Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story Of L. Ron Hubbard

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

Jeff Guinn · 544 pages

In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially integrated, and he was active in the civil rights movement. Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to California and soon was a prominent Bay Area leader. Jeff Guinn examines Jones's life, from his affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing to the decision to

The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper

Tony Ortega · 404 pages

Under the direction of its malignant creator, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology developed an intelligence agency second only to the infamous KGB in its infiltration of western government agencies. The Guardian’s Office was a formidable and fanatical organization, which campaigned relentlessly to protect Hubbard from prosecution and successfully dissuaded or ruined most of Scientology’s critics. Paulette

Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons

George Pendle · 368 pages

A lonely misfit born into a wealthy Pasadena family, as a boy Parsons read science fiction and launched rockets in his backyard. By his early twenties, he was a leader of Caltech's "Suicide Squad," the motley band of young enthusiasts who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But his visionary imagination also led him into the occult community thriving in 1930s Los Angeles, and when fantasy's pul

Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me

Ron Miscavige, Dan Koon · 256 pages

"David Miscavige, the Church of Scientology's current leader and successor to founder L. Ron Hubbard, hasn't always ruled with an iron fist. It was his father, Ron Miscavige, who first introduced his family to Scientology, and David embraced it immediately, even as young boy. Years later, Ron could only watch with dismay as his bright, carefree son transformed into the leader he is today. Ruthless

Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Tim Reiterman · 623 pages

Tim Reiterman’s *Raven* provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978. This PEN Award–winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reiterman’s reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and moti

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints

Sam Brower · 323 pages

From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led to the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the maniacal prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), comes the page-turning, horrifying story of how a rogue sect used sex, money, and power disguised under a fac Œade of religion to further criminal activities and a madman's vision.

I Fired God: My Life Inside - and Escape from - the Secret World of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Cult

Jocelyn R. Zichterman

This book is a compelling memoir and investigation into the Independent Fundamental Baptist church and its shocking history of religious abuse. Jocelyn Zichterman was born, raised, married into, and finally, with her family, fled the Independent Fundamental Baptist church. Founded by the fiery preacher Bob Jones, with several hundred thousand, IFB members are told they must not associate with memb

Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology

Marc Headley · 389 pages

The author details the horrors of his slave-like existence as a captive Scientologist whose parents were in the organization and who was forced to attend Scientology schools, do Scientology course work, and who, out of desperation, joined the sea-org at fifteen. The punitive, coercive, and sadistic nature of the organization and the horrors he lived through are vividly told in a chilling, conversa

The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology

John Sweeney · 368 pages

Sweeney tells the full story of his experiences for the first time and paints a devastating picture of this strange organisation, from former Scientologists who tell heartbreaking stories of families torn apart and lives ruined to its current followers who say it is the solution to many of mankind's problems.

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search

Martin Sixsmith · 442 pages

"When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen woman." Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena's son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he h

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

Lawrence Wright · 448 pages

"Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion

Janet Reitman · 464 pages

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, is based on confidential documents, more than 100 interviews with current and former Scientologists, and five years of research. This book confirms the astonishing truth within the controversial religion. Scientology conjures images of its celebrity believers, its notably aggressive response to criticism or its attacks on psychiat

King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero

David Remnick · 326 pages

There were mythic sports figures before him - Jack Johnson, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio - but when Cassius Clay burst onto the sports scene from his native Louisville in the 1950s, he broke the mold. He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world itself. As Muhammad Ali, he would become the most recognized face on the planet. This unforgettable story of his rise and self-cre

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer · 399 pages

Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they receive

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Dennis Covington · 240 pages

It is Scottsboro, Alabama, in the fall of 1991. A snake-handling preacher by the name of Glendel Buford Summerford has just tried to murder his wife, Darlene, by snakebite. At gunpoint, he forces her to stick her arm in a box of rattlesnakes. She is bitten twice and nearly dies. The trial, which becomes a sensation throughout southern Appalachia, echoes familiar themes from a troubled secular wor

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

Jenna Miscavige Hill, Lisa Pulitzer · 416 pages

Jenna Miscavige Hill was raised to obey. As the niece of the Church of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this highly controversial and powerful organization. But at twenty-one, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, and her dramatic escape, goin

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Haruki Murakami · 366 pages

The Ultimate Evil : The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond

Maury Terry · 526 pages

On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the "Son of Sam" murders that had terrorized New York City for more than thirteen months. Berkowitz eagerly confessed to being a lone marauder—one who had carried out eight senseless shootings with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. The case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. He has spent t

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry · 676 pages

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? H

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

Casey Cep · 314 pages

Triumph: Life After the Cult--A Survivor's Lessons

Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer · 279 pages

A Thousand Lives

Julia Scheeres · 321 pages

In 1954, a pastor named Jim Jones opened a church in Indianapolis called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. He was a charismatic preacher with idealistic beliefs, and he quickly filled his pews with an audience eager to hear his sermons on social justice. As Jones's behavior became erratic and his message more ominous, his followers leaned on each other to recapture the sense of equality that had

The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion

Ed Sanders · 415 pages

"Ed Sanders gained access to every material witness to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He corresponded with Manson and visited the family many times in their quarters at the Spahn Ranch, and in Inyo County and Death Valley, their desert hideaways. He interviewed members of motorcycle gangs whose paths crossed that of Manson and his family. He covered the trial for the Los Angeles Free Press and develo

Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church

Lauren Drain · 300 pages

"In the tradition of Escape and Stolen innocence, the first look behind the curtains of the Westboro Baptist Church, by a young woman cast out from its clutches"--Provided by the publisher. Lauren Drain's childhood seemed average American, but when her liberal-minded father set out to film a documentary about the audacious and cultish hate group, the Westboro Baptist Church, he found himself se