Exploring Extraterrestial Life with Stanton Friedman and Nick Redfern at Contact in the Desert Conference

The Contact in the Desert Conference will keep those interested in extraterrestrials in the know with lectures, workshops, and intensives, and will be featuring a wide array of panelists, experts, researchers and celebrities, including two of our very own authors, Nick Redfern and Stanton Friedman.

Redfern will be hosting a lecture entitled "New Revelations on the Men in Black" and leading a workshop called "UFO's and Government Surveillance: How to know if you are being Watched." He will discuss never-before-seen data on classic cases as well as how to identify if your experiences and research have made you a person of interest to the government.

Friedman will be hosting the "Star Travel? Yes!!" lecture and "The UFO Why Questions" workshop. He will also be holding an intensive course called "Debunking the UFO Debunkers."

Additionally, Travis Walton, the famous logger who claims to have been abducted by UFOs will also be a speaker this year. For more information about Travis and the documentary based on his experience, check out Cosimo's past blog post from September.

The conference boasts a packed weekend of information and details on:
- exploration into ancient astronauts
- extraterrestrial life
- human origins
- crop circles
- UFO sightings
- contact experiences, and much more

The conference will be held at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in California from June 3 - 6, 2016. Discounted advanced passes for the conference and workshops are currently for sale. For more information about the schedule, speakers, location, and tickets, please visit Contact in the Desert.

About the Authors
Nick Redfern is the author of more than twenty books on UFOs, Bigfoot, lake-monsters, the Chupacabras, and Hollywood scandal, including A Covert Agenda, Strange Secrets, Body Snatchers in the Desert, and Three Men Seeking Monsters. Nick has appeared on more than seventy TV shows, including: Fox News; the BBC’s Out of This World; the SyFy Channel’s Proof Positive; the History Channel’s Monster Quest, America’s Book of Secrets, Ancient Aliens, and UFO Hunters; the National Geographic Channel’s Paranatural; and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Stanton Friedman is a nuclear physicist who has worked for General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, and other corporations. He is also the author of Crash at Corona and wrote introductions to the Cosimo editions of two U.S. airforce reports, The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert and The Roswell Report: Case Closed . Friedman has appeared on Larry King, Unsolved Mysteries, and Nightline, and was involved with the documentaries UFOs Are Real and Flying Saucers Are Real. He was the final speaker at the fiftieth anniversary conference at the International UFO Museum and Research Center at Roswell, and has given more than 700 lectures on the subject of UFOs.

May Series of the Month: The Conquests of Mexico and Peru

In honor of Cinco de Mayo and the celebration of Mexican culture, Cosimo is happy to announce The Conquests of Mexico and Peru as our Series of the Month for May!

With its vivid language and bold strokes, the magnificent The Conquests of Mexico and Peru two volume set, first published in 1847, is one of historian William Prescott's landmark works. A masterly study of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro's overthrow of the Inca Empire, this astonishing chronicle is considered a classic of Latin American history. 

Perhaps the most important work of Latin American history, it is "one of the most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary art applied to historical narration," raves Prescott biographer Harry Thurston Peck. "All the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in life."

Also available from Cosimo Classics: History of the Conquest of Peru, Prescott's companion volume about Pizarro's subjugation of the Incans.

About the Author

Historian, writer, and scholar William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. A regular contributor to the prestigious Boston literary journal North American Review, he also authored numerous books of history, including 1837's The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, a critical and popular success in both America and Europe.

The paperback retail list price for this two-volume set is: $31.98, but our current price is: $24.99 (you save $6.99 or a 22 percent discount) and for a limited time, enjoy free shipping!

Cosimo offers this Classic series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in paperback.

May Classic of the Month: Old Time Recipes by Helen Wright

In happy celebration of spring (finally!), farmer's markets, flowers blooming, and fresh fruit, we at Cosimo are happy to present Old Time Recipes by Helen Wright as our May Classic of the Month.

Old Time Recipes For Home Made Wines, Cordials and Liqueurs from Fruits, Flowers, Vegetables and Shrubs, originally published in 1909, is a descriptive, charming cookbook for those who want to make their own wines and liqueurs from any and all available ingredients, including fruits, flowers, vegetables, and shrubs. It includes an introduction from the author and the ingredients and instructions for making and fermenting your own spirits, from wine and ale to sherry, brandy, cordials, and even soda. Not only is this book interesting for those who want access to recipes from the old country, it's also good for those looking for a laugh: cock ale, cowslip wine, koumiss (a tartar wine that uses fresh mare's milk), and elephant's milk recipes are all included.

About the Author
Helen Saunders Wright is the author of two books, The New England Cookbook (1912) and Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines (1909).

Cosimo is proud to present this title in paperback. Available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your favorite bookstore. Happy cooking!

May Book of the Month: Founding a Movement by Michaela Walsh

In celebration of all of those graduating all across the country this month, Cosimo's Book of the Month for May is Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking, 1975-1990, a detailed history of the first global women's microfinance organizations, run by women, for women. Its history is told by founder Michaela Walsh, who was president and CEO of the company from its inception at 1975 until 1990. Chock full of interviews from the organization's first board members and participants, it follows the difficult path WWB took to recognize its dream and make small businesses a reality for so many women around the world.

Founding a Movement shows how hard work and perseverance, not to mention a helping hand from fellow entrepreneurs and business owners, can help anyone take control of their economic destinies. In the words of Michaela Walsh, this book "shines a light on the value that women contribute through work, and when they support one another, to become full participants in the economy through access to financial institutions and services, and everything that goes with that access."

The book has received numerous praises from key business leaders, economists, and international icons. You can read more about it in the official press release, or on the author's website at michaelawalsh.com.

