God is in the Crowd: Twenty-first Century Judaism, by Tal Keinan. Spiegel & Grau, 2018
This is a hard book to categorize. The first part is autobiography; Keinan was raised in the US and went to school here, but then moved to Israel and joined the Air Force. He was the only non-Israeli fighter pilot there. After his time with the military, he ( Read more... )

In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult, by Rebecca Stott. Spiegel & Grau, 2017Rebecca Stott was born into a cult. So was her father. He was a high ranking official in the church called the Exclusive Brethren. An End of Times cult, they felt they had to purify themselves so they would be bodily taken up when the Rapture occurred. The ( Read more... )

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander, M.D. Simon & Schuster, 2012Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon. In 2008 he contracted a rare illness that struck with unusual rapidity and put him into a coma hours after it struck. He remained in that coma, unable to even breathe for himself, for seven days. His doctors ( Read more... )

Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage, by Joe, Alina, Vicki and Valerie Darger, with Brooke Adams. Harper One, 2011This is the true story of the marriage of Joe Darger and his three wives: Alina, Vicki and Val. As Independent Fundamentalist Mormons, they believe that having a pleural marriage- a Celestial Marriage- helps them ( Read more... )

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine, by Sue Monk Kidd. Harper, 1996Best selling author (“The Secret Life of Bees”) Sue Monk Kidd was born into a conservative Christian family and married a conservative Christian minister. For years, she wrote inspirational Christian books. What, ( Read more... )