In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks

Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement

Kathryn Joyce · 258 pages

Provides an intimate view of the patriarchy movement. They believe the "biblical" woman wears modest, feminine dress and avoids not only sex but also dating before marriage. She doesn't speak in church, or try to have authority over men. She is a submissive wife who bolsters her husband in his role as spiritual and earthly leader of the family.

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

Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels

Hella Winston · 187 pages

"When Hella Winston began talking with Hasidic Jews for her doctoral dissertation in sociology, she was excited to be meeting members of the highly insular Satmar sect. While several Jewish journalists and scholars have produced largely admiring books describing the Lubavitch way of life and that group's outreach efforts to unaffiliated Jews, very little has been written about the many other Hasid

Secrets and Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy

Sanjiv Bhattacharya · 367 pages

What do we really know about modern polygamists? We've seen the news storiesin recent years about the underage brides in prairie dresses, but that's just the FLDS, one of many groups who practice polygamy in the Mormon tradition. There's also the Order, the TLC, the AUB and thousands of independents. It's estimated that over 40,000 Mormon fundamentalists live underground in the American West. In S

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

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead

Christine Wicker · 288 pages

In Lily Dale, New York, the dead don't die. Instead, they flit among the elms and stroll along the streets. According to spiritualists who have ruled this community for five generations, the spirits never go away—and they stay anything but quiet. Every summer twenty thousand guests come to consult the town's mediums in hopes of communicating with dead relatives or catching a glimpse of the future.

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

Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World

Katherine Zoepf · 265 pages

"For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women. Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are begin

Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Saba Mahmood · 260 pages

"Politics of Piety is a groundbreaking analysis of Islamist cultural politics through the ethnography of a thriving, grassroots women's piety movement in the mosques of Cairo, Egypt. Unlike those organized Islamist activities that seek to seize or transform the state, this is a moral reform movement whose orthodox practices are commonly viewed as inconsequential to Egypt's political landscape. Sab

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

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt · 473 pages

A groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality, which turns out to be the basis for religion and politics. The book explains the American culture wars and refutes the "New Atheists."

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence of Jesus

Lee Strobel · 320 pages

**Is there credible proof that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God? In *The Case for Christ*, Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the *Chicago Tribune* and *New York Times* bestselling author, retraces his own spiritual journey from atheism to faith and builds a captivating case for Christ's divinity.** In this revised and updated edition of *The Case for Christ*, Strobel cross-examines a

Daughters of Another Path: Experiences of American Women Choosing Islam

Carol L. Anway · 215 pages

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

Chris Hedges · 272 pages

Includes information on abortion, Antichrist, apocalyptic violence, Bible, religious broadcasting media, George W. Bush, Christian Right, Christians, conversion process, converts, creationism, democracy, Democratic Party, dominionism, education system, elections, Darwinʼs theory of evolution, fundamentalism, homosexuality, Islam, Jesus, Jews, lesbians, liberalism, love, male church leaders, cult o

Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society

Fatema Mernissi, fTm@ lmrnysy · 197 pages

The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism

Karen Armstrong · 442 pages

"In The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong shows us how and why fundamentalist groups came into existence and what they yearn to accomplish.". "We see the West in the sixteenth century beginning to create an entirely new kind of civilization, which brought in its wake change in every aspect of life - often painful and violent, even if liberating. Armstrong argues that one of the things that changed

Columbine

Dave Cullen · 417 pages

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat

Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish

Tom Shachtman · 286 pages

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages

"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America

Jeff Chu · 353 pages

A writer for Time magazine, after coming out to his parents as a gay man, documents his personal journey, from Brooklyn to California, to discover the God forbidden to him because of his sexuality and understand what the diverse followers of Christ believe about homosexuality. An intellectual, emotional, and spiritual pilgrimage that reveals a nation in crisis.

Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

Leila Ahmed · 304 pages

Explores the historical roots of the debate about women in Islamic societies by tracing the developments in Islamic discourses on women and gender up to the present. The book describes the gender systems in place in the Middle East both before and after the rise of Islam.

The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World

Nawal El-Saadawi · 282 pages

Beschrijving van allerlei aspecten van het vrouw-zijn in Islamitische landen en van de man-vrouw verhouding tegen de achtergrond van het sociale, politieke religieuze leven

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Reza Aslan · 336 pages

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee gathering followers to establish the "Kingdom of God." He was tortured and executed as a state criminal. Within decades, his followers would call him God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens