Download or read book Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology written by Sands Hall and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With its keen attention to the language and tactics of the church, Hall’s memoir is unique among the assortment of Scientology reports and exposés, offering insight into the certainties that its subjects gain." —The Nation In the secluded canyons of 1980s Hollywood, Sands Hall, a young woman from a literary family, strives to forge her own way as an artist. But instead, Hall finds herself increasingly drawn toward the certainty that Scientology appears to offer. Her time in the Church includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. In this compelling memoir, Hall reveals what drew her into the religion—with its intrigues and unique contemporary vision—and how she came to confront its darker sides and finally escape. "Some of the most penetrating, illuminating prose about how an educated and skeptical person could get so deeply into, and then struggle to escape, what everyone around her warned was a dangerous cult . . . brilliant." —The Underground Bunker "If it is Scientology's offer of a life with meaning that hauls her in . . . it is its approach to meaning that keeps her . . . Hall's fascination with this is palpable." —Camille Ralphs, The Times Literary Supplement

Download or read book Catching Heaven written by Sands Hall and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complex bond and unspoken resentments between sisters . . . the aching search for home and connection and community . . . the ever-changing landscape of family and those who define it . . . Sands Hall weaves these powerful elements into a novel ripe with discovery and wonder. Set against the immutable backdrop of the American Southwest, Catching Heaven illuminates that quiet place in the heart where solitude embraces serenity and dreams meet possibility.

Download or read book Tools of the Writer s Craft written by Sands Hall and published by Moving Finger Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mainstay of many college writing programs by the best-selling author of Catching Heaven. Sands Hall has developed these essays, stories and exercises during twenty-four years as a writing instructor and freelance editor.

Download or read book Red Paint written by Sasha LaPointe and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe has always longed for a sense of home. When she was a child, her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha. With little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother—a linguist who helped preserve her Indigenous language of Lushootseed—Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, determined to build a better future for herself and her people. Set against a backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of Coast Salish ancestral land and imbued with the universal spirit of punk, Red Paint is ultimately a story of the ways we learn to find our true selves while fighting for our right to claim a place of our own. Examining what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art, Sasha offers up an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas amplified by the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples. Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience, and, above all, the ability to heal.

Download or read book Believe Me written by John Fea and published by Eerdmans. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Believe me" may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump's lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting the Christian heritage, the refrain is constant. And to the surprise of many, about 80% percent of white evangelicals have believed Trump-at least enough to help propel him into the White House. Historian John Fea is not surprised-and in Believe Me he explains how we have arrived at this unprecedented moment in American politics. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past. In the process, Fea challenges his fellow believers to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history

Download or read book It s Complicated written by Danah Boyd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the online social habits of American teens and analyzes the role technology and social media plays in their lives, examining common misconceptions about such topics as identity, privacy, danger, and bullying.

Download or read book No Logo written by Naomi Klein and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-01-15 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands." Billy Bragg from the bookjacket.

Download or read book American Stutter 2019 2021 written by STEVE. ERICKSON and published by Zerogram Press. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Jonathan Lethem put, Steve Erickson's journal of the last 18 months of the Trump Presidency "sears the page." Erickson, one of our finest novelists, has long been an astute political observer, and American Stutter, part political declaration, part humorous account of more personal matters, offers a particularly moving reminder of the democratic ideals that we are currently struggling to preserve. Written with wit, eloquence, and a controlled fury as event unfold, Erickson has left us with an essential record of our recent history, a book to be read with our collective breath held.* Steve Erickson is the author of ten novels and two books about American culture. For 12 years he was founding editor of the national literary journal Black Clock. Currently he is the film/television critic for Los Angeles magazine and a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Riverside. He has received a Guggenheim fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement award.

Download or read book The Googlization of Everything written by Siva Vaidhyanathan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point of anarchy, a vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion. Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission—"To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible"—and its much-quoted motto, "Don’t be evil." In this provocative book, Siva Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. He exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He assesses Google’s global impact, particularly in China, and explains the insidious effect of Googlization on the way we think. Finally, Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an Internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful company from falling into the "evil" it pledged to avoid.

Download or read book Brainwashing written by Kathleen Taylor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-27 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing the worlds of neuroscience and social psychology together, this book examines the ethical problems involved in carrying out the required experiments on humans, the limitations of animal models, and the frightening implications of such research. It also explores the history of thought-control and shows how it exists around us.

Download or read book Sin Bravely written by Maggie Rowe and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tour de force, voice-driven debut that examines how one woman finally found the middle ground between Heaven and Hell--an NPR Best Book of the Year. As a young girl, Maggie Rowe took the idea of salvation very seriously. Growing up in a moderately religious household, her fear of eternal damnation turned into a childhood terror that drove her to become an outrageously dedicated Born-again Christian —regularly slinging Bible verses in cutthroat scripture memorization competitions and assaulting strangers at shopping malls with the “good news” that they were going to hell. Finally, at nineteen, crippled by her fear, she checked herself in to an Evangelical psychiatric facility. And that is where her journey really began. Surrounded by a ragtag cast of characters, including a former biker meth-head struggling with anger management issues, a set of identical twins tormented by erotic fantasies, a World War II veteran and artist of denial who insists that he’s only “locked up for a tune-up,” and a warm and upbeat chronic depressive who becomes the author’s closest ally, Maggie launches a campaign to, in the words of Martin Luther, "Sin bravely in order to know the forgiveness of God."

