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Lawrence Wright - Community Reviews back

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Brick
Brick rated it 12 years ago
A wonderful book, a must read. Every now and then I come in contact with a book that is the product of an incredibly impressive amount of research, conducted with diligence and perseverance over an extended period of time, written by a person with an astonishingly encyclopedic grasp of important ev...
Ms. Margie
Ms. Margie rated it 12 years ago
This is really scary. Wright's book seems as balanced as possible. And by that I mean that anything negative about the church will be aggressively denied, and people who speak against the church will be hounded and sued. So it can be difficult to write anything that isn't glowingly positive. As ...
Babyfishmouth
Babyfishmouth rated it 12 years ago
Fascinating, terrifying, intriguing and - at times - boring. This book filled in the gaps of my knowlegdge about Scientology's founder, tenets, followers and current leaders. If it's even only 50% accurate, it paints a pretty damning picture of the current state of the church and the abuses heaped u...
By Singing Light
By Singing Light rated it 12 years ago
If you ever want to be really angry and depressed about Scientology, I highly recommend this book. I knew I didn’t like the group, but I didn’t really know why. Now I do. I did think Wright did a nice job of not taking pot-shots at religion in general, or even alternate religions in general, both of...
Krycek
Krycek rated it 12 years ago
"It ain't agin religion…It just abolishes it…It's science, boy, science."-Letter from L. Ron Hubbard to Robert Heinlein on Dianetics.I have to admit to having a bit of a fascination with L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Not as an adherent, mind you, but strictly as an outsider. I remember years ago t...
Reading Junkie
Reading Junkie rated it 12 years ago
This is a really great, thoroughly researched book on Scientology, both its origins (and founder L. Ron Hubbard's life) and current iteration. If you don't know a lot about Scientology, other than that it appears to have made Tom Cruise CRAZY, you should definitely pick this up. The book came about ...
Melody Murray's Books
Melody Murray's Books rated it 12 years ago
Exhaustively researched (and full of footnotes) this chronicle of a modern religion's birth and growth reads like a horror story. I thought lot of the stuff that came out of the mouths of the founder and later the current leader of Scientology was just jaw-droppingly bonkers. Not that I don't think ...
caseyreads
caseyreads rated it 12 years ago
An enlightening read on Scientology, even if the writings and postulation of R.L. Hubbard are still as confusing as ever.The book can be viewed as two parts: the background of Hubbard and his increasingly deranged and fanatical work that formed Scientology, and the celebrity culture and perpetuatio...
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it 12 years ago
I was never much of a Tom Cruise fan, so when he went on the Today and acted like the completer A** he apparently is, it become quite easy for me to boycott his movies. Yes, there is most likely some truth to the accusation that we over medicate; however, I know that I would not be here typing this...
narfna
narfna rated it 12 years ago
This book was so overwhelmingly thorough (and also just kind of overwhelming) that I’m not entirely sure what to say about it. Lawrence Wright won the Pulitzer prize for his 9/11 book, The Looming Tower, but Going Clear is the first piece of writing I’ve ever read by him. Judging by this book, he ...
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