of the Guardian for thirty years and still writes for the paper. Educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he became first a steeplechase rider and then an actor after leaving university. He worked as a journalist in the sixties, first in Cheltenham and then with the Guardian where he was a features sub-editor and writer, racing correspondent and finally film critic. He directed the London Film Festival for a spell in the 80s and is now President of both the International Film Critics Association and the British Federation of Film Societies. He lives with his wife Sarah Gristwood in London and Kent and has published two books – one on Robert Mitchum and another on his favourite 100 films. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television and a veteran of film festival juries all over the world.

THIS WAS THE REAL LIFE: The Tale of Freddie Mercury


David Evans - 2001
    Freddie's friends lost Freddie. In this biographical volume of memories, Freddie Mercury's life is celebrated, remembered and recounted by a collection of his closest friends, lovers, collaborators and colleagues.

The Psychic Adventures of Derek Acorah: Star of TV’s Most Haunted


Derek Acorah - 2004
    3 bestseller.Derek Acorah is one of the UK's best known psychics with several regular television shows on the Living TV channel: the hugely successful 'Most Haunted' and ‘Celebrity Most Haunted’, and ‘Psychic Live’.In this book he tells amazing tales of his countless psychic experiences, from public performances to personal readings.Includes exclusive details of Derek’s extraordinary communications with some of Britain's more notorious spirits; a phenomenon often witnessed by thousands of television viewers during his investigations into reputedly haunted historical sites for Living TV.

The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology


John Duignan - 2008
    Duignan describes how, two years ago, he staged a dramatic escape from the elite paramilitary group at the core of the Church, the Sea Organization, and how he narrowly evaded pursuit by the Office of Special Affairs. He looks back on the 22 years he served in the Church's secret army and describes the hours of sleep deprivation, brain-washing and intense religious counseling he endured, as he was molded into a soldier of Scientology. He talks about the money-making-machine at the heart of the Church, the Scientology goal to Clear the Planet and Get Ethics In, and the punishments meted out to anyone who transgresses. We follow his journey through the Church and the painful investigation that leads to his eventual realization that there is something very wrong at Scientology's core.--From publisher description.

The Haunting of the Presidents: A Paranormal History of the U.S. Presidency


Joel Martin - 2003
    Kennedy reveal after his death? Why was Hillary Clinton compelled to channel the spirits of past First Ladies? Which presidents admitted in private to having UFO encounters? What's the source of the strange light emanating from the Rose Room? Who-or-what is playing the haunted strains of phantom music in the private halls of the White House? The answers to these and even more tantalizing questions can be found in this unique history of the never-before-revealed phenomenon of the White House. And this isn't hearsay. It's based on declassified, substantiated records dating back to George Washington through the Clinton Administration. FEATURING: € Actual transcripts of channeling sessions and seances € A tour guide to the Presidential Haunted Places € Eyewitness accounts from Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others

Inside Gilligan's Island: A Three-Hour Tour Through The Making Of A Television Classic


Sherwood Schwartz - 1988
    Join the creator of Gilligan's Island for a three-hour tour!Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,A tale of a fateful show,That started as just one man's dream,A long, long time ago.That man was a mightily wily guy,With smarts enough for eight.If the brass upstairs let him be,The program would be great.The program would be great.The meddlesome executivesBlew up a mighty storm,If not for the courage of the fearless man,The program would be lost.The program would be lost.The show's preserved in the leaves of thisTerrific kooky book.With anecdotes, synopses too,Rare photographs and drawings.The whole storyAnd lots, lots moreAre here Inside Gilligan's Island!Find out: Where the Howells got all those clothes!Learn: Did Gilligan and the Skipper ever get hurt when the coconuts hit them on the head?Discover: What was "Lovey's" real name?Imagine: What kind of a pet the studio almost gave Gilligan!Sing: The original lyrics to the theme song!

Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism


Jennifer Percy - 2013
    Percy was brought to them by a special Ops soldier just back from Afghanistan, the lone survivor of his unit, which was lost during Operation Red Wings. He returned to Georgia and, struggling with PTSD and unable to integrate back into civilian life, considered suicide, until -- as a last resort -- he underwent an exorcism. After experiencing relief, he set out on a mission to bring soldiers from across America to Georgia for a similar deliverance.In the tradition of Dennis Covington’s Salvation on Sand Mountain, Demon Camp is the strange and riveting tale of Percy’s journey into a world she is fascinated by, suspicious of, sympathetic to, and a world she becomes a part of. As she struggles to understand this soldier’s homecoming she crosses the line between journalist and participant, becoming exorcised herself.This is a book about being haunted -- about the demons in and outside of us. It is about a soldier looking for atonement in a world that is offering none -- an agnostic who is obsessed with an exorcist. It is a mesmerizing account of how people reconcile faith and trauma and a brilliant and passionate work that heralds the arrival of a brave, new talent.

