Contact in the Desert Conference Featuring Stanton Friedman and Nick Redfern

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 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.

February Series of the Month: A Library of the World’s Best Literature

This month, Cosimo is highlighting a unique series of world literature, A Library of the World’s Best Literature edited by Charles Dudley Warner.

Mark Twain was a pallbearer at his funeral, yet Charles Dudley Warner is a name largely forgotten by the literary world. An editor, journalist, and essayist, Warner was a Renaissance man who also worked at times as a lawyer, a farmer, and critic. He wrote nine travel books, published numerous essays on social and literary reform, and most famously co-wrote The Gilded Age with Twain. The co-written novel satirized the greed and political corruption present in post-Civil War America.

Many years later, while his friend Twain was traveling around the world for a lecture tour, Warner published a series known as A Library of the World’s Best Literature. With the help of an “Advisory Council” comprised mainly of professors and Deans of U.S. Universities, Warner collected and edited this 45-volume set of Classic and Modern world literature. This series would later include a comprehensive “literary dictionary”—a reference that provided the names and descriptions of authors referenced in the series, as well as suggestions of other enriching authors not included but still “representative of literary history.” As Warner stated in the Preface to this series, the collection’s goal was: 

“to encourage, stimulate, and assist the general reader, not only in the acquisition of knowledge and the widening of his mental horizon, but in the rational enjoyment of life.”

A Library of the World's Best Literature includes poetry, short stories, letters, and novel excerpts, with essays about the author or the subject of the text. There are also sections that discuss a series of works grouped by subject matter, era, or nationality. The collection lives up to its ‘worldy’ description, including everything from the work of his friend, Mark Twain, to Chronologies that detail the great authors of Polish, Swedish, German, and Swiss literature, to name a few. It’s a truly comprehensive series of World literature, covering centuries of great writing, and a helpful introduction to the breadth of literature available to interested readers.

Charles Dudley Warner was a literary figure in his own right, and it's a shame that his contributions are eclipsed by those of his friend. Today Twain is often credited with the famous quote "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," while it is argued that Warner himself coined the phrase. (For a compelling examination of the quote's origin, click here).

February being Black History Month, we also like to celebrate Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (excerpts of which can be found in Vol.XXXV of this series). Arguably one of the most widely known and popularly read books about American slavery, it became the bestselling novel of the 19th century. With its first publication in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and with it, Stowe, helped to ignite the social flames that led to Civil War less than a decade later.

Cosimo offers Warner's impressive series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback. This is an unique and voluminous series, but could transform your reading room, living room or library into a den of knowledge: great for collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $1,609.54, but now: our price: $1,289.99  (you save $320 or a 20 percent discount)

The paperback retail list price: $899.55, but now: our price: $699.99 (you save $200 or a 22 percent discount)

Cosimo Honors Black History Month and Activist W. E. B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois was a leader of the black community in America and fought for equal rights. Du Bois was known for his great roles as a civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, as well as author and editor. In honor of Du Bois'  work against discrimination and racism, and Black History Month, Cosimo would like to highlight some of Du Bois' greatest works.



The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870 
Based on the Harvard thesis of DuBois-one of the great black intellectuals of American history-and incorporating analyses of national, state, and colonial statues, Congressional documents, personal narratives, and other foundational sources, this essential work of African-American history examines the prosecution of slavery laws in the early colonies in North America and explores the moral, political, and economical ramifications of the slave trade and its opposition. This study of the slave-trade laws remains a vital resource for students of early America.



The Souls of Black Folk
As an early work in the field of sociology, this book analyzes the interactions between the races and offers a solution for the strife and inequality that had come to characterize those interactions. DuBois believed that education was the route to a better life for all blacks, and his recommendation became the basis for the civil rights movement. Anyone interested in history, race relations, sociology, or the intellectual heritage of the United States will find this an essential read.





