Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract and was admitted into Scientology’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard’s most advanced techniques, Mike was instead put to work swabbing the decks.
Still, Rinder bought into the doctrine that his personal comfort was secondary to the higher purpose of Hubbard’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta.
Yet Rinder couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that something was amiss—Hubbard’s promises remained unfulfilled at his death, and his successor, David Miscavige, was a ruthless and vindictive man who did not hesitate to confine many top Scientologists, Mike among them, to a makeshift prison known as the Hole.
In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization’s biggest public enemies. He was followed, hacked, spied on, and tracked. But he refused to be intimidated and today helps people break free of Scientology.
In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.
Today is better but the murder of a friend back in March is always on my mind. Perhaps 2022 is just a lousy year for me but I feel that 2023 won't be much better. It might just be that the negative thoughts from pain are influencing my feelings but we shall soon see what 2023 has in store for all of us.
My best read for last month is, hands down, The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart. The novel takes place in Louisiana where there are plenty of good places to stash a dead body. They can be hidden in tall grass by the water's edge or next to exposed tree roots. The variety of these places provide different decomposition times which could confuse a medical examiner not as experienced as Dr. Wren Muller.
The book is a serial killer story and we read more about the serial killer's background than Wren's, who is the protagonist. While featuring the killer more might normally be a bad idea, it works here because he is such a nut. He leaves different calling cards at his murder scenes to confuse the police which adds a new dimension to this genre. Wren is the perfect sleuth though. She has an educational background in forensics and plenty of work experience. She would make a great series sleuth.
I hope that Urquhart decides to make this a series. I loved the Louisiana setting with its plethora of good dumping grounds. Check the book out if you haven't already.
"Something dark is lurking in the Louisiana bayou: a methodical killer with a penchant for medical experimentation is hard at work completing his most harrowing crime yet, taunting the authorities who desperately try to catch up.But forensic pathologist Dr. Wren Muller is the best there is. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of historical crimes, and years of experience working in the Medical Examiner's office, she's never encountered a case she couldn't solve. Until now. Case after case is piling up in Wren's examination table and soon she is sucked into an all consuming cat and mouse chase with a brutal murderer getting more brazen by the day."
"I clutched baby Chloe's blanket, tears streaming down my face as I remember the night she disappeared. I looked up at the apartment block I once called home. I knew I'd never be welcome here again. One mistake had ruined everything.When I accepted a job working as a nanny for David and Julie and their young children, I couldn't believe my luck. I bonded with the baby Chloe instantly and would have done anything for her. She had David's thick dark hair and smiling eyes. I fell in love with her and was excited about her future. But when a terrible mistake led to Chloe disappearing, I was instantly blamed. With no evidence, I was let go and I returned home to try and rebuild my life.Twenty years later and I am still haunted by what happened. I have a family of my own now and I've worked hard to be the best wife and mother I can be. But I've never forgotten the child who stole my heart. Then a young woman arrived on my doorstep and the past secret that I have kept from my family comes hurtling into my present. I try to tell myself that I am overreacting but the woman in front of me looks so much like David. Who is she and why is she here?"
The book is the third installment of a trilogy. Andrea Wagner is engaged to veterinarian Brandon Prentice. When she finds out that she is adopted Andrea puts her wedding plans on hold until she can find her birth mother. This is a clean romance novel so we read more about the characters' emotions and their relationship with God than how they might act when together.
I don't believe that I have ever read an Amish fiction novel with such a complex plot. For that reason, it is my best book for the month.
Shanti, a bright teenager stifled by life in rural India and facing an arranged marriage, dreams that South Africa is an opportunity to start afresh. The Colony of Natal is where Shanti believes she can escape the poverty, caste, and the traumatic fate of young girls in her village. Months later, after a harrowing sea voyage, she arrives in Natal and realises life there is full of hardship and labour.
Spanning four decades and two continents, Children of Sugarcane illustrates the lifegiving power of love, the indestructible bonds between family and friends, heroism, and how the ultimate sacrifice becomes Shanti’s greatest redemption.
I enjoyed reading this book. It is a little different from my usual fare and while it is historical I wonder whether the book should be categorized as literary fiction. The pace was slower than the historical fiction that I usually read. Shanti doesn't arrive in Natal until page 140, a third of the way through the story. I thought this was slow but it wouldn't be for literary fiction. The characters were well drawn and the history of the time and place was detailed. The author was obviously very familiar with what happened on the sugarcane plantations in Natal. She gives us alot of important information about this sad and not well known part of history. For that we can be thankful.
5 out of 5 stars.