Trucker Ghost Stories: And Other True Tales of Haunted Highways, Weird Encounters, and Legends of the Road


Annie Wilder - 2012
    Something suddenly appears: a flash of movement, a shadow...what was it? It could be, as the true stories in this book attest, a ghost.These are true stories from the highways and byways of America. These firsthand accounts are as varied as the storytellers themselves—some are detailed and filled with the terror and suspense that made people feel they had to share what happened to them with others; others are brief and straightforward retellings of truly chilling events.Here is a chupacabra attack on the desert highway between L.A. and Las Vegas; ghost trains and soldiers; UFOs; the prom girl ghost of Alabama; a demon in Texas, and other accounts of the creepy, scary things that truckers and other drivers and passengers told to editor Annie Wilder.With so many different stories, Trucker Ghost Stories moves beyond the usual haunted house to offer stories to entice any ghost story reader...and anyone who's ever wondered....

Dr. Z: The Lost Memoirs of an Irreverent Football Writer


Paul Zimmerman - 2017
    Z came to expect a certain alchemical, trademark blend: words which were caustic and wry, at times self-deprecating or even puzzling, but always devilishly smart with arresting honesty. A complex package, that's the Doctor.  The one-time sparring partner of Ernest Hemingway, Paul Zimmerman is one of the modern era's groundbreaking football minds, a man who methodically charted every play while generating copious notes, a human precursor to the data analytics websites of today. In 2008, Zimmerman had nearly completed work on his personal memoirs when a series of strokes left him largely unable to speak, read, or write. Compiled and edited by longtime SI colleague Peter King, these are the stories he still wants to see told.  Dr. Z’s memoir is a rich package of personalities, stories never shared about such characters as Vince Lombardi, Walter Payton, Lawrence Taylor, and Johnny Unitas. Even Joe Namath, with whom Zimmerman had a legendary and well-documented 23-year feud, saw fit to eventually unburden himself to the remarkable scribe.  Also included are Zimmerman's encounters with luminaries and larger-than-life figures outside of sports, notably Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, and Hunter S. Thompson. But not to be missed are Zimmerman's quieter observations on his own life and writing, witticisms and anecdotes which sway between the poignant and hilarious. No matter the topic, Dr. Z: the Lost Memoirs of an Irreverent Football Writer proves essential, compelling reading for sports fans old and new.

If You Find This Letter: My Journey to Find Purpose Through Hundreds of Letters to Strangers


Hannah Brencher - 2015
    Instead, she found a city full of people who knew where they were going and what they were doing and didn't have time for a girl still trying to figure it all out. Lonely and depressed, she noticed a woman who looked like she felt the same way on the subway. Hannah did something strange--she wrote the woman a letter. She folded it, scribbled If you find this letter, it's for you on the front and left it behind. When she realized that it made her feel better, she started writing and leaving love notes all over the city--in doctor's offices, in coat pockets, in library books, in bathroom stalls. Feeling crushed within a culture that only felt like connecting on a screen, she poured her heart out to complete strangers. She found solace in the idea that her words might brighten someone's day.Hannah's project took on a life of its own when she made an offer on her blog: She would handwrite a note and mail it to anyone who wanted one. Overnight, her inbox exploded with requests from people all over the world. Nearly 400 handwritten letters later, she started the website, The World Needs More Love Letters, which quickly grew. There is something about receiving a handwritten note that is so powerful in today's digital era. If You Find This Letter chronicles Hannah's attempts to bring more love into the world,and shows how she rediscovered her faith through the movement she started.

Father God: Co-creator to Mother God


Sylvia Browne - 2006
    From His history as put forth by humankind in the early days of organized religion to how we view Him today, Sylvia reveals His true attributes in a logical and truthful manner to give us a better understanding of our Father in heaven. Using her uncanny psychic skills and her ability to communicate with the Other Side, Sylvia dispels many of the false and traditional beliefs about the Father God and helps us to embrace Him more deeply and fully.Sylvia helps us see Father God in a different way . . . one in which everyone can gain a deeper understanding and love for this often-maligned Entity. If anyone wants to commune more closely with their Creator and to share His unmitigated and unconditional love, this fascinating book is the answer . . .  for it not only shows us Sylvia’s tremendous insight and love for Him, but  also tells us how we can enjoy that same intimacy in our everyday lives. In her own indomitable style, Sylvia again shows us that she goes against many conventional beliefs in presenting a God that is truly all-loving, merciful, and forgiving . . . one Whom she has dedicated her life and work to in what she would say is . . .