DARKWATER: Voices from Within the Veil
DuBois was the most influential black intellectual in American history, one whose voice and thoughts continue to enlighten and educate readers today, and this is a collection of his most inspired short-form writing. Collecting essays and poems from publications such as The Atlantic and The Journal of Race Development, this 1920 volume-provocative and aggressive and unflattering to the dominant white culture-raised the ire of many mainstream critics of the day, which continues to make it all the more valuable a read today.

The Negro
This is the classic history of the African peoples in Africa and the New World, a repudiation of the absurd belief, widely held in the post-Civil War period, that Africans had no civilization but the one foisted upon them by their slavetrading captors. Writing for a popular audience in 1915, DuBois lays out in easy-to-read, nonacademic prose the striking and illustrious story of the complex history and varied cultures of Africa, from the art and industry of the peoples of the continent to the dramatic impact the slave trade had both in Africa and on her descendents in the Western Hemisphere. Boldly proud and beautifully written, this essential work will delight readers of American and African history as well as students of great American literature.




About the Author
American writer, civil rights activist, and scholar William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was the first black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University. A cofounder of the NAACP, he was convinced that education was the means for African Americans to achieve equality.

See for other books by Du Bois our collection of Black History books.

Happy President's Day from Cosimo!

Grab one of these great historical reads to celebrate President's Day with Cosimo!


The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson
Most famously known for writing the Declaration of Independence at age 33, Thomas Jefferson was one of the most influential politicians in American history. A member of the House of Burgess, the Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, and member of the United States Congress, Jefferson reveals his view from inside the beginning of a country. This autobiography details 47 years of his life, from birth until his appointment as Secretary of State to President George Washington in 1790, giving intimate knowledge and background of the man who would become the third president of the United States of America.

The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses by Theodore Roosevelt
Of all the many sides of Theodore Roosevelt, politician and soldier, naturalist and historian, today he remains a grand symbol of booming American progress in the 20th century. Indeed, he is largely responsible for setting the nation on the course it has followed over those hundred years, as this 1904 volume handily demonstrates. This collection of speeches Roosevelt gave and essays he wrote from 1899 through 1901 illuminates his keen image of America as a nation strong of character, honest of leadership, and rich in material and moral wealth, and represents the splendid challenge he extended to the American people to match him in action and in spirit, and to create a political and social life for the country as robust as his own personal and public life was. This is, in the aggregate, a revealing picture of the character of one of the great American personalities.




Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood
One of the most important works on Abraham Lincoln from the era when he was passing out of living memory and into history, this 1917 classic is a rich, evocative portrait of the man and how actions as a leader were shaped by his character and ideals. From its British perspective, offering a fresh angle on an American legend, to its charming readability, Charnwood's treatise, which was called, in 1947, "the best one-volume life of Lincoln ever written" by historian Benjamin Thomas, today remains one of the most intriguing examinations of the great president, and a keystone for understanding the evolution of Lincoln scholarship.




Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States 
Through times of war and times of peace, periods of prosperity and scarcity, hours dark and bright, the continuation of the American government through legal, Constitutionally guaranteed means has never faltered. There can be no better representation of that marvel, unequaled in world history, than the inaugural addresses of incoming Presidents. A collection of first speeches from each of the nation's new leaders, plus the subsequent inaugural words of re-elected Presidents, Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States gathers in one important volume the thoughts of the first to the forty-fourth leader as he entered office. This updated edition includes speeches from Bill Clinton (42), George W. Bush (43) and Barack Obama (44), also the first African American president ever to take office.

Love is in the Air with these books from Cosimo!

Love is in the air this February! Cosimo is happy to highlight some fantastic books for your Valentine's Day reading: 

Don'ts for Wives by Unknown
"Art is a hard mistress, and there is no art quite so hard as that of being a wife." So begins this entertaining and enlightening booklet of Don'ts for Wives. Discussing such categories as "How to Avoid Discord," "Financial Matters," "Food," and "Evenings at Home," Don'ts for Wives is full of advice for ways in which a proper and loving wife should behave toward her husband. Each chapter is comprised of a list of "don'ts" that wives should follow if they wish to run a successful home and keep their husbands happy. While much of the advice is outdated, a surprising number of her recommendations are still applicable today. Also available as an eBook.

