Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside them? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of cult leaders and the people who join them? Based on the hit podcast Cults, this is essential reading for any true crime fan. Cults prey on the very attributes that make us human: our desire to belong, to find a deeper meaning in life, to live everyday with divine purpose. Their existence creates a sense that any one of us, at any time, could step off the cliff’s edge and fall into that daunting abyss of manipulation and unhinged dedication to a misplaced cause. Perhaps it’s this mindset that keeps us so utterly obsessed and desperate to learn more, or it’s that the stories are so bizarre and unsettling that we are simply in awe of the mechanics that make these infamous groups tick. The premier storytelling podcast studio Parcast has been focusing on unearthing these mechanics—the cult leaders and followers, and the world and culture that gave birth to both. Parcast’s work in analyzing dozens of case studies has revealed patterns: distinct ways that cult leaders from different generations resemble one another. What links the ten notorious figures profiled in Cults are as disturbing as they are stunning—from Manson to Applewhite, Koresh to Raël, the stories woven here are both spellbinding and disturbing. Cults is more than just a compilation of grisly biographies, however. In these pages, Parcast’s founder Max Cutler and national bestselling author Kevin Conley look closely at the lives of some of the most disreputable cult figures and tell the stories of their rise to power and fall from grace, sanity, and decency. Beyond that, it is a study of humanity, an unflinching look at what happens when the most vulnerable recesses of the mind are manipulated and how the things we hold most sacred can be twisted into the lowest form of malevolence.

Cults

*Fully revised and updated for the 21st century* The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry takes readers on an odyssey into the deepest, darkest depth of the universe and back again with his extra-terrestrial tour guide, Merlin. Merlin is a timeless visitor to Earth from the planet Omniscia in the Andromeda galaxy, and he has observed first-hand many of the major scientific events of Earth's history - from the Big Bang to the extinction of the dinosaurs and beyond. In Merlin's Tour of the Universe, Merlin responds to popular questions asked by adults and children alike about the universe and our place within it. All questions are answered with authentic science, infused with wit, wisdom, an occasional rhyme and accompanied by the odd illustration. Merlin's friends include the most important scientific figures and explorers of all time - including da Vinci, Magellan, Newton, Einstein and Hubble, and Merlin's Tour also features playful conversations with these historical luminaries. Based on the first book that Tyson ever published in the 1990s and now fully updated and extended for the twenty-first century, Merlin's Tour of the Universe is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about how the cosmos works.

Merlin's Tour of the Universe

Nick Brooks's Promise Boys is a trailblazing, blockbuster YA mystery about three teen boys of colour who must investigate their principal’s murder to clear their own names. For fans of Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, and Karen McManus. The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious "program's" strict rules. Extreme discipline, they’ve been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives. But when Moore ends up murdered and the cops come sniffing around, the trio emerges as the case's prime suspects. With all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. But is the true culprit hiding among them? This gripping thriller shines a glaring light on how the system too often condemns Black and Latinx teen boys to failure before they’ve even had a chance at success. 'Thrilling . . . Promise Boys will stay with you long after the last page' – Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying

Promise Boys

You never forget a Westmoreland man… Don’t miss this sweepingly romantic and sexy story from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson! Things have never been better for casino owner, Ian Westmoreland. An ambitious and determined man, he’s used to getting what he wants, which has served him well as the new owner of a luxury casino and resort. Channeling everything into the success of his business, he has little time for love – especially when it comes to the Brooke Chamberlain – the woman who ignited a passion inside him like no other but who also betrayed him… It's hard to get over a Westmoreland and no one knows that better than Brooke. Her career as an FBI agent required her to put up impenetrable walls that made their relationship impossible. When she is sent on assignment to Ian’s new casino, her nerves about seeing him again are quickly replaced by the sparks that occur whenever he is near. But Ian is still wary of her…with good reason and all bets are off when their game of seduction could lead to something real. Previously published Want more Westmoreland action? Check out these titles from Brenda Jackson:Seduction, Westmoreland StyleSpencer’s Forbidden PassionTaming Clint WestmorelandCole’s Red-Hot Pursuit

