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⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stott, a fourth generation Exclusive Brethren, speaks of her experience growing up in, and leaving, this fundamentalist Christian cult. This focuses a lot on her father as the tutor alludes. I‘d never heard of this group, so I was excited to gain some insight, but I really struggled to pay attention. It seems like a fairly typical Christian offshoot, because you know I‘m a self-proclaimed expert on cultish matters.

🎧🐾 it‘s a beautiful, mild morning. Too bad this book is not really holding my attention.

#audiowalk
#dogsoflitsy

Started this one today, Helen @squirrelbrain
I really like her writing style, so I can tell I'm going like it.

Thank you so much Helen! ♥️ I'm so excited to read this after we talked about it. That's so thoughtful of you @squirrelbrain

I read this non-fiction book recently. It tells the history of the Exclusive Brethren. It was interesting to me, as we used to have a Brethren family as neighbours, but a little bit detached as the author told her father‘s story rather than her own.

#rain
#ayupaugust

*The Cult were formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1984*

This was my book about a religion other than my own (I‘m an atheist) for the #ReadingWomenChallenge. I was very interested at first in the early history of the religion, how it started and all of the schisms, and the story of the author‘s family and their history with the church, but I eventually just got bogged down in it all, so it just kind of fizzled for me.

An interesting read, particularly for those who took part in the #bannerbuddyread about FLDS.

This is about a hardline sect of the Plymouth Brethren in the UK. Whilst it felt a little distant in places, due to it being the recollections of the author‘s father, rather than the author herself, I preferred this to Under the Banner of Heaven.

You really get an idea of how such cults can form and flourish, as well as the consequences of leaving.

Few things disgust me more than the toxic use of religion to control people. This book was full of situations and stories that demonstrated this, all based around the Exclusive Brethren religious cult. It was interesting and informative but also had several dry spots that I had to push through.

This was amazing and utterly heartbreaking! I'd never heard of the Brethren before and it's astonishing and horrifying to discover they still exist within the UK to this day. Stott is very even-handed in telling her story, with a magnanimity and compassion that I find so impressive. Definitely worth picking up, especially if you're interested in cults and the psychological effect they have on people. #boutofbooks

Starting TBR for #boutofbooks 😊

I started reading this and then switched to the audio version. I felt that the strongest writing was at the beginning and in the last chapter. I struggled with it in the middle.

I tend to read three books at a time. An audio (still working my way through Anna Karenina) a physical fiction (Stay with Me) and a non fiction. Does anyone else read muliple books at a time?

Not the history of the Brethren cult that I expected, but a true memoir of the author‘s life and experiences as a daughter and a (former) cult member. Interesting if not precisely compelling. The audiobook is pleasantly narrated by the author herself. 3.5⭐️

My January TBR is ridiculous!! I am already in the middle of three other books.(The Ship of Magic, A Room of Ones Own, Margaret The First). What a wonderful problem to have!! 2018 is off to a great start.

Fascinating, I have never heard of this cult.

After I read this I looked at the backflap and realized Rebecca Stott was also the author of Ghostwalk which I read last year and enjoyed (about Newtonian physics and magical realism). This is a non fiction work about the 4 generations of her family caught up in a hyper doctrinal religious sect “The Brethren “. Told more like research than a deeply felt memoir, nevertheless well written and compelling if a bit clinical ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

I am always amazed at the odd congruence I sometimes stumble upon in my reading. I listened to Sara Pascoe on the podcast Backlisted and she was talking about the memoir Father and Son (Edmund Gosse) about the Plymouth Brethren- so I began listening to that on audible- then I started reading this book and it is about the Exclusive Brethren and name checked Father and Son- so far this book about extreme religious cults is gripping. #Cults

...so far. A great book, but I'm a little more than a quarter through, and the experience of this family isn't what I was expecting.

Rebecca Stott weaves together the story of four generations, including her own, involved in the Brethren, a quasi-religious sect or cult. Her father is the strongest character in the tale, and what a character he is. Alternately sad and fascinating, this is a great read if you like slipping inside a cult without joining. Thanks to NetGalley & Spiegel & Grau for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Full review at www.TheBibliophage.com

I really need to catch up on my NetGalley shelf, so I'm working on this one, which was published earlier this month. So far, it's feeding my need for cult-related memoirs. This family's religious experience is odd. (I like odd!) #nonfictionchallenge17

Sometimes I get turned down for NetGalley ARCs because I still don't have my book blog up and running. But this week I got approved for two that I'm super excited about. Plus I am loving The Radium Girls. #goNetGalley