"The power of women teaching one another is profound. Women's World Banking was one of the first movements to realize and trust this truth at a global scale. This is what made it a transforming movement."
-The Honorable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and Nobel Laureate

"At last, the full inside story of the founding mothers of microfinance... by one of its key leaders! Indispensable reading!"
-Hazel Henderson, president of Ethical Markets Media and Creator of the Green Transition Scoreboard

"Women's access to finance, including microcredit, is crucial. Michaela Walsh and Women's World Banking have broken new ground. Those who wish to follow in their footsteps should read this story."
-Jan Pronk, former Minister for International Development Cooperation of the Netherlands

About the Author

Michaela Walsh is an activist, scholar, mentor, educator, and author. She has been a pioneer female manager for Merrill Lynch, the first female partner at Boettcher, and the founding president of Women's World Banking. She has taught at Manhattanville College, served on the Boards of several institutions, and was the chairperson of the 59th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2006.She has received numerous awards,including in honor an honor in 2012 from Women's Funding Network for changing the face of philanthropy.

The Paradigm Symposium with Cosimo Author Peter Robbins and Nick Redfern

If you are a fan of Peter Robbins, one of the authors of Left At East Gate: A First Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up and Investigation, or Nick Redfern, the author of Strange Secrets, A Covert Agenda, and many other books, be sure to check out the following event to hear (and maybe even meet!) the Cosimo authors themselves at this convention hosted by Intrepid Magazine.

The Paradigm Symposium Redux
May 12 - 15 2016
Templar Lodge, 6509 Walker St, Minneapolis, MN 55426
Price: $280 full weekend, $110 Saturday only
For tickets and more information, visit: paradigmsymposium.com

About the Authors
Peter Robbins is one of the most respected and best-known investigative writers on the serious study of UFOs. He's been involved with extraterrestrial phenomena for more than thirty years as a researcher, investigator, writer, lecturer, activist, consultant, author, and conference organizer. Peter is a regular fixture on radio shows around the country and in the United Kingdom. He is also co-host of the monthly program "Encounters" on GRA Network Radio. He is often a guest on and consultant to numerous television shows and documentaries. Robbins' articles, essays, commentaries, and columns have appeared online and in numerous print publications. He is a popular lecturer at colleges, universities, and conferences both here and abroad. Peter Robbins is the co-author of the British bestseller Left At East Gate: A First Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up and Investigation. He also helped create the documentary "Travis" which will be shown during the event as well.

Nick Redfern is the author of more than twenty books on UFOs, Bigfoot, lake-monsters, the Chupacabras, and Hollywood scandal, including A Covert Agenda, Strange Secrets, Body Snatchers in the Desert, and Three Men Seeking Monsters. Nick has appeared on more than seventy TV shows, including: Fox News; the BBC’s Out of This World; the SyFy Channel’s Proof Positive; the History Channel’s Monster Quest, America’s Book of Secrets, Ancient Aliens, and UFO Hunters; the National Geographic Channel’s Paranatural; and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

New Cosimo Classics Now Available!

All of us at Cosimo are excited to announce these new releases, now available wherever books are sold!

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex by Owen Chase (also available as an eBook)

Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex is an account by first mate Owen Chase of the Essex, a whale ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, that was sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean near South America in 1820. Of the twenty-man crew, only eight survived the horrific ordeal; some men were stranded on an island, all remaining crew were forced to eat food tainted by seawater and drink their own urine, and finally, when members of the crew started dying, those still alive resorted to cannibalism until they were rescued. Narrative of the Whale-ship Essex inspired Herman Melville to write his enduring classic Moby-Dick in 1851; it also inspired the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea based on the 2000 best-selling book of the same name.



Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville (also available as an eBook)

"Call me Ishmael." So begins the famous opening chapter of Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Young sailor Ishmael is hired as a crew member of a whaler named Pequod, captained by a man named Ahab. In between lengthy chapters on whale biology and descriptions of the crew and the whaling trade, readers are slowly introduced to a captivating tale. Ahab is out for revenge on the great white whale that stole his leg, leaving him with a whale-bone prosthesis and a withering hatred for the beast. Known as Moby Dick, the whale is infamous for his encounters and escapes with whale ships, and Ahab offers a gold coin, nailed to the Pequod's mast, as a reward for whoever sights him first. Beginning on a cold Christmas morning, the crew embarks on a journey to find the whale and make their fortunes. An exciting staple of American literature, Moby-Dick is a must-read for anyone interested in the classics. Herman Melville was inspired to write Moby Dick by the 1821 biographical account Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which in turn inspired the 2000 novel and 2015 movie, In the Heart of the Sea.

The Life of a Racehorse by John Mills (also available as an eBook)

The Life of a Racehorse is a fictional biography detailing the life of a British racehorse from the horse's point of view. This book was republished by Cosimo late last year in honor of American race horsing, which got a shot in the arm when American Pharaoh became the first horse to win the "Grand Slam" of American horse racing (the Triple Crown, for the first time since 1978, and the Breeders' Cup Classic.) In this book, the horse, Sheet Anchor, narrates his life, from his time as a colt, through his training and racing days, to his sale as a stud from Tattersall's and his retirement. The story is revealed through Sheet Anchor's experiences and the dialogue of the humans he interacts with, including trainers, grooms, jockeys, and his master, Sir Digby. The Life of a Racehorse was highlighted in a 2015 New York Times article bringing attention to the use of the riding crop; it was cited as one of the only references to how horses might feel about its use. As such, horse lovers and race enthusiasts alike can look to this book for better insight into how horse racing has developed over the ages.