“Positively False – exposing the myths around HIV and AIDS”, Joan Shenton, I.B. Taurus 1998

This book documents Joan and her team’s journey exploring the world of AIDS in the UK and round the world, providing considerable more detail to their findings than could be presented in their documentaries. The underlying explanations as to why so many AIDS orthodoxy’s claims do not withstand scrutiny are easy to understand, a very good book to start with as the underlying issues have not changed much since the book was published.

“The Origin, Persistence, and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory”, Henry Bauer, McFarland and Co, Inc, 2007

This is a more forensic approach to dismantling the claims of HIV/AIDS, with considerable more statistical detail as well as discussions about the politics of science. This book has three chapters examining and explaining the bias of HIV diagnoses towards black people. For most people, not the kind of easy-to-read introduction to the subject, more suited to those with existing knowledge or with a strong academic mindset, but great to dip into when researching a particular topic.

“Virus Mania - How the medical industry continually invents epidemics, making billion-dollar profits at our expense”, Torsten Engelbrecht, Claus Köhnlein, Trafford Publishing, 2007

Virus Mania covers not just AIDS but also Avian Flu, Cervical cancer, SARS, BSE, Hepatitis C and Polio. It gives a very good contextual understanding of the larger medical industrial environment in which AIDS sits, and for that reason alone it is particularly important. Because of the breadth of the book it inevitably doesn’t delve into AIDS as our main topic of interest as much as many other books specifically about AIDS, but it still has useful information and perspectives not readily covered elsewhere and is still a valuable read about AIDS alone. It is both easy to read and understand for a beginner without biological training and yet also has interesting relevant technical detail and is well referenced.

“Fear of the Invisible – How scared should we be of viruses, vaccines, HIV and AIDS?”, Janine Roberts, Impact Investigative Media Productions, 2008

This book is more extensively reviewed elsewhere here. Among other things it reveals staggering new analyses of the extent of Robert Gallo’s fraud and phenomenal insight into what retroviruses might really be doing. Containing sometimes highly  technical information, yet is always easy to read.

“Science Sold Out – Does HIV really cause AIDS?”, Rebecca Culshaw, North Atlantic Books, 2007

As an AIDS-industry insider who specifically chose it as her career and her gradual dawning awareness that it was bad science based on false premises, her account has a fair amount of authority. It is also clearly written and she explains some of the structural problems with science and how the supposed quality of science ended up on a slippery slope towards the dustbin.

“Debating AZT – Mbeki and the AIDS drug controversy”, Anthony Brink, Open Books, 2000

This is an updated and considerably supplemented version of the paper that originally triggered then-South African President Thabo Mbeki to start re-examining what he had been told about AIDS, and for that it is important historically. As AZT is still one of the most if not still the most widely-selling AIDS drug, it is still extremely relevant. Not only that, in the process he gives an insight into the political and sociological factors that influence the stance of public bodies and the lack of intellectual rigour that seems to be widespread.

Anthony Brink’s writing is rigorously precise, heavily supported by referenced statistics and gives a really sharp awareness of some of the staggering contrasts between reality and perception in AIDS. This book, like most of his writing, is funny in places with a wit that isn’t just sharp, it’s serated.

“AIDS, Africa and Racism”, Richard and Rosalind Chirimuuta, Free Association Books, 1989

Although Richard has now died, Rosalind told me this book was written when they believed that HIV actually existed. It is still valuable though because what this shows is that even if HIV did exist in the form that the AIDS orthodoxy claims it does, the claims about African AIDS still do not withstand scrutiny. Moreover, it reveals some of the geo-political and ideological agendas that pop up when ever there is an excuse to blame Africa for something.

With both a lot of statistics covering a wide range of related topics that help set the general scene across Africa as well as AIDS-related statistics, it also has clear discussions and is very readable. And now although written in 1989, nearly all the book is relevant because the issues haven’t changed and it gives a very good understanding of African issues.

“Get All The Facts: HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”, Mohammed Al-Bayati, Toxi-Health International, 1999

Written in a style more for medical professionals than the casual lay reader, and extensively referenced to other medical literature, Dr Al-Bayati lays out clearly other explanations for the illnesses of different groups of people whose illnesses are all classified as AIDS. In the process, through referring to these other non-retroviral causes, he also makes treatment recommendations that do not include the use of anti-retroviral drugs. One of the most stunning revelations in this book is that Anthony Fauci, the head of NIAIDS, ignored and directly opposed a considerable amount of his own published work in order to support a (much more career-enhancing) retroviral theory.

“The AIDS War – Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex”, John Lauritsen, Asklepios, 1993

Although he draws on strengths as a statistician heavily for this book, he is also extremely perceptive as a historical reporter and political analyst. He describes clearly the fraud and logical flaws at the heart of the approval of AZT as a life-saving medicine. As a gay man in the midst of the population during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but with a much clearer perception of what was actually going on, he gives insightful accounts of how the public can be the architects of their own downfall with only a little help from economic interests who are willing to take financial advantage of a public situation.

