As summer ticks over into autumn you’ll find there are days where you just want to get stuck into a good book. We’ve done all the hard work for you and reviewed some goodies for you…
Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult, Faith Jones
Superb!
Faith Jones was brought up in a home dominated by a missionary father who ruled his two wives and children with a strict hand. Her grandfather (Berg) was the founder of the Children of God and believed he was God’s prophet for the End Times and controlled the Family (his followers) through sophisticated methods of control.
One of the things he preached was that men could practice polygamy, sex was acceptable outside marriage and that women must freely share their bodies in order to ensure men’s needs were taken care of. Women were also encouraged to Flirty Fish – where they dressed up for Systemites (non-believers) and slept with them to introduce them to the Family’s teachings and show them God’s love.
Children were also encouraged to experiment with sex from a young age.
Faith’s youth was spent in absolute poverty with chores, prayers and continuous study of the ‘Mo Letters’ – her grandfather’s regular newsletters that the Family were expected to study. Money is raised for the cause through singing, performing and selling CDs to Systemites.
The Children of God cult grew into an international organisation and Faith often had to move to different countries to spread their version of the gospel. She moved from her home base in Macau to Thailand, then to the USA, Kazakhstan and, later, China.
It is only through indomitable grit that Faith started teaching herself a high-school curriculum and eventually, at the age of 23, is able to break away from the clutches of the Family and attends Georgetown and UC Berkeley Law School.
Today, Faith Jones is a lawyer, activist, entrepreneur and business advisor but other members of the Family aren’t so lucky. With the disintegration of the cult, thousands of followers nearing retirement have found themselves destitute with no way to support themselves. While some of the younger children have enrolled in school, many struggle to overcome feelings of inferiority due to their lack of education.
This book was honest, eye-opening, disturbing, yet exceptional. I couldn’t put it down.
The Shadow Broker, Tina Clough
Set four years into the future, Tina Clough’s latest book is perhaps prophetic. Draconian surveillance laws have been introduced into a post-covid, multi-vax Aotearoa and people can be locked up for dubious crimes where the evidence is never made public. And if you dare to search for evidence of government corruption you could end up on the Kill List.
When Minnie finds a burner phone and reads suspicious coded messages she turns to life-long friend Rumble to help her make sense of them. Assisted by an acquaintance, Luke, the trusted team begins to unravel information on The Broker who seems to be masterminding shady deals with top levels of government . How unsurprising!
Although the pace does flag now and then, there’s plenty of intrigue.
Our Home In Myanmar, Jessica Mudditt
Australian journalist Jessica Mudditt and her Bangladeshi husband Sherpa lived in Yangon, Myanmar (previously known as Burma) for four years from 2012, just as the military junta was beginning to relax its power. Jessica joins the Myanmar Times and soon learns that free speech and the road to democracy for Myanmar isn’t as straight forward as she imagined.
Jessica leads an exciting life as a journalist, filled with interesting stories and challenges including covering speeches by Aung San Suu Kyi, and visits by US President Barack Obama. She’s also able to tour the country and visit many of the thousand-year-old temples and meet many of the beautiful Myanmar people.
During her time there, Jessica also worked for the British Embassy and the United Nations as well as doing a stint with the government controlled newspaper. As the historic elections of 2015 draw near, Jessica is full of hope that the country has embraced democracy but sadly, as with all dictatorships, the people in power have a problem in ‘letting go’.
With the rise of militant Buddhism, Jessica and Sherpa eventually have to leave.
Our Home in Myanmar was a most enjoyable read and reminds me that resource-rich Myanmar is another example of a country that was brought to its knees by dictators who nationalise and mismanage the economy whilst lining their own pockets.
Listen, Kathryn Mannix
Listen is a powerful book about life, death, relationships, mental health and how to talk about what really matters. As a doctor who has spent more than 30 years working with the dying, Kathryn Mannix uses short stories and examples to bring her points to life and offers a guiding hand to help us navigate those significant conversations that we often steer away from.
She suggests that rather than offering solutions to people, we should rather create a safe space for them whilst not focusing on the facts but rather on what matters to the person. In offering solutions you might be shutting down the telling of their story, and that is disempowering.
Kathryn also reminds us that sometimes things can’t be made better and that we shouldn’t try to change a person’s experience but simply seek to accompany it. She also says that silence can be powerful and is often where the work takes place.
There are also things to avoid: interrupting, telling your own story, offering advice, over-identifying, minimising distress, trying to fix things and making assumptions.
The Everyday Hero Manifesto, Robin Sharma
If you enjoyed The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The 5AM Club, then you’ll enjoy this book too. Regarded as one of the top leadership and personal-mastery experts in the world, Robin Sharma’s latest book is part instruction manual and part handbook for spiritual freedom in an age of rapid change. The book shows how you can achieve your goals in spite of difficult circumstances by turning troubles into triumphs and converting trauma into a teacher.
The author covers topics such as the hidden habits used by many of the world’s most successful people; techniques to turn fear into fuel; past troubles into triumphs; stop distraction and procrastination and gives wisdom into operating with far more simplicity, beauty and peace. He reminds us that ‘to have the results very few have, you must do the things very few do’.
The Interview, C M Ewan
I raced through this book over a cold and wet weekend. Kate Harding is asked to attend an interview at 5pm on a Friday evening. She thinks it’s for her dream job.
The offices are on the 13th floor of a brand new building in London – what could possibly go wrong?
I can’t give you any further hints but suffice to say, this is page-turning stuff with loads of twists and turns.