Happy Friday, Wildcats! Falvey Library is delivering you another semester of Weekend Recs, a blog dedicated to filling you in on what to read, listen to, and watch over the weekend. Annie, a graduate assistant from the Communication department, scours the internet, peruses the news, and digs through book stacks to find new, relevant, and thought-provoking content that will challenge you and prepare you for the upcoming week.

Photo by Bruce Warrington on Unsplash

One of the big questions people have asked for generations is, “Do aliens exist?” While some take this as a serious question informed by science or philosophy, others thinks it’s a fun debate topic that can get people talking. Regardless of your own beliefs, aliens seem to occupy a space in our collective consciousness, with recent news stories demonstrating this. This weekend’s recs will get you caught up-to-date on all the latest alien news and share some alien fiction recs to entertain your inner nerd.

If you have 5 minutes…and haven’t heard about the most recent alien debacle, read this article. Two mummified bodies in Mexico have been presented as evidence of alien beings and are currently undergoing testing, but many suspect these bodies are simply human remains.

Bonus: watch the update of some of their findings.

If you have 5 minutes and 21 seconds…and want Neil Degrasse Tyson’s perspective on all the recent alien news, watch this video.

If you have 35 minutes and 7 seconds…and like podcasts, listen to this New York Times discussion about the alleged government alien cover-up that made news over the summer.

Photo by Leo on Unsplash

If you have 1 hour and 37 minutes…and were lucky enough to not be scared by the trailer in 2013, watch Dark Skies. In my personal opinion, this movie is slightly underrated. It had some good tense and suspenseful moments and was surprising anxiety-inducing.

Bonus: if you prefer movies with a more wholesome vibe, watch E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, available in Falvey’s DVD Collection.

If you have 2 hours and 10 minutes…and are a Jordan Peele fan, watch Nope, available online through Falvey. Although I’ve loved each of Jordan Peele’s horror movies, this one managed to freak me out the most. It’s tense and deeply unsettling. Plus, as a bonus, Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are in it.

If you have 6 hours and 8 minutes…and love horror classics, watch the first three of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies, available in Falvey’s DVD Collection. It’s officially fall, which means horror movies are in-season, and these films are the perfect way to prepare yourself for spooky season.

Annie Stockmal is a second-year graduate student in the Communication Department and Graduate Assistant in Falvey Library.

“If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced.” — Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), The X-Files: Fight the Future 

Fox Mulder was right! Well, that depends on your thoughts on Congress’ UFO hearing. According to Michael Mitsanas of NBC News, five former military officials testified before Congress on Wed., July 26, making five main claims: “the Government is ‘absolutely’ in possession of UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena); ‘nonhuman biologics’ were found at a crash site; officials must establish a ‘safe and transparent reporting process’; stigma associated with sightings ‘silences’ possible witnesses; and a UFO was spotted accelerating to ‘supersonic speeds’.”

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

Villanova had its own Astronomical Society. From the Belle Air 1969 (p. 109), “A program of films and lectures, operation of the Tolentine observatory’s ten inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, and participation in the Symposium on the Natural Sciences were among the many activities conducted this year by the members of the Astronomical Society.”

Maybe they saw some UAPs. Do you WANT to believe? Whatever your stance, the truth is in Falvey’s resources!

Falvey Library Resources:

• UFOs: An Insider’s View of the Official Quest for Evidence (Craig, 1995)
• UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture (Reece, 2007)
• Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future (Bennett, 2011)
• The UFO Evidence (Hall, 2001)
• The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning (Clark, 1998)
• The UFO Files: The Inside Story of Real-life Sightings (Clarke, 2013)
• Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO (Halperin, 2020)

Additional Reading:

• What We Know—and Don’t Know—About UFOs After the Congressional Hearing (TIME, 2022)
• Lawmakers and Former Officials Press for Answers on U.F.O.s (The New York Times, 2022)
• U.S. Recovered Non-Human ‘Biologics’ from UFO Crash Sites, Former Intel Official Says (NPR, 2022)
• Officials and Lawmakers Push For More Government Transparency on UFOs (CNN, 2022)
• Here Are the 5 Most Memorable Moments from Congress’ UFO Hearing (CNN, 2022)

X-Files Resources:

• The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena (Terry, 2020)
• X-Files and Philosophy (Arp, 2017)
• The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth (Yang, 2007)
• The Philosophy of The X-Files (Kowalski & Davis, 2009)
• The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files (Nickell, 2010)
• Entertainment the Ultimate Guide to the X-files: 25 Years Inside Every Season & Film (PALCI EBSCO, 2018)
• Monsters of the Week: The Complete Critical Companion to the X-Files (Handlen Et al., 2018)

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Her favorite X-Files episode is “Bad Blood.” 

Tuesday, July 2 was World UFO Day. This week, the Curious ‘Cat asked Falvey Library staff,

“What is your favorite science fiction text?”

Caroline Sipio, Access and Collections Coordinator

Abby Cengel, Access and Collections Service Desk Coordinator

Mike Sgier, Access and Collections Coordinator

Jeannine Ahern, Finance and Administration Specialist

Sarah Wingo, Librarian for English Literature, Theatre, and Romance Languages and Literature

Kallie Stahl, MA ’17 CLAS, is communication and marketing specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.