One of my most anticipated this year was Slonim Woods 9, a memoir by Daniel Barban Levin, a former Sarah Lawrence student who was in a notorious cult run out of their college dorm by the father of one of his roommates. That's a lot to take in right there, but my god does it... Continue Reading →
Sherry Shriner, Reptilians, and Orgone Warriors: A Journalist Investigates An Internet Cult
Dragged Into the Light: Truthers, Reptilians, Super Soldiers, and Death Inside an Online Cult, by Tony Russo (Used or new @ SecondSale.com) When a person lives their entire life in denial about the world around them, the world can start to fade away. In a world of monsters, resurrections, and orgone wars, a world where... Continue Reading →
Two Crimey New Releases: Death on Ocean Boulevard and Don’t Call it a Cult
Death On Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case, by Caitlin Rother. Published April 27 by Citadel The story of what happened to Rebecca Zahau and her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai's son, Max, is both a mesmerizingly compelling puzzle and deeply sad. No matter how you puzzle over its innumerable oddities and curious details, and the... Continue Reading →
Charles Manson, the CIA, and a Very Different Side of Helter Skelter
Book review: Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring So many years later, Manson’s name still served as a kind of shorthand for a very American form of brutal violence, the kind that erupts seemingly from nowhere and confirms the nation’s darkest fears about... Continue Reading →
The Hows and Whys of a Church-Turned-Cult and a Murder
Book review: Without a Prayer, by Susan Ashline (Amazon / Book Depository) Each year, Chadwicks had a Halloween parade, and families would line Oneida Street--except for the spot in front of the redbrick building. People from the church would chase them off the lawn. Though Oneida Street was a typical stream for trick-or-treaters, no one... Continue Reading →
12 More Upcoming Nonfiction Titles in 2019
One last installment of 2019's upcoming nonfiction new releases: We've got cult insiders, lesser known Cold War tales, undercover in asylums, retracing Napoleon's Russian retreat, jackasses, life and death in colonial Sydney, women profiling women, and a genre-bending look at domestic abuse, and some new nonfiction in translation, among others. The Berlin Mission: The American... Continue Reading →
Lawrence Wright’s Look at the Satanic Panic
Book review: Remembering Satan, by Lawrence Wright (Amazon / Book Depository) Journalist Lawrence Wright is one of my favorite nonsense-busters. It just doesn't get past him. And his books are so well-written that even when they're dealing with the eye-rolling (but also very sad) "Satanic Panic" of the late 80s/90s, they're meticulous and brilliantly laid... Continue Reading →
Moving, Hopeful Writing on Growing Up Under Control and Getting Away
Book review: Apocalypse Child, by Flor Edwards Amazon I have no memory of my ancestry or record of my lineage; there is only Father David...When I picture my family tree, I see Mom...Dad...and my siblings - too many to count on two hands. When I envision my ancestors I see faraway Nordic countries where fjords... Continue Reading →
Pain and Consequences for the Second Generation of the Children of God
Book review: Jesus Freaks, by Don Lattin (Amazon / Book Depository) This was an okay book, but nowhere near a great one, and I'd say there are multiple reasons not to read it. One of them being that Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" will be stuck in your head nonstop for the duration of reading it.... Continue Reading →
A Light in the Darkest Places
Book review: The Only Girl in the World, by Maude Julien (Amazon / Book Depository) My father is convinced that the mind can achieve anything. Absolutely anything: it can overcome every danger and conquer every obstacle. But to do this requires long, rigorous training away from the impurities of this dirty world. He’s always saying,... Continue Reading →
The Prophet’s Daughter Tells Her Story
Book review: Breaking Free, by Rachel Jeffs (Amazon / Book Depository) I am not a victim, and I do not want anyone’s sympathy. I wrote this book to help others who have suffered from similar experiences, whether in the FLDS church, or in thrall to some other circumstance beyond their control. I want people to... Continue Reading →
Inside a Manhattan New Age Cult
Book review: The Cult Next Door, by Elizabeth Burchard Amazon When cults make the news, it's often because they've done something awful on a compound somewhere, or in the jungles of Guyana. This memoir shows the mesmerizing power of a cult close to home, one that forms in the heart of a major metropolis, in one of Manhattan's poshest... Continue Reading →