by Lauren Drain, Lisa Pulitzer
bookshelves: published-2013, spring-2015, autobiography-memoir, bullies, christian, doo-lally, foxtrotted-uniform, games-people-play, fundamentalism, moral-high-ground, nonfiction, north-americas, kansas, ouch, cults-societies-brotherhoods, religion, rid-the-world-of-tyrants, twats-in-real-life, wr...
I felt like I needed to take a long shower after finishing this book. I considered abandoning it several times as it continually made my skin crawl. It doesn't help that the "victim" of the book is very unlikeable. The title "Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church" suggests that Lauren Dr...
This was an interesting book. The writing itself was not that good, but that did not detract from the experience of reading this. I think Drain needed to write this, for herself: to vent, to rationalize, and it was a form of therapy for her. I respect that narrative. I will say one thing about the ...
I picked this book up largely because I was hoping to learn why the WBC pickets military funerals, funerals of victims of violent tragedies, and other assorted events entirely unrelated to their core message of "god hates gay people." I did not learn this. Instead, I learned that the WBC will pick...
The book focuses a lot on her time in the WBC community rather than her recovery from it. The last twenty pages (if that) are devoted to Drain's life after she has been banished. I wish there was more of that than of the inner scandals of the Phelps family. While I did find it interesting (yet not s...
A must read! I really enjoyed this book! A true story of a woman growing up in the very controversial Westboro Baptist Church. An excellent loo at the day to day life of this small group who has their own interpretation of the Bible, which is not up for discussion!As the title is Banished, I am not ...
At fifteen Lauren Drain moved from Florida to Kansas with her family to join the Westboro Baptist Church, famous for picketing the funerals of American soldiers killed in battle with huge signs and shouted slogans denouncing homosexuality. The church and its teachings were her world for eight year...
A great memoir, some of it about coming of age in the Westboro Baptist Church, and some of it about growing up with the parents who were sucked into the church's orbit. Lauren Drain obviously grew up with insecure and immature, but extremely smart parents, and her book doesn't disguise this fact or...
I admit, I went into this with preconceived notions of what this organization stood for - and it all seemed so sinister. For those not familiar with Westboro Baptist Church - they are an 'organization' that calls themselves an Independent Baptist church in order to receive the tax benefits. They are...
You guys, I’m not gonna lie. I have been excited about reading Banished : Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain for months! I pretty much freaked out when I first saw that there was going to be a memoir from a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Unfortunately, I...
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