The Westmorelands

Ian's Ultimate Gamble

A fascinating first-person origin story of the Rastafari ideology, culture, and philosophy, capturing a crucial and little-known chapter in Jamaican history IN 1932, A JAMAICAN MAN NAMED LEONARD PERCIVAL HOWELL began leading nonviolent protests in Kingston, Jamaica, against British colonial rule. While history books rightly credit Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. with popularizing nonviolent protest strategies in later years, little is known about Leonard Howell and his vision of self-reliance?poor people working together to build a society of their own. When Howell first started preaching on street corners in Kingston, he was immediately perceived as seditious, and he became a target for police harassment. Howell soon founded an organization called the Ethiopian Salvation Society. His idea was to add a religious element to Marcus Garvey's message of African independence. Although Christian values were part of his belief system, he decided to make a break from the Christian interpretation of the Bible and extend the idea of divinity to a living man, Emperor Haile Selassie I, who had been crowned king of Ethiopia in 1930. Jamaican journalists coined a name for the group: the Ras Tafarites, or Rastas. Howell was arrested several times and was eventually found guilty of sedition and sentenced to prison for two years of hard labor. In 1940, Howell and his growing group of followers moved to an old estate in the parish of St. Catherine. They named their land Pinnacle, and for the next sixteen years built a self-reliant community that would ultimately give birth to the Rastafari movement. In 1942, Leonard Howell's wife Tenneth gave birth to their second child, whom they named Bill. In Pinnacle: The Lost Paradise of Rasta, Bill Blade Howell offers his firsthand account of this utopian community that suffered near-constant persecution from Jamaican authorities. Howell also dispels many misguided notions about the origins of Rastafari culture, including allegations of sexism and homophobia. Pinnacle was built on egalitarian principles and steered clear of all religious dogma. Pinnacle: The Lost Paradise of Rasta provides a crucial and highly informed new perspective on the Rastafari subculture that Bob Marley would later help to spread across the globe. The volume includes original documents related to Pinnacle.

Pinnacle

Audrey Pilar is a master in the art of breaking up. Her friends have dubbed her ritual of leaving men as “The Expiration Date.” Hurt from her past has caused Audrey to protect her heart at all costs, even if it means self sabotage. She’s developed the habit of looking for red flags, and it seems to work for her—until she meets Sullivan Santiago. The confident, thirty-three-year-old owner of Sullivan’s Coffee Tavern is unlike anyone she’s ever met, and for Audrey, if it’s too good to be true, it usually is. Sullivan “Sully” Santiago is a man that says what he means and means what he says. His honesty, though sometimes brutal, has never been a problem for him until he meets the beautiful Audrey Pilar. The twenty-seven-year-old professional crafter caught his eye after he witnessed several of her gentle let downs in his establishment. Where as most people would see that as a turn off, Sully is intrigued. When Audrey agrees to a date with him, Sully soon learns that his own expiration date will come sooner than he thought. Unfortunately they are left with a special parting gift that doesn’t make letting go as easy as Audrey would have liked.

The Expiration Date

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this “well-plotted, taut page-turner” (Booklist, starred review) that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate. Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life and wonders if they could be a part of each other’s futures. Then, one day while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks, smeared with blood. Inside, a badly wounded man thrusts a knapsack at her, begging her to deliver it to his original destination, and to not say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send for help and make good on her promise…not realizing that the bag is stuffed with $500,000 American. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get their hands on this bag—or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in ways neither ever imagined, as they both are forced to make split-second choices to keep the ones they love most alive.

Better Must Come

Lamb's family strives to better their lives in Jackson, Mississippi, in the late 1930s. Lamb’s mother is a hard-working, creative seamstress who cannot reveal she's a lesbian. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a black college up north—if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature. Lamb herself is a quiet and studious girl. She is also naïve. As she tentatively accepts the friendly overtures of a white girl who loans her a book she loves, she sets a off a calamitous series of events that pulls in her mother, charming hustler uncle, estranged father, and brother—and ends in a lynching. Told with nuance and subtlety, avoiding sensationalism and unnecessary brutality, this young-adult novel from celebrated author Lesa Cline-Ransome pays homage to the female victims of white supremacy.

For Lamb

Featuring all new tales of dark fantasy, cosmic horror, supernatural revenge, and the sorcery of terror from masters of the craft, this issue includes the following stories and poems: “Her Happy Place” by Alma Katsu “The Thing in Jesse’s House” by Heather Graham “The Dreams in the Cipher House” by Maurice Broaddus “Shadow Plane” by Fran Wilde “Tales from Alexandria” by Priya Sharma “The Secret Priest” by Anne Walsh (poetry) “Apocalypse Nights” by Yvonne Navarro “Devoured by the Soiled and Peeling Wallpaper” by Jake Bible “The Beast of Bray Road” by Gabrielle Faust “A Beautiful Darkness” by Christina Sng (poetry)

Weird Tales

Weird Tales, Issue 365

A definitive and surprising exploration of the history of Black horror films, after the rising success of Get Out, Candyman, and Lovecraft Country from creators behind the acclaimed documentary, Horror Noire. The Black Guy Dies First explores the Black journey in modern horror cinema, from the fodder epitomized by Spider Baby to the Oscar-​winning cinematic heights of Get Out and beyond. This eye-opening book delves into the themes, tropes, and traits that have come to characterize Black roles in horror since 1968, a year in which race made national headlines in iconic moments from the enactment of the 1968 Civil Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April. This timely book is a must-read for cinema and horror fans alike.

The Black Guy Dies First

From one of rap’s most evocative writers comes a stirring memoir and “masterpiece of a book” (Snoop Dogg) about how Boosie Badazz, one of the industry’s most controversial figures, was able to overcome insurmountable odds to make his music dreams a reality. A Baton Rouge native who began rapping at age fourteen, Boosie Badazz was already a cult hero in Louisiana when, in 2009, he was sentenced to two years in prison. The next year, he was indicted on even more serious charges, eventually landing him on Death Row. Prosecutors played Boosie’s music in the courtroom to paint him as a thug with no chance of redemption. However, against overwhelming odds and the backdrop of a social media campaign to #FreeBoosie, he was freed in March of 2014 with a rare second chance to make his music dreams come true. With illuminating prose, this “truly great read” (DJ Vlad, CEO of VladTV) explores the relationship between Boosie’s life on the streets with his ceaseless tear through the rap industry. From near-death experiences to a ruthless bout with kidney cancer to a life-threatening diabetes diagnosis, Boosie has overcome remarkable challenges to make a name for himself as one of rap’s most influential voices. A redemptive story with an urgent voice, Cross the Tracks is the survival tale of a man who wasn’t sure he would live to see another day...but who rose from the ashes to change the rap industry forever.

Cross the Tracks

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Fiction From Kiese Laymon, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Heavy, comes a “funny, astute, searching” (The Wall Street Journal) debut novel about Black teenagers that is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi. Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend and love interest, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these items with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet to protect his family from the Ku Klux Klan. City’s two stories ultimately converge in the work shed behind his grandmother’s house, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance. Brilliantly “skewering the disingenuous masquerade of institutional racism” (Publishers Weekly), this dreamlike “smart, funny, and sharp” (Jesmyn Ward), novel shows the work that young Black Americans must do, while living under the shadow of a history “that they only gropingly understand and must try to fill in for themselves” (The Wall Street Journal).