This book is as much sociological as it is statistical. He reveals that when attempting to enlighten the willing victims of an economic machine that was negligently, if not wilfully, genocidal against gay men at the time, the efforts made by those who were being oppressed not to hear anything against the politico-economic machine oppressing them would be astonishing to those who had not experienced the same response themselves.

“Science Fictions – A scientific mystery, a massive cover-up, and the dark legacy of Robert Gallo”, John Crewdson, Little, Brown and Company, 2002

It was John Crewdson’s original account of shenanigans of the alleged discovery of HIV in the Chicago Tribune that ended up triggering a series of investigations into goings-on in Robert Gallo’s laboratory, which revealed documents that in turn led to him being able to write ‘Science Fictions’. As he says himself, it is not really a book about AIDS, nor is it a book about science, but it’s a book about how scientists behave when the stakes are high. Yet despite his discoveries, he doesn’t challenge or question the existence of HIV, at least, not in this book. Having read it, I don’t know if that’s because he does actually believe HIV exists or if it’s because he knew it would be opening an even bigger can of worms that he could possibly cope with – from other people’s experience, challenging the very existence of HIV or even the orthodox model of AIDS has a seriously detrimental effect on book sales.

Certainly, given his investigative journalist credentials and the documents and evidence he turned up and the thoroughness of the story and microbiological details, I find it hard to believe that questions over the existence of HIV did not cross his mind. Regardless, it is a very good book to read, and the accompanying website (www.sciencefictions.net) has PDF files of many fascinating original documents, some of which led to the damning revelations in Janine Roberts’ book, “Fear of the Invisible”, that even John Crewdson and the unprecedented level of scientific investigations and political scrutiny of Robert Gallo's work failed to spot.

“Rethinking AIDS – The tragic cost of premature consensus”, Robert Root-Bernstein, The Free Press, 1993

This was the first proper book about AIDS that I read, and it is still full of valuable information. Although in this book Robert Root-Bernstein does not challenge the existence of HIV and he seems to not question (from memory – it’s a while since I read it) the validity of HIV testing, he does thoroughly describe for those who have become ill and diagnosed with AIDS, alternative mechanisms for their illnesses that do not require a retrovirus. Subsequently he was bullied into accepting that HIV causes AIDS, revealing a man of intellectual rigour but emotional weakness. However this is still an important and valid book describing incompatibilities in AIDS theory despite its own weaknesses, and makes some interesting observations about how often the conclusions from a scientific paper actually match up with the data presented in it.

“Inventing the AIDS Virus”, Peter Duesberg, Regenery, 1996

First, I will admit that I haven’t finished reading this book, comprehensive and interesting though it is. The reality is that it is a very large tome (over 700 pages including the index) and I’ve just been busy and got on with things. I will now put it next to the bed so I read it when I finish the book I’m currently on.

As Peter Duesberg was one of the leading lights of early retrovirology, and also came to the public conclusion that they don’t cause cancer or other diseases, his word on the subject is authoritative. Peter seems to have one major blindspot, and that is not questioning whether HIV actually exists or not or whether HIV tests have any validity, but apart from that, this book is comprehensive and fascinating. For example, his study of SMON, the disaster in Japan, is almost like an autopsy of a medical disaster. Similarly he has a lot of interesting stuff to say about how medical science has been transmogrifying into a self-sustaining bureaucracy rather than a group of individuals all focussed on the search for truth. He also comprehensively explains his justification for saying that HIV is not a credible explanation for the illnesses that are classified as AIDS. Definitely worth reading.

"Wrongful Death - The AIDS Trial", Steven Davis, Virtualbookworm.com 2006

This entertaining read is a new different type of novel - where plot is used more as a vehicle for disseminating information. Whereas it contains the standard disclaimer that "any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental", Stephen Davis then goes on to mention in the author's note that some names, such as Robert Gallo and Peter Duesberg are truly meant to refer to those people, and one or two others mentioned in passing. What is interesting about this book is that a large amount of revealing information is shared about - not just AIDS, for the uninitiated - but also Robert Gallo, the arch-villain behind the scientific lurch in the wrong direction (or non-scientific lurch, if you prefer). In normal circumstances of course Stephen Davis would expect to have his arse sued off, if there was a hint that there was anything substantive that wasn't true, having named Robert Gallo so specifically and eviscerated his reputation so comprehensively. Strangely, that hasn't happened. Now, why might that be?

"The AIDS cult - Essays on the Gay Health Crisis", Edited by John Lauritsen and Ian Young, Asklepios 1997

This profoundly important book covers psychological and sociological contributing factors to AIDS from a variety of angles. In order to understand properly what is going on in any situation, you must find the largest patterns operating that have the most profound influence. For example, you wont stop the Titanic from sinking by rearranging deck chairs on to one side of the ship to balance it up when you haven't realised that the ship itself has struck an iceberg. To make the comparison, people rushing after an alleged virus at a microbiological level is akin to rearranging the deckchairs, whereas this book, in looking at the sociological and psychological, and psychobiological aspects of AIDS, is really studying the hole in the Titanic and the anatomy of the disaster.