Don'ts for Husbands by Unknown

"Don't look at things solely from a man's point of view. Put yourself in your wife's place and see how you would like some of the things she has to put up with." In this comical, enlightening, and historical booklet originally published in 1913, Blanche Ebbutt shifts sides of the marital equation, delivering advice (some of which still rings true today), to help shape a proper and successful husband. Offering tips on "General Habits," "Jealousy," "Food," and many more timeless topics, Don'ts for Husbands is the perfect gift for anyone interested in the evolution of society, and who ultimately loves to laugh. Also available as an eBook.

Gods and Goddesses in Love by Agapi Stassinopoulus
In ancient times, the Greeks created the gods and goddesses to represent the various personalities of human nature. This book tells the stories of the primary goddesses and gods, and how their myths can provide insight into your own romantic relationships. In the book, the seven archetypal goddesses are portrayed in modern terms, highlighting not only each goddess's unique strengths but also the pitfalls or stumbling blocks she is likely to encounter in a relationship with her partner. Also included are interviews with real couples who reveal how they overcame obstacles to find true love.

Transcendent Sex: When Lovemaking Opens the Veil by Jenny Wade

But what could be better than sex? How about lovemaking that sweeps people into new realities, producing altered states of consciousness a thousand times more powerful than the most earth-shattering orgasm? Lovemaking so spectacular that it truly is a religious experience? This revealing book tells of lovers who engaged in sex as usual and suddenly found the veil between the worlds torn open. Transcendent Sex, like any other spiritual awakening, changes lives. Atheists have become believers; long-standing psychological wounds have been healed; and the sexually abused have become whole. These are the inspiring, incredible true stories of people who experienced an ecstasy and fulfillment beyond the borders of this world.

Love Letters Made Easy by Gabrielle Rosiere

This delightful 1919 book, reprinted here in a charming replica edition, is a complete guide to what one needs to know to write the perfect love letter. While the advice may be amusingly dated in some of its details (the hidden codes in the alignment of postage stamps are probably no longer appreciated today), the broad counsel would be wisely heeded by those "wounded by Cupid's dart" and hoping to make their best written impression on a beloved. Some conundrums of 21st-century lovers are not, of course, here addressed-you're on your own in deciding whether it's appropriate to propose marriage via email-but almost every contingency a tongue-tied lover may face is addressed with assistance as useful as it is timeless.

A Grumpy Man's Guide to Suburbia by Herbert Foster A Grumpy Man's Guide to Suburbia provides a hilarious perspective on life in the 'burbs. These short essays offer an entertaining look at everyday happenings, like tag sales ("Why would anyone work for fifty hours to make $43.25?") or what not to say when your wife comes home from the hairdresser ("You paid $25 for THAT?") or how to carve a turkey ("Score: Turkey 1, Herb 0"). The author provides humorous commentary on everything from houseguests to neighbors, from barbecuing to shopping for a spouse, and from marital communications to cleaning out the freezer. If you live in the suburbs or are married this book is a must. Wether you are in a relationship, single, or married, there is a book here for everyone. Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Cosimo!

February Classic of the Month: The Escape or, A Leap for Freedom

Cosimo is celebrating Black History Month this February by highlighting The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom by William Wells Brown as our Classic of the Month.

The first play published by an African-American, this comic 1858 melodrama about two slaves who secretly marry explores the racial tensions between North and South in the years just before the Civil War. 

With its mix of action, comedy, social commentary and an authenticity only a former slave could recreate, The Escape is essential reading for students of black history and literature. It is also a remarkable glimpse at characters and situations rarely seen from the contemporary black perspective. 

About the Author:

Born into slavery, American author William Wells Brown (1814 - 1884) escaped to the North where he became a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. His other works include The Negro in the American Revolution, Clotelle, or A Tale of the Southern States, and The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements. 

The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom is available on Amazon (hardcover and paperback), at Barnes & Noble (hardcover and paperback), and at your favorite bookstores.

Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut, Moonwalker, and Visionary Died

Edgar Mitchell/NASA

It is with sadness and deep respect, that we announce the death of Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, 6th man to walk on the moon, a hero and a visionary who died last Thursday February 4.

After his Apollo 14 mission in 1971, he founded the California-based Institute of Noetic Sciences. On its website announcing Mitchell's death, it states:

"...this experience (in space) radically altered his worldview: Despite science's superb technological achievements, Mitchell realized that we had barely begun to probe the deepest mystery of the universe—the fact of consciousness itself. He became convinced that the uncharted territory of the human mind was the next frontier to explore, and that it contained possibilities we had hardly begun to imagine. Within two years of his expedition, Edgar Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973."

Current President of IONS, Cassandra Vieten wrote this in her in memoriam of Edgar Mitchell:

"When he returned from space forty-five years ago, Apollo 14 Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell committed his life to supporting a sustainable future. He worked tirelessly to understand and promote what he viewed as an absolutely necessary collective shift in consciousness. To those of us who knew him well, Edgar was an enthusiastic, loving, dedicated, courageous, generous, and brilliant man who inspired us to be bold in our exploration of the further reaches of human potential, to fearlessly challenge inadequate paradigms, and to carry his spirit of adventure into investigating our inner lives.......

.....As Mitchell gazed at Earth floating in the vastness of space and contemplated the history and hopes of humankind on that lonely blue sphere, he was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness.

“I realized that the story of ourselves as told by science—our cosmology, our religion— was incomplete and likely flawed. I recognized that the Newtonian idea of separate, independent, discreet things in the universe wasn’t a fully accurate description. What was needed was a new story of who we are and what we are capable of becoming.”

February Book of the Month: The African Unconscious by Edward Bruce Bynum

In honor of Black History Month, Cosimo presents The African Unconscious by Edward Bruce Bynum, with an introduction by Linda James Myers, as our celebrated Book of the Month.

In this extraordinary and captivating work, Edward Bruce Bynum offers his viewpoint on the roots of human existence. He believes that all humans at their deepest core are variations on the African template. In effect, we possess a shared identity and collective unconscious. This magnificent work is a blend of modern and ancient psychology that provides a relevant backdrop to humanity and our daily life. Looking at phenotypes and psychic structures that form and identify us as human beings, this book is ideal for psychologists, anthropologists,  historians and anyone interested in African American history and culture.

Praise for The African Unconscious:

"I read with awe this passionate, brilliant, epic work. It is one of the most exhaustive and revealing studies of Black and human origins I have ever seen." -Lee S. Sannella, M.D., author of The Kundalini Experience

"The African Unconscious is indeed a daring work, and a unique contribution to African diasporic studies. It is a must for all students of human psychology." -Rowland O. Abiodun, author of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought

"The scope of the author's knowledge is simply awesome, and that, coupled with his engaging writing style, makes not for an 'easy' ready, but an adventuresome one.... For those who entertain notions of collective unconscious and deep structure racial messages, I cannot think of a better text that navigates such thinking." -William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., author of Shades of Black


About the Author:
Edward Bruce Bynum, Ph.D., ABPP, is a psychologist, diplomat in clinical psychology, and director of the Behavioral Medicine & Anxieties Disorders clinic at the University of Massachusetts Health Services in Amherst. He is the author of five texts in psychology and three in poetry. Some of his other books include The Family Unconscious, The Roots of Transcendence, and Families and the Interpretation of Dreams.  His last volume of poetry, Chronicles of the Pig & Other Delusions, won the national 2010 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. Dr. Bynum received the Abraham H. Maslow Award from the American Psychological Association for “an outstanding and lasting contribution to the exploration of the farther reaches of the human spirit.” For more information about Bynum, his books, articles, and work, visit his website.

Cosimo is happy to offer The African Unconscious, in paperback, and eBook formats at leading online bookstores including Barnes & Noble (paperback, Nook) and Amazon (paperback, Kindle).

January Series of the Month: The Personal Power Books

"You must become consciously aware of your essential and fundamental Self, before you will be able to employ the instruments at your hand. You must recognize your sovereignty, before you may mount your throne and rule your kingdom."

