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Being Wagner: The Triumph of the Will
Book
Simon Callow plunges headlong into Wagner's world to discover what it was like to be Wagner, and to...
All Things New Study Guide with DVD: A Revolutionary Look at Heaven and the Coming Kingdom
Book
All Things New is a revolutionary four-session video Bible study built on a simple idea: heaven is...
All Things New Study Guide: A Revolutionary Look at Heaven and the Coming Kingdom
Book
All Things New is a revolutionary four-session video Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately)...
TB
The Business Turn in American Religious History
Amanda Porterfield, Darren Grem and John Corrigan
Book
Business is an understudied area in American religious history that has profound implications for...
Driving Zone: Japan Pro
Games
App
Driving Zone: Japan Pro - a simulator of street racing on the cars produced in Japan. In this...
ClareR (5674 KP) rated The Silence Project in Books
Mar 21, 2023
The Silence Project grabbed me, sucked me in and I raced through it, desperate to know what was going to happen next.
What a fascinating concept. Rachel Morris moves in to a tent at the bottom of her pub garden and never speaks again. Other women are drawn to her cause, and a community is born. One that seems to worship Rachel and her message. It sounded an awful lot like a cult to me. And when Rachel and thousands of her followers burn themselves on the pyres that they built themselves, the cult of The Community is truly born.
This book is written as a memoir by Rachel’s daughter, Emilia. Unsurprisingly, she misses her mother at the same time as resenting her. I thought this was really well done: Emilia loses her mother the day that she pitches her tent.
I think this would make such a good book club book - there’s so much to discuss. The concept of The Community, and the fact that it had clearly become something entirely different to Rachel’s original idea - whatever that really was. But due to her silence, Rachel was never fully able to say exactly what it was that she wanted for the future of her movement. I wondered whether her silence was rational; was she depressed? Her silence meant that others could put words into her mouth, surely?
Was Rachel selfish or selfless? Would we think differently if she had been a man? That’s very much left to the reader to decide. What really disappointed me though, is that a group of women, The Community, after Rachel’s death, becomes corrupted. They convince everyone that they know best and bring in some pretty outrageous policies: enforced contraception, euthanasia that’s geared towards making a profit for The Community. They have their fingers in many pies and many governments.
I’ve got to admit, this disappointed me a little. There was always the hope that women would be different - but it turns out that they’re the same as everyone else.
That said, this is a really hard-hitting book that gave me so much to think about - and I loved it.
What a fascinating concept. Rachel Morris moves in to a tent at the bottom of her pub garden and never speaks again. Other women are drawn to her cause, and a community is born. One that seems to worship Rachel and her message. It sounded an awful lot like a cult to me. And when Rachel and thousands of her followers burn themselves on the pyres that they built themselves, the cult of The Community is truly born.
This book is written as a memoir by Rachel’s daughter, Emilia. Unsurprisingly, she misses her mother at the same time as resenting her. I thought this was really well done: Emilia loses her mother the day that she pitches her tent.
I think this would make such a good book club book - there’s so much to discuss. The concept of The Community, and the fact that it had clearly become something entirely different to Rachel’s original idea - whatever that really was. But due to her silence, Rachel was never fully able to say exactly what it was that she wanted for the future of her movement. I wondered whether her silence was rational; was she depressed? Her silence meant that others could put words into her mouth, surely?
Was Rachel selfish or selfless? Would we think differently if she had been a man? That’s very much left to the reader to decide. What really disappointed me though, is that a group of women, The Community, after Rachel’s death, becomes corrupted. They convince everyone that they know best and bring in some pretty outrageous policies: enforced contraception, euthanasia that’s geared towards making a profit for The Community. They have their fingers in many pies and many governments.
I’ve got to admit, this disappointed me a little. There was always the hope that women would be different - but it turns out that they’re the same as everyone else.
That said, this is a really hard-hitting book that gave me so much to think about - and I loved it.
Bethany Fletcher (17 KP) rated Children of Blood and Bone: Book 1 in Books
Jun 24, 2018 (Updated Jun 25, 2018)
While buddy reading this with a friend we realised it was a plain copy of Avatar the Last Airbender. There is the king attacking magicians which is basically the fire nation attacking the air nomads. There is a secret temple that worships the magical gods and the protectors are there to help the chosen one. Basically the fire temple on the crescent island that is there to worship the Avatar and help Aang.
The characters were cardboard copies of Avatar. Zelie is a mix of Aang and Katara. There is Zelie’s brother, Tzain, who is the only one who doesn’t get magic because screw you Sokka you are not a Bender! They are being chased around by the Prince Inan who wants to impress his daddy but has mixed moral feelings. Hi there Zuko nice to see you again!
The plot was super confusing. There were parts that weren’t explained at all. So Inanas powers are control over someone’s mind right, so he can take someone into his ‘dreamscape’ (basically the Bone Season by Samantha Shannon). Anyway, he takes Zelie into his dreamscape and she hates him as he is a royal and hunting her down BUT she strips off naked and skinny dips? Why? There is no reason and it made zero sense for someone who is terrified of Inan to make themselves that vulnerable.
Zelie gets over her hatred for Inan pretty quick and soon they are lusting after each other. She doesn’t seem to care about the previous hatred and Inan is the only one who struggles morally. Here’s the thing, did they actually have sex? They had sex in Inan’s dreamscape while there physical bodies were actually no where near each other. Zelie was with her brother. So did their minds have sex? Did they share a dream where they both got it on? After Zelie is super awkward about it but it’s like, you didn’t actually do anything, did you? Not explained very well.
I could go on all day but I shan’t. It wasn’t even written well. It just read like the author didn’t know what to write so copied something they knew was succesful. If these things will annoy you as much as they did me then I would suggest skipping this book.
The characters were cardboard copies of Avatar. Zelie is a mix of Aang and Katara. There is Zelie’s brother, Tzain, who is the only one who doesn’t get magic because screw you Sokka you are not a Bender! They are being chased around by the Prince Inan who wants to impress his daddy but has mixed moral feelings. Hi there Zuko nice to see you again!
The plot was super confusing. There were parts that weren’t explained at all. So Inanas powers are control over someone’s mind right, so he can take someone into his ‘dreamscape’ (basically the Bone Season by Samantha Shannon). Anyway, he takes Zelie into his dreamscape and she hates him as he is a royal and hunting her down BUT she strips off naked and skinny dips? Why? There is no reason and it made zero sense for someone who is terrified of Inan to make themselves that vulnerable.
Zelie gets over her hatred for Inan pretty quick and soon they are lusting after each other. She doesn’t seem to care about the previous hatred and Inan is the only one who struggles morally. Here’s the thing, did they actually have sex? They had sex in Inan’s dreamscape while there physical bodies were actually no where near each other. Zelie was with her brother. So did their minds have sex? Did they share a dream where they both got it on? After Zelie is super awkward about it but it’s like, you didn’t actually do anything, did you? Not explained very well.
I could go on all day but I shan’t. It wasn’t even written well. It just read like the author didn’t know what to write so copied something they knew was succesful. If these things will annoy you as much as they did me then I would suggest skipping this book.
