Better late than never?
Because I’m definitely late to this one, as it’s now the third week of the Non-Fiction November event over at JulzReads.
At first I was wondering whether I should join this year due to my blog’s focus. And then I looked at my reading the past few years and realized my Non-Fic tally is super low, and usually just memoirs.
I love Non-Fiction and not sure why I don’t read it more. But how can I incorporate more Non-Fic into my blog, when my focus is on Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror?
As I was mulling this over along with this week’s prompt I had a light bulb moment.
I guess before I go too far down this rabbit hole I should go into this week’s topic, hosted by Katie over at Doing Dewey:
“Three ways to join in this week! You can share 3 or more books on a single topic that you’ve read and can recommend (be the expert); you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you’ve been dying to read (ask the expert); or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).”
This is a touch personal, but for about 10 years of my life I was a part of a radical wing of Christianity. Everything started off fine, as I was just trying to find community during a rough time, but as I became more fanatical I completely lost myself. In the years since then, I’ve become curiously interested in radical faiths and cults. What’s the difference between the two? Is there a difference? I’ve already done some research over the past few years but now is the time to really jump in. As for how this fits my theme, what’s more Horrifying than a real-life cult?
So this is a challenge for myself in 2020, as I read the genres I love I want to read a least five Non-Fic books on cults/radical faiths. I don’t think I’ll become an expert by any means but I do think this is a solid start.
Below is the four books that our on the top of the list to read:
1 Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief – Lawrence Wright
2 Once You Go In: A Memoir of Radical Faith – Carly Gelsinger
3 The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple – Jeff Guinn
4 Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith – Jon Krakauer
I have a few other books that interested me and hope to get to next year, but we’ll leave that discussion for week five of Non-Fic November!
I’ve always been slightly fascinated by cult stuff. I have the Jim Jones one on my list, I will have to read it. I should add the rest! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks! I know very little about Jonestown (other than the Kool-Aid saying) so its really high on my list for next year.
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I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard lots of good things about Educated.
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Oh wow, I had seen the cover here and there but didn’t know what it was about. Thanks, it’s def on my TBR now!
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That’s a really interesting collection. I loved Going Clear. It was about as fair and balanced as a book written by a skeptic could be (though that’s a low bar). lol I haven’t read the others. If you’re interested in Scientology, another book I found interesting was Beyond Belief, by Jenna Miscavige Hill.
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Thanks! I’m glad to hear that Going Clear is fair. I’ll have to put Beyond Belief on the list too. I wanted to read an overview criticism first before memoir accounts (Leah Remini’s book is high on my list too!).
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The interesting thing about Beyond Belief is that Jenna’s uncle was the person who took over after Hubbard died. So she was fairly high up in the organization.
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Australia is not immune to cults and fanatic faith groups either – a book called Zealots came out earlier this year, if you’d like to get a perspective from the other side of the world – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42283340-zealot
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Yes I do! I just wanted to get a handle on home grown cults first before I started reading diving into international. Thank you for the rec! Def going on the list 🙂
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As an atheist I don’t have a very good understanding of a cult’s appeal, but it is an interesting topic and I’ve read a handful of books about the subject. I’ve added Unfollow my Megan Phelps-Roper to my wishlist this year.
Thanks for sharing your recommendations
Please stop by to see my NonFicNov: Become The Expert
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No problem. Thank you as well!
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[…] and talked about each group of books together. I also want to thank everyone who suggested books on my week 3 post. I’m very […]
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[…] The Road to Jonestown – Scifantastor […]
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What a fascinating topic to read on! As part of Nonfiction November, Bookish Beck gave some recommendations on women’s religious memoirs here: https://bookishbeck.wordpress.com/2019/11/13/being-the-expert-on-womens-religious-memoirs-again-unfollow-leaving-the-witness/ and Rennie at What’s Nonfiction reads a lot on this topic as well, so if you search for ‘cult’ or ‘leaving’ on her blog, you’ll come up with a bunch of other suggestions https://whatsnonfiction.com/, if you’re looking for more 🙂
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Thank you so much for the help!! I’m always looking for suggestions.
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