Ever since I started my journey out of the church, I find that I can't get enough memoirs about people who have left other cults. Some of my recent reads include Banished: Surviving my years in the Westboro Baptist Church; Beyond Belief: My secret life inside Scientiology and my harrowing escape; and I'm perfect, you're doomed: tales from a Jehova's witness upbringing. These books have shown me that while the details may differ, all cult experiences are essentially the same. Double-think, impossible demands, guilt, shame, fear, control, isolation, etc.

What have you read that you suggest? I'd love to add it to my list.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirshi Ali.---she details the story of her life and how she left the religion of Islam.

New York Times wrote: "Too potent a social critic to be tolerated any longer (in her home country)....an unflinching advocate of women's rights and an unflinching critic of Islamic extremism."

I have a whole list...

These books sound interesting enough that I'm starting a list of books I'd like to read.

Would you be willing to share some or all of your list?

Straight Talk about Cults is a very easy read that I started with. It only talked about Mormonism in a couple of paragraphs, but I realised the similarities and patterns of cults easy enough to debunk tscc, and almost every religion out there.

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, by Jean Sasson.

You might add "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer to your list. It's about how the Lafferty brothers moved from mainstream Mormonism to extremism, culminating in the tragic murder of a young mother and her eighteen month old baby.

Polygamy:

"Escape" by Carolyn Jessop
"Shattered Dreams" by Irene Spencer
"The 19th Wife" by Evan Ebershoff

Christian fundamentalism:

"Leaving the Fold" by Marlene Winell (she does seminars too)

Here is a great site for finding books without too much clicking and commercialism. Free signup and then put in the subject you are interested in.

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/polygamy

I am assuming you have already read "Not Without My Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody about her escape from Iran in 1986. This book is truly an inspiration/horror story of what can happen when the religious men take over a society--it's never heavenly for women.

Best

Anagrammy

PS. We have posters like Cheryl on this board who grew up in polygamy and can answer questions Google won't have.