Here are 100 books that Season of the Witch fans have personally recommended if you like
Season of the Witch.
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I taught English and creative writing for 37 years in San Francisco, California. In 2018, Ron Cabral and I published And Then They Were Gone, which tells the story of the Peopleâs Temple teenagers we taught. Many of them never returned after the Jonestown massacre and died there. We hope this story about our young studentsâtheir hopes, their poetry, their efforts to help make a better worldâwill bring some light to the dark story of Jonestown.
Raven is the best, most comprehensive, and most thoroughly researched book on Jim Jones, Jonestown, and Peoples Temple. Reiterman is a fine investigative journalist who was part of a group to visit Jonestown, Guyana in November of 1978. The visitors included, among others, eight members of the press; Congressman Leo Ryan and his aide Jackie Speier; and thirteen representatives of the âConcerned Relatives,â their own name for the group. Every member of the group had defected from the Temple in San Francisco. Only some of these visitorsâReiterman and a few of the other journalists, Ryan and Speier, and a small number of the group of relativesâwere finally and reluctantly admitted in by Jones, on the stern advice of Jonesâs lawyers. The Concerned Relatives were there to see ifâas they strongly suspectedâthose in Jonestown were being held against their will. The journalists wanted to find the truth about life in theâŚ
The basis for the upcoming HBO miniseries and the "definitive account of the Jonestown massacre" (Rolling Stone) -- now available for the first time in paperback.
Tim Reitermanâs Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978.
This PEN Awardâwinning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reitermanâs reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and motives of Jim Jones, the reasons why people followed him, and the important truth that manyâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
I taught English and creative writing for 37 years in San Francisco, California. In 2018, Ron Cabral and I published And Then They Were Gone, which tells the story of the Peopleâs Temple teenagers we taught. Many of them never returned after the Jonestown massacre and died there. We hope this story about our young studentsâtheir hopes, their poetry, their efforts to help make a better worldâwill bring some light to the dark story of Jonestown.
Layton escaped, at great risk, to try to prevent the tragedy of Jonestown. Her book is the best book yet to read to see Jonestown and Jim Jones through the eyes of a survivor. Layton entered Jonestown (as did most of Ronâs and my students) later than early settlers, when the situation was getting more and more dire as Jones was deteriorating.Â
Twenty-four at the time, Layton accompanied her mother, who believed Jones could cure her cancer. As Charles Krause says in the foreword, âDebbie quickly realized that she and the others had been deliberately deceived: Jonestown was essentially a concentration camp in the jungle.â Layton had been in the church since she was a teen. Jones had immediately recognized her intelligence and energy, and eventually made her one of his inner circle. When she left, he declared her a traitor. The book is fascinating and well written.
In this haunting and riveting firsthand account, a survivor of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple opens up the shadowy world of cults and shows how anyone can fall under their spell.
"A suspenseful tale of escape that reads like a satisfying thriller.... The most important personal testimony to emerge from the Jonestown tragedy." âChicago Tribune
A high-level member of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple for seven years, Deborah Layton escaped his infamous commune in the Guyanese jungle, leaving behind her mother, her older brother, and many friends. She returned to the United States with warnings of impending disaster, but her pleas forâŚ
I taught English and creative writing for 37 years in San Francisco, California. In 2018, Ron Cabral and I published And Then They Were Gone, which tells the story of the Peopleâs Temple teenagers we taught. Many of them never returned after the Jonestown massacre and died there. We hope this story about our young studentsâtheir hopes, their poetry, their efforts to help make a better worldâwill bring some light to the dark story of Jonestown.
Woollettâs novel is based on much research on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. She came to the US from Australia for interviews with many survivors and othersâincluding Ron Cabral and me because of our knowledge of the teenagers in the Temple. Itâs a great read and adds much to the understanding of those who joined the Temple. Evelyn Lyndon (all the characters have fictional names except Jim Jones) is the âBeautiful Revolutionaryâ who, with her idealistic husband, joins the Temple and eventually becomes one of Jonesâs mistresses. I recognize many of the bookâs characters, sometimes two people rolled into one. Only in a novel could Woollett be in the minds of the characters she follows in this story, who are all believable and vividly drawn.
The thrilling new novel, inspired by the events at Jonestown in the 1970s.
It's the summer of 1968, and Evelyn Lynden is a woman at war with herself. Minister's daughter. Atheist. Independent woman. Frustrated wife. Bitch with a bleeding heart.
Following her conscientious-objector husband Lenny to the rural Eden of Evergreen Valley, California, Evelyn wants to be happy with their new life. Yet she finds herself disillusioned with Lenny's passive ways - and anxious for a saviour. Enter the Reverend Jim Jones, the dynamic leader of a new revolutionary church ...
Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Beautiful Revolutionary explores theâŚ
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother hadâŚ
In 1999, fresh out of Harvard, I moved to Zendik Farmâa neo-hippie cult with a radical take on sex and relationships. Since I left in 2004, Iâve been composting the experience into a source of fertility. I've explored not only what drew me to Zendik and kept me there but also how groups like Zendik feed on deficiencies in our cultural soilâand how common it is for us humans to get trapped inside stories. Evenâespeciallyâif we assume ourselves immune to cultism. That is, Iâve approached my cult experience with sincere curiosity. So have all the authors on this list. Thatâs why I love them.
In 1988, I watched a TV special marking the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Jonestown. Did the producers ask who the dead were? How theyâd found the Peopleâs Temple? What theyâd hoped for when theyâd joined? If so, the answers didnât stick. Nothing stuck but the heaps of corpses in lurid Technicolorâscenes from a horror film misfiled in real life. No wonder I sealed that story and others like it in a pit marked âevil,â âmadness,â âthem.âÂ
In this book, Scheeres shows that many entered the Peopleâs Temple seeking what life outside had so far denied them: comfort, camaraderie, and the chance to serve what seemed a worthy cause. She shows how some fought to survive. She returns a throng of âthemâ to the ring of human understanding.
âA gripping account of how decent people can be taken in by a charismatic and crazed tyrantâ (The New York Times Book Review).
In 1954, a past or named Jim Jones opened a church in Indianapolis called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. He was a charismatic preacher with idealistic beliefs, and he quickly filled his pews with an audience eager to hear his sermons on social justice. As Jonesâs behavior became erratic and his message more ominous, his followers leaned on each other to recapture the sense of equality that had drawn them to his church. But even as theâŚ
Iâve curated a list of music memoirs that resonate deeply with me, particularly because they strip away the polished veneer of fame and expose the raw, imperfect humanity of their subjects. My book, Asshole, explores similar territory, delving into the complexities and contradictions that make us who we are.
These memoirs, much like my book, aren't about celebrating flawless heroes. Instead, they offer unflinching accounts of individualsâwhether artists, managers, or those behind the scenesânavigating the extraordinary and often turbulent landscape of the music industry. These stories delve into the imperfections, challenges, and moments of accountabilityâ sometimes even outright acts that might be considered, well, asshole-ishâthat shape these fascinating lives, leaving a lasting impression.
Patti Smithâs book beautifully chronicles her intense and formative friendship with the groundbreaking artist Robert Mapplethorpe as they navigated the vibrant and often gritty art scene of late 1960s and 1970s New York City.
Theirs wasnât a fairytale romance, but a complex, evolving bond between two flawed yet undeniably brilliant creatives. Reading about their struggles, their artistic pursuits within the legendary Chelsea Hotel, and the wider New York City scene evoked a strong sense of nostalgia for me, a time and place I've always found artistically inspiring.
The exploration of their creative partnership, the push and pull between them as individuals finding their artistic voices, is something Iâve often yearned for but havenât quite experienced in such a profound way.
âReading rocker Smithâs account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, itâs hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.â -- People
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.
Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocenceâŚ
Injustice has always motivated my research and activism. I have always been fascinated by nature and by the complexity of cities. For 25 years I have pursued these passions through the lens of sustainability. In 1996, I co-founded the not-for-profit Sustainable Calgary Society. My extensive work and travel in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, have given me a healthy skepticism of the Westâs dominant cultural myths of superiority and benevolence and a keen awareness of the injustice of the global economic order. My book selections shed light on these myths and suggest alternative stories of where we come from, who we are, and who we might become.
San Francisco the good, an icon of diversity, creativity, and prosperity, is how I imagined the city. This book weaves a compelling, alternative narrative. Brechin tells his story through the rising fortunes of founding fathersâpoliticians, engineers, and entrepreneursâmany today memorialized in San Franciscoâs public spaces and places. People like media tycoon William Randolph Hearst Jr. with all his narcissism, wealth, and political ambition (remind you of anyone?). The book unearths the cityâs beginnings in the rapacious extraction of resources in frontier California. It illustrates (through art, newspaper cartoons, and headlines) the city as the spearhead of an emerging empire with all of its racist and white supremacist roots. The book chronicles the trauma inflicted on nature and nations that stood in the way of San Franciscoâs ambition. It demands that we reflect on âthe stuffâ our great cities are made of.
First published in 1999, this celebrated history of San Francisco traces the exploitation of both local and distant regions by prominent families - the Hearsts, de Youngs, Spreckelses, and others - who gained power through mining, ranching, water and energy, transportation, real estate, weapons, and the mass media. The story uncovered by Gray Brechin is one of greed and ambition on an epic scale. Brechin arrives at a new way of understanding urban history as he traces the connections between environment, economy, and technology and discovers links that led, ultimately, to the creation of the atomic bomb and the nuclearâŚ
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man sheâŚ
My early memories of San Francisco in the late 1970s are anything but glamorous. We lived in a crummy apartment down the street from the Peopleâs Temple, and my preschool, in the always gray Sunset, served carob, not chocolate. Despite decamping for the greener pastures and white sands of Carmel-By-The-Sea, I was forever hooked by the gritty magic of San Francisco. I eventually returned to the cityâs foggy Richmond District, where now I ruminate on past adventures, plot new ones, and write about the place I love. I'm the author of Moon Napa Sonoma, Moon California, and Moon Northern California, and my work has appeared in 7x7, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Alaska Magazine.
Cool Gray City of Love is a portrait, in the most classical sense, of San Francisco, and Kamiya is the journeyman traveling the cityscape to capture his subjectâs soul. Each chapter centers on a point on San Franciscoâs vast landscape, which blossoms into a tiny universe of place and history at Kamiyaâs hand. He begins at the Farallon Islands, then jumps to The Tenderloin, then to Alcatraz, followed by Glen Canyon. While the journey can seem as incongruous as Bullittâs race through San Francisco, it is as equally compelling, entertaining, and stunning. Youâll find yourself pulled along, promising to put the book down at the end of each chapter but unable to, falling in love with the city as you go.Â
"A kaleidoscopic homage both personal and historical . . . Kamiyaâs symphony of San Francisco is a grand pleasure." âNew York Times Book Review
The bestselling love letter to one of the world's great cities, San Francisco, by a life-long Bay Area resident and co-founder of Salon.
Cool, Gray City of Love brings together an exuberant combination of personal history, deeply researched history, in-depth reporting, and lyrical prose to create an unparalleled portrait of San Francisco. Each of its 49 chapters explores a specific site or intersection in the city, from the mighty Golden Gate Bridge to the raunchy TenderloinâŚ
My early memories of San Francisco in the late 1970s are anything but glamorous. We lived in a crummy apartment down the street from the Peopleâs Temple, and my preschool, in the always gray Sunset, served carob, not chocolate. Despite decamping for the greener pastures and white sands of Carmel-By-The-Sea, I was forever hooked by the gritty magic of San Francisco. I eventually returned to the cityâs foggy Richmond District, where now I ruminate on past adventures, plot new ones, and write about the place I love. I'm the author of Moon Napa Sonoma, Moon California, and Moon Northern California, and my work has appeared in 7x7, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Alaska Magazine.
Rebecca Solnitâs San Francisco is an onion; not one to be peeled back, but one whose paper skins remain overlapping in layered complexity. Reflecting the cityâs ĂŠlan, this odd-sized book is a beautiful compendium of exquisitely illustrated maps, each unique in style and in juxtaposing themes. Youâll open it to find one plotting Bay Area culinary establishments against its Super Fund sites; then flip to a quixotic mapping of murders and Monterey Cypress; then to another revealing the lost world of South of Market or the Third Street corridor from 4000 B.C.E. to 2001. Each map has a corresponding essay, many written by writers other than Solnit, adding to the vibrancy of voices in this masterwork of a diverse and complex place.Â
What makes a place? "Infinite City", Rebecca Solnit's brilliant reinvention of the traditional atlas, searches out the answer by examining the many layers of meaning in one place, the San Francisco Bay Area. Aided by artists, writers, cartographers, and twenty-two gorgeous color maps, each of which illuminates the city and its surroundings as experienced by different inhabitants, Solnit takes us on a tour that will forever change the way we think about place. She explores the area thematically - connecting, for example, Eadweard Muybridge's foundation of motion-picture technology with Alfred Hitchcock's filming of "Vertigo". Across an urban grid of justâŚ
My early memories of San Francisco in the late 1970s are anything but glamorous. We lived in a crummy apartment down the street from the Peopleâs Temple, and my preschool, in the always gray Sunset, served carob, not chocolate. Despite decamping for the greener pastures and white sands of Carmel-By-The-Sea, I was forever hooked by the gritty magic of San Francisco. I eventually returned to the cityâs foggy Richmond District, where now I ruminate on past adventures, plot new ones, and write about the place I love. I'm the author of Moon Napa Sonoma, Moon California, and Moon Northern California, and my work has appeared in 7x7, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Alaska Magazine.
Dive down San Franciscoâs counterculture rabbit hole with Joel Selvin, the Bay Areaâs best rock journalist. Altamont chronicles the rise and fall of the infamous Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont raceway in the Bay Areaâs eastern hills, which notoriously end with the murder of concertgoer Meredith Hunter by the Hells Angels. Selvinâs unvarnished coverage goes deep into the world of the 1960s rock scene where innocence and ugliness, odd allegiances, and creative force make a unique cultural moment in the Bay Area. Youâll also get to know some big names in rock, and witness the counterculture as it gets distorted and its innocence lost, as the money gets better and the drugs stronger. Youâll never listen to the Stones or the Dead the same way again.
In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s. In the annals of rock history, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival on December 6, 1969, has long been seen as the distorted twin of Woodstock-the day that shattered the Sixties' promise of peace and love when a concertgoer was killed by a member of the Hells Angels, the notorious biker club acting as security. While most people know of the events fromâŚ
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the worldâs most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the bookâŚ
I am passionate about words and reading, and I love books that examine and record the chaos and mayhem of human existence. When I think about why I donât want to die, itâs mainly because I can't bear the thought of missing out on what happens next. I feel privileged to be alive during this strange, fraught time of epochal change and to be able to use my skills as a writer to record not just the facts of what happens but how it feels to witness it all, the sensibility of our time, the recording of which is, I believe, the essence of great literature.
This is a tightly focused memoir of a turbulent time in American history experienced by a 20-something fledgling writer trying to understand and relate to an older man haunted by guilt and memories of what he witnessed in Vietnam.
This is another book that examines the effect of historic events and public dystopia on the inner lives of human beings living through those times.
âIn this remarkable memoir, the qualities that have long distinguished Francine Proseâs fiction and criticismâuncompromising intelligence, a gratifying aversion to sentiment, the citrus bite of ironyâgive rigor and, finally, an unexpected poignancy to an emotional, artistic, and political coming-of-age tale set in the 1970sâthe decade, as she memorably puts it, when American youth realized that the changes that seemed possible in the â60s werenât going to happen. A fascinating and ultimately wrenching book.ââDaniel Mendelsohn, author of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship sheâŚ