-- William Walker Atkinson in Personal Power or Your Master Self

We at Cosimo are continuing the month of January by highlighting books that will help our readers become the best version of themselves. We are happy to present Cosimo's Series of the Month for January: The Personal Power Books by William Walker Atkinson.

The original 12-volume series, the Personal Power Books are a set of self-help books designed to be carefully studied to develop personal power. In the Foreword to Volume I, personal power is defined as "The ability of strength possessed by the human individual, by which he does, or may, accomplish desired results in an efficient manner, along the lines of physical, mental, and spiritual effort and endeavor." In other words, these books describe the methods to attaining control and power in your own life, whether it be financial, physical, mental, or emotional--certainly a worthy goal for any individual.

About the Author
American writer William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932) was editor of the popular magazine New Thought from 1901 to 1905, editor of the journal Advanced Thought from 1916 to 1919 and proponent of the New Thought movement. He authored dozens of New Thought books under numerous pseudonyms, including the name "Yogi Ramacharaka", some of which are likely still unknown today.

The paperback retail list price for this series is: $179.88 but now our price is: $139.99 (you save $39.89 or a 22 percent discount) and free shipping.

The hardcover retail list price for this series is: $275.88, but now our price is: $219.99 (you save $55.89 or a 20 percent discount) and free shipping.

The Best Crypto Books of 2015 from Author Loren Coleman

Cosimo Author Loren Coleman has released his picks for The Best Cryptozoology Books of 2015!

Some highlights include many books from the Loren Coleman Presents Series, such as:

Dragons and Dragon Lore by Ernest Ingersoll

Sea Monsters Unmasked by Henry Lee

Sea Fables Explained by Henry Lee

Gleanings From the Natural History of the Ancients by Rev. Morgan George Watkins

And many more!

To check out the full list, please visit Loren Coleman's site, CryptozooNews.

About Loren Coleman
Today, Loren Coleman, as one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, is an honorary member of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, a life member of the International Society of Cryptozoology, and an inaugural inductee of the Roger Patterson Memorial Bigfoot Museum in Portland, Oregon. He travels extensively for fieldwork and lectures and writes a daily blog at the Internet’s most popular cryptozoology news site, Cryptomundo. Coleman is the director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

January Book of the Month: The Joy of Ritual by Barbara Biziou

In the spirit of new beginnings, Cosimo is thrilled to offer The Joy of Ritual by Barbara Biziou as our January 2016 Book of the Month. 

Rituals are fundamental elements to this time of year, and help to bring substance, meaning, and cheer to our lives. Rituals can enhance daily routines, enrich milestones, and guide us through difficult transitions. They help to release fear, bring deeper meaning to a family or community gathering, and bring greater enjoyment to an an important event. 

In this wonderful book, Barbara Biziou, one of America's foremost ritual experts, teaches us how to restore ritual to its rightful place---as food for the soul---through practical, easy-to-use recipes that are inspiring and enjoyable.

If you need some help embracing 2016, be sure to read Barbara's posts on 12 Simple Rituals To Help You Release 2015 and ’Tis The Season For Rituals!

About the Author
Barbara Biziou is an interfaith minister, motivational speaker, and a life-strategy coach. She is the author of The Joy of Ritual & The Joy of Family Rituals, as well as a Huffington Post blogger, executive consultant, dynamic public speaker, and national TV personality. Biziou has a deep commitment to integrating practical spirituality into people's lives, both personally and professionally. She is a frequent guest on radio and television and has appeared in the New York Times, Body and Soul, Harper's Bazaar and Parent's Magazine.

Cosimo offers this title in paperback at leading online bookstores including Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and also as an eBook.

Happy New Year from all of us at Cosimo!

January Classic of the Month: Eat and Grow Thin by Vance Thompson

In the spirt of the new year, we at Cosimo are spending the month of January highlighting books that will help our readers become the best version of themselves. We are happy to present Cosimo's Classic of the Month for January: Eat and Grow Thin by Vance Thompson.