Long Division

Tempting Fate Justice Manning is talked into a lingerie modeling job...and forgets her inhibitions after meeting the sinfully gorgeous photographer, Black Savoy. When the photo shoot turns hot and heavy, the last thing she pictures is that lust might turn to love. The Perfect Seduction College professor Megan James embarks on a no-strings-attached fling with the man who was her first love, Tyler Savoy. The trouble is, the ultra-gorgeous veterinarian has plans for something more permanent with the woman who has stolen his heart a second time. Simply Wonderful To retain custody of her niece, Kendal Fischer is ready to do just about anything, including taking out an ad for a man interested in becoming a "baby daddy." What she is not prepared for is the drop-dead gorgeous man by the name of Jamison Savoy vying for the job. Then she discovers he has his own reasons for wanting to wed the beautiful, curvy, and vivacious Kendal.

Savoy Family Series

College professor Megan James embarks on a no-strings-attached fling with the man who was her first love, Tyler Savoy. The trouble is, the ultra-gorgeous veterinarian has plans for something more permanent with the woman who has stolen his heart a second time.

The Perfect Seduction

Justice Manning is talked into a lingerie modeling job...and forgets her inhibitions after meeting the sinfully gorgeous photographer, Black Savoy. When the photo shoot turns hot and heavy, the last thing she pictures is that lust might turn to love.

Tempting Fate

Perfect Moments In order to keep his twin daughters with him while he travels and works, widowed dad Parnell Cabot needs a wife of convenience and Rose Woods wants the job. She also wants Parnell. Rose makes him an offer he can't refuse. Parnell wants nothing more than a strictly business affair, but the intense sexual chemistry between them dictates otherwise, and Rose tests Parnell's level of endurance at every perfect moment. *Rose and Parnell were first introduced in PERFECT FIT (Book 2 of the Perfect Series) Perfect Makeover Before becoming a strait-laced wealthy businessman, Robert Noble was considered a bad boy and sexy rogue inside out, while breaking hearts, right and left. No one knows it better than Roxanne Miller since Robert was her brother's best friend in high school. When Robert returns to town and hires Roxanne as an interior decorator to do a makeover of the house he purchased, she decides she doesn't like the uncompromising Robert Noble and decides he’s the one due for a makeover. Roxanne is determined to bring the bad boy, sexy-rogue back.

Perfect Series

WHEN DANGER ARRIVES, REAL MEN TAKE ACTION Detective Andrew Logan hears that Detective Antonia Oliver is back in town. It’s been four years since they were involved in a hot, heavy, and steamy affair. Andrew’s life gets complicated when Toni is assigned as his new partner. Paired together, they try hard to ignore the sexual chemistry that’s stronger than ever between them. One homicide investigation turns deadly and Toni’s life is in danger. Andrew goes into action, determined to protect the woman he’s trying his damnedest not to fall in love with.

Entangled Pursuits

WHEN DANGER ARRIVES, REAL MEN TAKE ACTION Dakota (Dak) Navarro, wealthy entrepreneur, international playboy and jet-setter, arrives in Miami for the wedding of his friend, Andrew Logan. He is hoping to see Dr. Amelia Courson, the woman he met two years earlier at another wedding – that of his good friend and her brother, Stonewall Courson. Dr. Amelia Courson is a doctor who feels that lately she is taking care of everyone but herself. She is long overdue for a vacation and wants to let go and get wild. She has heard about Dak’s “love-them-and-leave-them”, “no-strings-attached” attitude, and since she is not looking for love either, Amelia feels Dak is just what this doctor orders. Dak is a man of action and is ready to whisk Amelia away on his private jet to an exotic location…for R, R and R – rest, relaxation and rolling between the sheets. What Dak does not count on is keeping them both alive when danger comes knocking at their door.

Desperate Measures

In order to keep his twin daughters with him while he travels and works, widowed dad Parnell Cabot needs a wife of convenience and Rose Woods wants the job. She also wants Parnell. Rose makes him an offer he can't refuse. Parnell wants nothing more than a strictly business affair, but the intense sexual chemistry between them dictates otherwise, and Rose tests Parnell's level of endurance at every perfect moment. *Rose and Parnell were first introduced in PERFECT FIT (Book 2 of the Perfect Series)

Perfect Moments

Before becoming a strait-laced wealthy businessman, Robert Noble was considered a bad boy and sexy rogue inside out, while breaking hearts, right and left. No one knows it better than Roxanne Miller since Robert was her brother's best friend in high school. When Robert returns to town and hires Roxanne as an interior decorator to do a makeover of the house he purchased, she decides she doesn't like the uncompromising Robert Noble and decides he’s the one due for a makeover. Roxanne is determined to bring the bad boy, sexy-rogue back.

