100 Books Like In Advance of the Landing

The Ballad of Black Tom rocked my world.

I was already writing stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft but I wasn’t sure I had a place in the genre. Then Victor LaValle took one of Lovecraft’s most racist works, The Horror At Red Hook, and produced an alternate version.

Black Tom touches on the events of Lovecraft’s original story but tells the tale from the point of view of a black musician named Tommy Tester. LaValle’s reimagining of Lovecraft is a revelation.

He showed me that I didn’t have to be like Lovecraft to write in his world. And LaValle perfectly captures the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, a world that Lovecraft’s racism prevented him from seeing, even though he lived in New York City at the time.

When talking with younger writers, sooner or later I ask them to name a writer or a book they can point to and say, “That’s the goal. That’s what I care about. That’s what I want to do.” If I asked myself this question, one of my answers would be Karen Joy Fowler’s first novel, a pitch-perfect account of 19th-century America and the mysterious title character, a weird woman whose weirdness confirms how weird everything else already is.

A stunning assembly of archival photographs and newspaper clippings from Jackson County, Wisconsin, in the last decade and a half of the 19th century, and the definitive explanation of why nobody in old-time photographs is ever smiling—and, I choose to believe, the real reason the parts of The Wizard of Oz set in Kansas were filmed in black and white. Economic privation, unceasing bereavement, disease both physical and mental—in other words, Tuesday. Was there any joy in Jackson County? Somewhere, I’m sure. What’s documented here is a stark, powerful beauty. The most real book I’ve ever encountered, and one of two on face-out display on my bookshelves.

I love books that refuse to fit neatly into genre categories. This underappreciated novel by the author of "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House reads like a Seinfeld episode set on the eve of the apocalypse.

The Sundial’s combination of social satire and horror got lackluster reviews when it was published in 1958, but that’s just because it was way ahead of its time.

This was the first 1950s “contactee” book I read while researching my book. And it’s a fun one.

Contactees were a group of people in the fifties and sixties claiming to have been in contact with aliens—usually Venusians. Fry gives his account of stumbling upon a flying saucer in New Mexico in 1950 and flying to New York and back in 30 minutes. He flew alone, guided remotely from an alien far above.

In his conversations with the extraterrestrial being, he learned that they were visiting our planet to warn us about the dangers of the atomic age and the possible destruction of earth. It’s entertaining, and regardless of your beliefs, the alien makes a fair point.

Fuller’s book captures the story of Betty and Barney Hill, who became the first nationally covered case of an alien abduction.

The book tells their tale and shares the hypnosis sessions they underwent to recall the many bizarre details of their experience. Fuller’s interviews with the Hills, along with the documented transcripts, make for a remarkable read. 

This book provides an early history of the modern UFO era by a credible U.S. Military Officer. Read this book or another book you can find by Donald E. Keyhoe.

I recommend Major Donald E. Keyhoe’s book on flying saucers because of the personal passion he has exhibited for the subject, especially for the reality and importance of it. I recall viewing in a video showing how he was on TV telling viewers how important the subject of flying saucers was, while at the same time his TV broadcast was right then and there being censored off the air. Someone like Keyhoe… right in the act of being censored, well, I think, it doesn’t get more emotionally moving than that!

Major Kehoe investigated many of the earliest encounters allegedly between U.S. Air Force pilots and UFOs (so-called “flying saucers”). Keyhoe believed the Air Force was actively investigating these close encounters,… show more.

I highly recommend this book because it is a groundbreaking investigative book that compiles credible testimonies from military, aviation, and government figures to argue that UFOs represent a genuine, unexplained phenomenon worthy of serious study.

The book begins by establishing its journalistic foundation: Kean emphasizes that while most UFO sightings can be explained as misidentifications, a small percentage—roughly 5–10% remain unexplained even after investigation. These cases often involve highly trained observers such as military pilots, radar operators, and government officials.

I highly recommend this book because it offers one of the most balanced and skeptical examinations of the UFO phenomenon available.

Unlike many books that lean heavily into sensational claims, Sheaffer applies the scientific method and critical thinking to famous cases, exposing how misidentifications, cultural myths, and selective reporting often fuel the UFO narrative.

His work provides readers with a broad overview of major sightings and trends in ufology, while also highlighting the importance of questioning extraordinary claims and demanding credible evidence.