“Belief and faith are great, but very few people have been led astray by thinking for themselves.” I finished this book at one AM on a work night, when I had to be up at 6 AM the next morning. I did this even though I knew I would feel like shit the next morning, because I just couldn’t help myself. I was thinking, boy, I should go to bed! I’m going to regret this tomorrow (and probably the days after)! And then I just […]
An Attempt to Clear the Air about Scientology
Going Clear is about the enigma that is Scientology, a religion marketed to the wealthy and famous who can afford undergoing years of auditing sessions. It’s a secretive religion that unfolds information in stages, making the stranger tenets of Scientology more palatable after acclimating one’s mind to less shocking, but priming “truths.” As a newer religion (founded by L. Ron Hubbard in the mid 1950’s), Scientology has recent history to its detriment. And it is this with which Wright begins…the story of L. Ron Hubbard, […]
Two Amish dudes who just really love wood
Not going to lie, I totally started reading this book because with a name like A Forbidden Rumspringa, I thought it’d be hilariously over the top and I figured I’d be able to laugh about it with bookish friends later. Andrews managed to take a silly sounding premise and turn it into a well-written romance that takes its characters and their problems seriously. The story takes place in a small Amish community in northern Minnesota called Zebulon. Apparently there’s a lot of variation within Amish […]
A Modern Pagan Folk Story
A recent article in The Atlantic argues that British children’s stories are better than American ones, because the British often tap into fantasy and paganism in a way that really captures a child’s imagination. The heroes of these stories are not setting out to learn a moral, but are “trickster[s] who triumph through wit and skill.” Well in the case, Good Omens is the story of that British child growing up and viewing religion and fantasy with common sense and a deep understanding of humanity. And that child […]