Download or read book Unholy written by Sarah Posner and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In terrifying detail, Unholy illustrates how a vast network of white Christian nationalists plotted the authoritarian takeover of the American democratic system. There is no more timely book than this one.”—Janet Reitman, author of Inside Scientology Why did so many evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values with his every utterance? To a reporter like Sarah Posner, who has been covering the religious right for decades, the answer turns out to be far more intuitive than one might think. In this taut inquiry, Posner digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement’s core, and how religion often cloaked anxieties about perceived threats to a white, Christian America. Fueled by an antidemocratic impulse, and united by this narrative of reverse victimization, the religious right and the alt-right support a common agenda–and are actively using the erosion of democratic norms to roll back civil rights advances, stock the judiciary with hard-right judges, defang and deregulate federal agencies, and undermine the credibility of the free press. Increasingly, this formidable bloc is also forging ties with European far right groups, giving momentum to a truly global movement. Revelatory and engrossing, Unholy offers a deeper understanding of the ideological underpinnings and forces influencing the course of Republican politics. This is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

Download or read book The Risk of Us written by Rachel Howard and published by Ecco. This book was released on 2019 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poignant, dazzling debut novel about a woman who longs to be a mother and the captivating yet troubled child she and her husband take in.

Download or read book Better Days written by Len Joy and published by Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHEN HIS BOYHOOD FRIEND VANISHES, A MAN WHO HAS COASTED THROUGH LIFE ON THE FADING MEMORY OF HIGH SCHOOL HEROICS, RISKS EVERYTHING TO SAVE HIM. The FBI? What had Billy done now? And why did they think I was involved? I had to take a breath and replay in my head what she had just said. The FBI wanted to talk to Billy. That was really bad. But if they couldn't have Billy, then The Federal Bureau of Investigation wanted me. Darwin Burr was wanted by the FBI. That was a hundred times worse than bad. When I got stopped by a small town cop for speeding a couple years ago I was so nervous it took me five minutes to find my car registration. There was no way I could talk to a real FBI agent. They had a parade for Darwin Burr years ago when his team won the state title. He's coasted through life on that memory. Still lives in Claxton, Illinois -- but the bucolic farm town now simmers with racial tension. He has a cushy job working for his wheeler-dealer, boyhood friend, Billy Rourke. He has a country house, a healthy 401K, and still drinks for free at Clarkie's Bar. His wife Daina, who escaped from Latvia and never looked back, disdains Darwin's lack of ambition. She's consumed by her job helping Claxton's underclass and has little time for Darwin or their daughter, Astra. When Billy arranges for Darwin to assist Astra's high school basketball coach --the mysterious and flirtatious Fariba Pahlavi -- Darwin stops coasting. He discovers a passion for coaching. And Fariba. Just as Darwin is getting back in the game, Billy vanishes, the FBI wants Darwin's help to find him, and Darwin learns his wife's secret past has put her life in jeopardy. Darwin knows Billy's guilty, but he can't betray his friend, and he's falling in love with Fariba, but can't abandon his wife. He has no good choices, no winning shot, and in this world heroes don't get parades. ..".The moral and ethical questions raised by his own actions, and by the actions of those closest to him, are part of what keep these pages turning: the reader is keenly interested in finding out what choices Darwin will make. A great read by a writer who just keeps getting better and better."--Sands Hall. Author of the memoir, FLUNK. START. Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology, and of the novel, Catching Heaven ..". Len Joy knows men, and as a woman reader, I like getting inside men's heads. Strange as they are, they have troubles and desires and they make mistakes, oh boy, and when they figure that out, they have feelings, too. No fancy stuff. No mumble jumble interiority. This is Do Something, Find Out What Happens, Deal With It...Len Joy is ... solid Americana."--Sandra Scofield - National Book Award Nominee "Len Joy combines lyrical language, unflinching insight, and a kind of rough-edged masculinity to unique effect. His work is a nuanced study of small town life and the deceptive allure of the American dream."--Abby Geni, Author of the novels, THE WILDLANDS and THE LIGHTKEEPERS

Download or read book Writer s Workshop in a Book written by Alan Cheuse and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2007-06-07 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1969, the prestigious Squaw Valley Community of Writers has helped develop the craft of many who are now household names. Such noted authors as Michael Chabon, Anne Lamott, and Amy Tan have distilled their advice and wisdom from seminars and lectures, and the result is a book that captures the workshop experience of complete submersion in the writing process.

Download or read book Brands of Faith written by Mara Einstein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-09-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a series of fascinating case studies of faith brands, marketing insider Mara Einstein has produced a lively account of the book in the commercialization of religion.

Download or read book The Abundance of Less written by Andy Couturier and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspiring stories of 10 people who left urban Japan to live ‘the simple life’ in the rural mountains—for anyone interested in sustainable living, Japanese counterculture, and Eastern spirituality “Subversive in the best possible way.” —Bill McKibben, New York Times–bestselling author The Abundance of Less captures the texture of sustainable lives well lived in these ten profiles of ordinary—yet exceptional—men and women who left behind mainstream existences in urban Japan to live surrounded by the luxuries of nature, art, friends, delicious food, and an abundance of time. Drawing on traditional Eastern spiritual wisdom and culture, these pioneers describe the profound personal transformations they underwent as they escaped the stress, consumerism, busyness, and dependence on technology of modern life. This intimate and evocative book tells of their fulfilling lives as artists, philosophers, and farmers who rely on themselves for happiness and sustenance. By inviting readers to enter into the essence of these individuals’ days, Couturier shows us how we too can bring more meaning and richness to our own lives.