Known as one of America's first low-carb diet books, author Vance Thompson offers his strategy for "escaping the tragedy of growing fat." What's more. "The Mahdah menus tell you exactly what to eat just what food values should be banked every day. The menus are composed. Each luncheon is complete in itself. Each dinner provides exactly the nutriment needed and in exactly the right proportions. And breakfast? Oh, we of the slim-waisted gracilities breakfast on a cup of yellow tea or a cup of black coffee or a dish of fresh, ripe fruit."

Originally published in 1914 and long out-of-print, Eat and Grow Thin proves just how long low-carbohydrate eating plans have been around. Of course, contemporary dieters familiar with the current low-carb craze will find memorable advice here as well as a wealth of "slimming recipes" from the turn of the century.

About the Author

Vance Thompson (1863-1925) was an American author and literary "Renaissance Man" of the early 20th century. His work covers a wide-range of genres including poetry, stage plays, miscellaneous manuscripts as well as sheet music. Capitalizing on popular tastes of the era, his earlier works include Take It From Me: A Look in on the Other Fellow (1916), Drink and Be Sober (1916), and Live and Be Young (1920). An extensive collection of his literary works and personal papers are stored in the Library for Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University.

Eat and Grow Thin is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and at your favorite bookstores. From everyone here at Cosimo, we wish you a very Happy New Year!

2015 In Memoriam - Authors Colin Bennett, Danny Schechter, Imre Somogy and Rob Riggs

Sint Jacobskerk, The Hague

As 2015 is just behind us, it's sad to acknowledge that during that year Cosimo has lost four very creative and innovative authors.

At the beginning of last year, we heard the sad news about the passing of Colin Bennett. Colin Bennett was a multi-talented individual, born in England in 1940, and wearing many different hats during his life: from studying science and mathematics, and being a professional musician, to returning to college to study English at Balliol College, Oxford and written several plays that performed on the professional stage in London, including the Royal Court Theatre.

Colin Bennett

In the meanwhile, he also managed to become an authority on the work of Charles Fort, George Adamsky and Edward Ruppelt and became well-known in the community of ufologists and Forteans with books such as Flying Saucers over the White House: The Inside Story of Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and His Official U.S. Airforce Investigation of UFOs; Looking for Orthon: The Story of George Adamski, the First Flying Saucer Contactee, and How He Changed the World; and Poltics of the Imagination: The Life, Work and Ideas of Charles Fort   The latter book won the Anomalist Award for Best Biography in 2002. Even though Colin Bennett suffered from diabetes during his last years of life, he continued writing online and elsewhere.

Danny Schechter

In March, 2015, Danny Schechter, journalist, filmmaker, television producer, and author died after a battle with cancer.  Danny Schechter was a unique personality, in person and professionally. Born in 1942 in New York, he epitomized the consummate New Yorker: engaged and engaging, socially active and vocal, and trying to make the world a better place. His media background started in the 1970s on the radio as "The News Dissector" at WBCN-FM in Boston, where he informed his listeners about the news infused with his typical sense of humor. Later on he joined CNN and ABC News, where he won two Emmy Awards. In 1988 he co-founded the production company Global Vision together with Rory O'Connor, where they produced many documentaries, including "South Africa Now", an award winning public television series. He wrote 17 books, of which quite a few with Cosimo, for example: Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, one of the first books that came out just after the financial collapse in September, 2008. This book was based on his previous years of research, blogging, and his documentary In Debt We Trust where he already foresaw deep problems in the US economy.

In May 2015, Imre Somogy died: he was the co-author with his wife, Margriet of Reading Baby Toes. Imre Somogy was born in 1943 in Amsterdam, after which he lived in Belgium till he was 13  and then returned to the Netherlands. He started his career after military service, where he became a journalist and broadcaster with Dutch TV and radio. Besides his journalistic work, he studied and practised homeopathy, herbal- and natural healing. During those studies he and his wife developed a method to analyse behavior and personality based on the shape ad position of toes. He authored a few books on this knowledge, one of which was focused on baby toes. Since his retirement he lived in France, where he died after a long illness.

