Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels

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

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.

The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin · 120 pages

**From Amazon.com:** A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, *The Fire Next Time* galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks

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

Gina Welch · 333 pages

Ever since evangelical Christians rose to national prominence, mainstream America has watched them with a nervous eye, but our understanding hasn't gone beyond the caricatures. Who are evangelicals, really? To find out, Gina Welch, a young secular Jew ("born atheist") from Berkeley, joined Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. Over the course of nearly two years, Welch immersed herself in th

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.

Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish

Tom Shachtman · 286 pages

The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity

Lee Strobel · 320 pages

The author, a former atheist who became a Christian after two years of examining the historical evidence about God and Jesus, addresses some of the bothersome issues that often hinder people in their quest for faith, including questions about suffering and evil, science and evolution, different beliefs, hell, and doubt.

Girl Meets God

Lauren F. Winner · 316 pages

"Like most of us, Lauren Winner wants something to believe in. The child of a Reform Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, she chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But as she faithfully observes the Sabbath rituals and studies Jewish laws, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Christianity. So, taking a courageous step, she leaves behind what she loves, and converts. Now the even harde

god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Christopher Hitchens · 307 pages

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloq

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

Fatema Mernissi, fTm@ lmrnysy · 197 pages

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

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond

Deborah Laake · 240 pages

In this book, Deborah Laake, a former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chronicles her experiences with Mormonism and the various rituals performed in their temples. Laake recounts her studies at the Brigham Young University, her loveless first marriage at nineteen, her subsequent divorce and the problems she encountered with the Mormon authorities and her relatives due to

All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir

Shulem Deen · 299 pages

Shulem Deen was raised to believe that questions are dangerous. As a member of the Skverers, one of the most insular Hasidic sects in the US, he knows little about the outside world--only that it is to be shunned. His marriage at eighteen is arranged and several children soon follow. Deen's first transgression--turning on the radio--is small, but his curiosity leads him to the library, and later t

Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions

Phil Zuckerman · 276 pages

Over the last twenty-five years, "no religion" has become the fastest-growing religion in the United States. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people have turned away from the traditional faiths of the past and embraced a moral yet nonreligious--or secular--life, generating societies vastly less religious than at any other time in human history. Revealing the inspiring beliefs that empower

Dialogue with an Atheist

mSTf~ mHmwd, Mostafa Mahmoud · 181 pages

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

The Holiness of God

R.C. Sproul · 240 pages

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Sam Harris · 348 pages

A startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world, this historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify atrocities, asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can not expect to survive our religious differences indefinitely. Most controversially, argues that moderate lip se

Struggling to Surrender: Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam

Jeffrey Lang · 242 pages

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey Into Christian Faith

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. There, her partner rehabilitated abandoned and abused dogs. In the community, Rosaria was involv

Confessions

Augustine of Hippo · 345 pages

Garry Wills’s complete translation of Saint Augustine’s spiritual masterpiece—available now for the first time Garry Wills is an exceptionally gifted translator and one of our best writers on religion today. His bestselling translations of individual chapters of Saint Augustine’s Confessions have received widespread and glowing reviews. Now for the first time, Wills’s translation of the entire wor

Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim

Ziauddin Sardar · 354 pages