Perfect Makeover

WHEN DANGER ARRIVES, REAL MEN TAKE ACTION Roland Summers wonders if there’s a reason he keeps running into Charlottesville's new medical examiner, Lennox Roswell. First, there was the wedding of his good friend Stonewall Courson and then they participated in a career panel at a local high school; and then again at the grocery store. He soon discovers they are neighbors. What confuses Roland more than anything is his fierce attraction to Lennox. Lennox Roswell moved to Charlottesville to start a new life after the accidental death of her fiance. She's heard about Roland Summers' tragic loss of his wife years ago but senses the attraction between them. Is it time to move on with her life and convince him to move with his? Can their hearts heal together? When Lennox discovers that her fiance's death might have been an accident but intentional murder, she starts asking questions. It soon becomes obvious someone doesn't want her to get answers. Can Roland protect Lennox with his life if it comes down to that? He is determined not to let her be another woman lost to him forever.

Infinite Possibilities

To retain custody of her niece, Kendal Fischer is ready to do just about anything, including taking out an ad for a man interested in becoming a "baby daddy." What she is not prepared for is the drop-dead gorgeous man by the name of Jamison Savoy vying for the job. Then she discovers he has his own reasons for wanting to wed the beautiful, curvy, and vivacious Kendal.  

Simply Wonderful

Wren Michelle is the top real-estate agent in North Carolina. She resides in Brookwood, an upcoming city in North Carolina filled with young professionals. A single mom by choice, her only concern is her daughter, her career, and trying to successfully co-parent with her first love. She thought she would have been married while raising her child with her high-school sweetheart...instead, she's healing from a broken heart given to her by him. Dominique Dom Pickens is an NFL player looking for a home in Atlanta. Wren comes high recommended when it comes to realtors in the area. One look at Wren, and Dom is already picking out wedding venues. But what seems like the perfect match doesn't come easy. Wren has been hurt in the past, and she knows how professional athletes are, so she's not willing to put her heart on the line again.

Brookwood

From Come Over To Come Home

The heart-wrenching conclusion to the epic Brightest Stars trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Anna Todd Karina and Kael have been trying to make it work for as long as they’ve been together. The two broken souls have a lot of individual healing to do before they’ll be able to find happiness anywhere, never mind with each other. As the world around them starts to crumble, Kael is consumed by the darkness of his PTSD, and Karina struggles to overcome her anxiety, which is at an all-time high. Then someone from their past returns to invade their lives and wreak havoc on the fragile peace they’ve created. If they’re going to have the future they dream of, they’ll have to commit to fighting this battle together.

The Brightest Stars Series

The Infinite Light of Dust

A captivating blend of young adult and new adult literary fantasy, this novel by social media superstar Jahid Wilson, Jr., a.k.a. @HiditheScribe, follows a young poet who discovers that his words have the magical ability to create life—or erase it entirely… Kaldur is an aspiring poet, but his words don’t merely sit on the page, waiting to be read. When he reads his poetry, he discovers the extraordinary ability to conjure new things into existence. At first, Kaldur’s magical gift seems like a blessing—what poet wouldn’t want to reshape reality with their words? But when Kaldur finds that he is unable to control those powers, it ends in an unimaginable tragedy. Unable to overcome his grief, Kaldur is approached by a mysterious woman who reveals that his powers can not only end lives but also bring them back. As Kaldur delves deeper into his magical abilities, he uncovers dangerous secrets about this woman and begins to learn that his powers are much greater than he could have ever imagined…

A Poor Man's Prose

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