Rob Riggs

Last November 2015, Rob Riggs, a journalist and former publisher of a series of award-winning community newspapers in Texas, died. Rob Riggs had not only been a reporter and journalist but had been interested in paranormal phenomena since as a child he heard tales about them, including the Bigfoot mystery in his hometown in Big Thicket country, a heavily forested area in Southeast Texas. His studies of paranormal phenomena, which have taken him to West Texas, Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, and as far abroad as India, have been featured in the Houston Chronicle and the Beaumont Enterprise.  In 2001 Rob Riggs wrote In the Big Thicket : On the Trail of the Wild Man : Exploring Nature's Mysterious Dimension (Paraview Press, now part of Cosimo Books.) Noted cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman wrote the following about this book: "Rob Riggs book takes the reader on a wild tour through one of America's weirdest wonderlands. Riggs has produced a great collection on such Texan wonders as the Big Thicket's Wild Man."

In each of these four authors, we have lost unique human beings who contributed to their readers and followers, by explaining, informing and educating them about their expertise and the world around us as they saw it. Our thoughts at this time are with their families and friends, as well as with their readers, including ourselves at Cosimo, who will remember each of them for their lives and contributions.

Rituals for the New Year Workshop with Cosimo Author Barbara Biziou

Our January Book of the Month author Barbara Biziou is holding a workshop in honor of the New Year!

From Barbara's website:

"Rituals can be wonderful tools to help us release old patterns and limiting thoughts and move into the future with clarity and lightness. January is an auspicious time to use the focused power of ritual to align our minds, hearts and actions, and release the blocks and barriers that prevent us from manifesting our goals.

In this workshop, we will draw from a range of cross-cultural traditions and spiritual teachings to create our own rituals, tailored to modern urban reality and our own contemporary lives. Whether we want to re-ensoul our daily routines, move out of an unwanted situation, complete an unresolved issue, focus our goals more clearly or manifest love and abundance, this workshop can help us move into a new year with energy, inspiration and focus."

Event: Rituals for the New Year: Beginning the Year with Clarity, Intention, and Inspiration

Date: Friday, January 15, 2016

Time: 7pm to 9:30 pm
Where: New York Open Center, 22 East 30th St. New York, NY 10016
Cost: NY Open Center Members: FREE, Members’ Guests: $18, Non-members: $35

To register, please visit the New York Open Center website.

About the Barbara Biziou
Barbara Biziou is an interfaith minister, motivational speaker, and a life-strategy coach. She is the author of The Joy of Ritual & The Joy of Family Rituals, as well as a Huffington Post blogger, executive consultant, dynamic public speaker, and national TV personality. Biziou has a deep commitment to integrating practical spirituality into people's lives, both personally and professionally. She is a frequent guest on radio and television and has appeared in the New York Times, Body and Soul, Harper's Bazaar and Parent's Magazine.

35th Anniversary of the Rendlesham Incident - UFO invasion of the UK

In honor of the 35th Anniversary of the Rendlesham Incident, Cosimo is highlighting Left at East Gate by Larry Warren and Peter Robbins. In December 1980, Larry Warren was a member of the Air Force security police stationed at RAF Bentwaters, a NATO base in Great Britain. On the night of the 28th he was on guard duty when he was taken by truck to join other Air Force personnel to investigate a disturbance in a Rendlesham Forest about five miles away, which turned out to be a landed UFO. This was the third night of UFO activity in the area and by far the most profound. When the men were debriefed the next day, they were warned to tell no one about what they had seen-as "bullets are cheap." And so began what would turn out to be the best documented and most significant military-UFO incident in history. This remarkable story, told with the help of investigative writer Peter Robbins, was the basis of the Sci Fi Channel's documentary UFO Invasion at Rendlesham.

About the Author
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.

To learn more about Peter Robbins, his new book Halt in Woodbridge, his documentary Travis, or other UFO cases, check out his recent interview on Fringe Radio.

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. Cosimo is proud to present this title in paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions.