Suicide Books

This is not a romance novel. I would categorize it as contemporary women's fiction, which I usually don't read, but I was surprised and glad I did. This is a story of a married couple whose relationship has grown apart. I liked and admired each one of them. I sympathized with each of them as they searched for their answers as well as the questions they needed to ask. I liked seeing what her job was like and the pressures and politics of working as a university tenured professor. I liked how various problems were discovered and solved not only by the main couple, but for others as well. Although my preferred reading these days is romance novels and I love the men in them, I believe most men in the world are not anything like the typical male protagonist of the romance novel. This book reflects what the real world is like concerning love, relationships and the need to work to earn a living. I found this book provided some balance, comfort and a nice change.

ONE MORE TIME is a page turner.

The characters Claire Cross developed and the changes they were going through - combined with her great writing which caused the occasional laugh - kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next.

Leslie's life has been turned upside down after her husbands court case that was meant to define his career resulted in a guilty verdict for his client. Matt believes if there is anyone who would understand why he lost this case it would be his wife, who he believes stands for integrity. So when Leslie finds out and is devastated he realizes she may not really understand him at all, and sets out to explore the life he had before she swept into his world.

Leslie is left behind in Boston with their daughter Annette, as Matt travels back to New Orleans and into his former fiancés arms. The academic department she works for is damaging her reputation and of all things the integrity of the institution at large. Realizing how much she took Matt for granted, she becomes aware that it may take a little more than her expansive collection of lingerie to solve this predicament.

In what appears to be the third book of the Coxwell Series, readers are left examining the relationship between Leslie and Matt Cowell. Leslie's coping mechanism in her times of need can be found underneath her first layer of clothes. It is her dieting approach that enslaves her to the satiny feel of undergarments. The Emelda Marcos of lingerie, Leslie is not your typical woman those she may appear that way on the outside. With the absence of Matt she is able to rediscover herself and what a relationship truly means. Her character gives us some humor in what would appear to be a depressing period in her life. And as for Matt it is easy to relate to the feeling that things could be different if maybe a different path was chosen. Claire Cross takes a stab at examining that possibility in One More Time, and comes up with the conclusion that no one can really know what might have been, but boy is it an exciting ride.



Reviewed by Joyce



Copyright © 2006 CK2S Kwips and Kritiques. All rights reserved.

One More Time is a beautiful novel that explores how a couple, both individually and together, copes with changes in their marriage and in what they want out of life. I can safely say, this is the best book I've read in a long time.

Matt Coxwell is the first to shake up the complacent relationship after making a stand for moral rightness during a court trial, but then discovering that his wife, Leslie, had expected him to take the low road. Hurt and disillusioned, he decides to follow his heart's dream, which leads him back to his ex-fiancée, an artist whom he thinks will understand his newly realized passion for writing. The problem is, from the minute he leaves his wife, he can't stop thinking about her. He calls her just "one more time" several times. Before crossing the threshold where there's no turning back, he spends his time remembering what if felt like to fall in love and examining where the magic was lost.

Leslie Coxwell is ever dependable, ultra-polite, super-organized, and to her mind rather plain (except for her extraordinary lingerie collection). She believes that she is no match for the sexy artist, but not ready to let go of the man whom she's loved for so long, she does some soul-searching of her own. In the midst of grieving her husband's sudden departure, she's also forced to make her own ethical choices at the university where she teaches medieval history, deal with her maturing teenage daughter, and welcome her mother-in-law who unexpectedly moves in with two large poodles!

The author did a superb job of drawing these two characters. I couldn't put this book down, because I grew to care about Matt and Leslie immediately and deeply, as well as their daughter and other family members. Heck, I even liked the "girls." I wanted to step into the pages and hug them and let them know things would work out okay. I was even tempted to flip to the end to make sure that the story did, in fact, end happily. Never fear. The ending satisfies on every level.

One More Time looks honestly at real-life issues and shows us that when love is true and strong, we can shatter the outer shells of our complacency, and unravel truths unspoken, to get to the core of who we are. Rather than destroying love, we can reconstruct it with a stronger foundation. The author's exquisite use of metaphorical language, symbolism and dreams, as well as her lovely prose, lends a literary feel to the novel. It has something for everyone, and I can't recommend it more highly.

Next month will mark the sad, tragic anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre. I refuse to call it a suicide since Jones orchestrated this horrible and awful event in which hundreds (over 900) were forced to drink poison to their deaths whether by force or brainwashed to do so. It wasn't just the vulnerable members but the authors explains the situation like the custody battle between ex-member Grace Stroen and Jones. She had a son with Jim Jones who carries her husband's name even though Jones was married to Marceline. Grace wanted her son back but Jones didn't want to have to answer to the authorities. The loss of one was like the loss of his entire flock. Rather than returning the child to his mother, he would hold hostage and convince his members that the world was seeking to destroy him and his people who had come to live in peace. Then there is the case of Jann Sturvich, a college student from a wealthy family, who ended up being among the hundreds of rotting corpses in Jonestown. She wanted to make the world a better place and ended up a victim of Jones' insecurities, madness, and manipulation.
The book is hard to fathom because there is so much going on with Jim Jones who was pretty much dying himself. He was an absolute control freak who wanted control over his influence and among the press and politicians. Behind the dark glasses, the eyes were that of a human monster who would rather kill his own people who he claimed to love rather than set them free. You wonder about the what ifs too.
The book does not have any pictures or maps but detailed descriptions from the author about the tragic events which unfolded on that hot November day almost thirty years ago. I think the world has dismissed the members as willing participants in their final act entitled revolutionary suicide. Nothing could have been further from the truth. They were all brought there under false pretenses, stripped of their identification, money, and the environment was harsh, brutal, hot, and unbearable. Jones would work his members and then they had to listen to his voice over the microphone all night long. There was no room to be free of thought when you were worked to death, malnourished, and paranoid of the other members who can betray the entire organization. The man who claimed to be their father, bishop, leader, had turned into their killer at the same time. He had robbed them more of their possessions but of their right to free will and thought without corrupting their minds. They didn't need the kool-aid poisoned drinks to be poisoned since he had poisoned their minds all along with lies, mis-truths, deceit, etc. Congressman Leo Ryan and the families of concerned members and the press came to rescue their people but it was in a sense too late. Those who were lucky enough to flee tried and some successfully. But hundreds of others had put their faith, trust, and love in a man who never returned his affections without scorn and scrutiny. The author here also writes that Jones was a Christian atheist which is one shocking truth and that he was a racist which I now realize was also the case. How did it get so far and how we could have stopped it from happening is still the case? There are cults out there that may not be as well known or numerous as Jones but evil is still out there.

James Reston's "Our Father Who Art In Hell" is a well-written book that I consider THE book on Jim Jones, Jonestown and People's Temple. He has a very descriptive writing style that sets the various scenes not only physically, but emotionally.

What I really enjoyed about the book is how he layers the goings on throughout. By now, we all know the story of Jones' "Church" moving from Indiana to Ukiah to San Francisco and eventually to Guyana. Each step along the way, he flashes forward and backward to emphasize different points he tries to make throughout the book. The book does follow a somewhat chronological order, and it really hooked me from page one.

The only issue that I have with the book is through no fault of Reston's. Since the book initial publication, new information has been exposed through the Freedom of Information Act to disprove some of the facts Reston uses in the book, but when he wrote it, those were the facts that were provided. For example, he tells of how the keyboard player lightly plays a "death derge" during the final hours of Jonestown. Well, years later, audio experts declared the music heard on the top was simply music previously recorded on the tape at a higher speed. The tapes used in Jonestown were often re-used and there was some bleed-over effect. And since the music was recorded at a much higher speed than the "death tape" it sounds very slow and drawn out.

All in all, this is an outstanding book. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning or learning more about the events that took place in the jungles of Guyuna on that fateful day of Nov. 18, 1978.

How the author details the life of jim jones and the tragedy that followed can be discribed as boring and superficial!!what was the purpose and goal of the people's temple? who was jim jones?? was the people temple a relegious sect A Govt. mind controling experiment??why did the tragedy occur?? he does not delve deeply into this significant issues he does not keep the "reader on the edge of his seat"!! i beleive there are better books on the subject
like six years with god by jeanne mills!!

I liked this book very much. The way I choose to praise it is to write down the text on its front and back flaps. I think it will help the reader to know if this book is what he/she is looking for:

"Of the Jonestown Massacre, most people can recall the ghoulish photographs, the headlines that screamed of mass suicide in a tropical land. Later, the spectacular flowering of Jim Jones's People's Temple in the Indiana and California years would come to light. But the story no one knows - the jungle story, the descent of this diabolical American genius into madness and bestiality in the South American wilderness, and the lives and thoughts and choices, if any, of the 913 people who followed him there, ultimately to their deaths - has taken James Reston, Jr., two trips to Guyana, years of tireless research, and a legal suit against the U.S. government to uncover. With hundreds of original tapes, and revelatory first-hand interviews with survivors and relatives of the Jonestown dead, Our Father Who Art in Hell penetrates through to and lays vare the whole story.
"Out of 'his vaulted sense of his own historical destiny', Jones taped the nightly Temple sessions in Guyana, tapes for which author Reston tenaciously fought the F.B.I. and the F.C.C. and to which he finally won exclusive access. Here, these never-before-seen texts are the riveting, terrifying testaments to the deterioration of a brilliant but increasingly ill and paranoid Jim Jones. A rich, unforgettable, and authentic portrait emerges of the charismatic preacher whose success was deeply rooted in the failure of the 1970s to fulfill the golden promise of the 60s; a man who brought his mammoth flock (he built the largest single Protestant movement in California's history) from the reality of the world into the jungle, and there descended into cruelty, madness, and finally murder. Startling new conclusions come forth from this material... including Jones's premeditation of his apocalypse three years before the event... and some provocative information about Mark Lane's role in Jonestown.
"Of Jones's surviving followers, Reston says: 'They are far from robots they are portrayed to be. In their grief they are angry, some at Jones, most at the U.S. government. Jones touched their core of belief in an age of cynicism, and thereby made them vulnerable...'
"As seductively beautiful and haunting as Joseph Conrad novel, James Reston's watershed 'novel in reality' makes understandable one of the most horrifying and bizarre events in American history. It should not be missed."

This is the first time I read a Shirlee Busbee book and it won't be the last... Excellent story

The Granger's and the Ballinger's had been feuding for over a hundred years, ever since the first Granger and the first Ballinger had migrated to Oak Valley, nestled in the mountains of northern California, after the Civil War. The Granger's were from the South and the Ballinger's were from the North. Naturally they were at each other's throats from the onset. And the feud hadn't let up in modern times either.

Young Shelly Granger had fallen in love with Sloan Ballinger. But Josh, Shelly's brother, still upheld the feud between the Granger's and the Ballinger's. There was no way he wanted his baby sister to marry one of those despicable Ballinger's.

Shelly Granger had not been back to her home in Oak Valley for seventeen long years. Not since the night she found her lover, Sloan Ballinger, in the arms of another woman. The only thing that brought her back now was the suicide death of her beloved brother, Josh.

Shelly was soon to discover that the brother she thought she knew and had idolized existed only in her mind. After her return to Oak Valley from New Orleans, she began to discover things about him that just could not be true.

Old flames die hard. The sparks between Shelly and Sloan had been embers for seventeen long years. One look at each other and the flames of desire were once again blazing hot and bright. Could Shelly prove the old saying that one can never go back wrong? Would fate be kinder to her and Sloan this second go around?

Shirlee Busbee has created one heck of a story in RETURN TO OAK VALLEY. It is mystery, intrigue and romance all tied up into one amazing package. Busbee's magical words transported me to Oak Valley. I felt as though I was right there in northern California helping Shelly run the cattle ranch, feeling her joy and her pain right along with her. RETURN TO OAK VALLEY is a wonderful book and one that I highly recommend.

Reviewed by Kristie Leigh Maguire...

Having never read a book by this author, and then finding out it was her first contemporary romance was a pleasant surprise.

Shelly Granger fled to New Orleans from her hometown in Oak Valley seventeen years ago, devastated by a broken heart thanks to Sloan Ballinger. Shocking news of her brother's suicide forces her return to Oak Valley, and picking up the pieces of the ravaged Granger Cattle Company.

Many questions need to be answered, specifically why would Josh, who practically raised Shelly after the death of their parents, and her hero, commit suicide? Why is the Granger Cattle Company practically non-existent, and who might have blackmailed Josh? And what did Josh have to do with Nick's parentage? Add the old Granger - Ballinger feud, and the desire that still burns red hot between Sloan and Shelly, and you have the formula for a prefect romantic suspense. Plus all the other alpha males in this book are just too much - I can definitely see future books (at least I hope there will be) for Jeb and Roman. The delightful secondary characters are just too good not to be brought back to life in future books.

Seventeen years ago, Shelley Granger fled her home in St. Galen, a small town in Northern California's Oak Valley to escape the failed romance with Sloan Ballinger. She has never returned to the valley until now. Her older brother Josh, who raised her when their parents died, killed himself and she needs to straighten out certain estate matters as well mourn.

However, her image of Josh does not reconcile with those of others as she soon meets the son of a servant claiming to be her illegitimate nephew. She also runs into Sloan whose opinion on Josh is that the man was an SOB. Finally, a second cousin and law official tells her that Josh was hanging with bad people and may have allowed marijuana to grow on the vast ranch in exchange for erasing gambling debts. Shelley realizes Josh dipped into her trust fund without telling her. She even begins to wonder if he was murdered even as she falls back in love with Sloan.

Though the dead Josh seems to have carried too much baggage for Shelley to have missed, readers will enjoy this exciting romantic suspense tale. The support cast including the four prime males that have impacted on her life (Sloan, Josh, he cousin, and her "nephew") enables the audience to understand the depth of the tribulations eating at Shelley's soul. Still RETURN TO OAK VALLEY is Shelley's tale as she wonders if she should continue her quest for the truth at the cost of tarnishing the image in her mind of a beloved dead one.

Harriet Klausner

Didn't know quite what to expect when I picked this up via a friend but this book is something else. It'll take you to the edge of your seat and back -- especially with some of the steamy scenes in it. It's black humor all the way -- lots of irony. Sort of reminds me of Douglas Copeland's "Generation X" or the book "Less Than Zero" -- same kind of writing style. Also reminds me of Dani Shapiro's "Picturing the Wreck" or "Fugitive Blue." It's definately a different sort of romance, but I liked it. It's a good read for a guy even. Highly recommend it if you like to read stuff that's a litte different.

A friend of mine recommended this to me. It's an offbeat tale, but worth the read. A different modern kind of love story. Sort of like the kind you find in some of these independent movies out there. It really is a book for Generation Xers!

My son read this book & passed it onto me. Since then, I've been able to exchange some emails with the author. It's a great read, and I don't read many books. It was different and unusual. Sort of a love story, but not really. Reminded me just a little of the writing style in "On The Road." Anyway, if you like to read stuff that's not all over the best seller list, check this one out!

THis is a great book for summer read. It's about Jeremy and Jessica -- a couple destined to be together one way or the other. The writing is sharp and crisp. Very cerebral. Something unusual. I highly recommend it!

On Dec 1,...I came home from work to find my husband had hanged himself...Everything in my world came to a screeching halt, and I was numb. As there is no "Death For Dummies" book, I spent hours in bookstores trying to find information on surviving a suicide. I was desperate to find something that would help me process the myriad feelings I had, and this book was the best I read. I learned through this book that all the hurt, betrayal, anger, and profound sadness were normal, and that I wasn't insane to feel all of them 1000 times a day. Additionally, since grief can impair your cognitive functions, this book was very easy to read. For any person who has lost anyone to suicide, this book should be the first they reach for.

I am Brian Elkins, I wrote the only review that is there. I would like to remove my email address from the review if you could please or let me know how I can do it. Additionally I would only like it to read.....Brian.......Detroit, MI ----where I now reside----Thank you, please send any correspondance to elkinsbrian@hotmail.com if you have any questions about this request.

Peace

Brian

I have recently lost my life companion. Another suicide survivor loaned me Adina Wrobleskis' book, Suicide: Survivors. I have not read all of the book yet, but have found the areas that I have read to contain information that illuminate some things and help me understand what I feel. I believe that anyone who has been affected from losing a loved one could find this book to offer some help during a very difficult time. The treatment of suicide is well done by considering it from a real perspective of someone who is experiencing life as a suicide survivor.

This book focuses a great deal on the illness that drives a person to suicide - namely, depression. Although that is helpful in trying to make sense of a senseless act, the book itself reads too much like a self-help seminar, full of repeated affirmations that the vicitims are not to blame, that they will eventually move on with their lives, and that things will get better. To me, that was stating the obvious but did little to help in the immeidate aftermath of the suicide. The book also speaks a lot about the rights of suicide surviors and that as a group, they have not formed enough of a coalition to gain attention and funding, as did MADD. At the end of the book, the author reveals that she and a group of other survivors have created such a coalition, so the feeling I got was of self-promotion. I was also a little disturbed by the assertions made in the book regarding suicide statistics without references to where the information was obtained. One caveat: The issue I read was published in 1990, so perhaps a more recent version has been improved.

Dr. Rosen provides a beautiful illustration of four patients' paths from depression to health. The four case studies reveal how Rosen encourages his depressed patients to express and experience themselves through creative arts-painting, dance, and pottery-during their courses of traditional Jungian psychotherapy. In the end, all four patients discover that life is a meaningful alternative to suicide.

Transforming Depression falls short with regard to its practical usefulness in treating a growing problem in our population (although the author doesn't make a claim that he intends this to be a part of his work). Dr. Rosen's innovative approach as described, requires highly trained, narrowly focused specialists-which translates to highly paid therapists whose services and skills are inaccessible to most people. It's a beautify theory, but hardly something which might be useful to solving a serious public health problem.

This book as an incredible insight and guide into egocide and personal growth. It's a book I am privileged to read. I highly recommend it for young and old. I shall treasure this book and keep it in my shelves for a long time for myself and others.

I know very few people who haven't had at least one great personal loss or difficulty in their life. Even more disabling, when the event freezes one image of 'self and personal growth' in that trauma for many years to come, resulting in `arrested personal development'.

Rosen's book helps put such personal losses and challenges into perspective and provides a resolution path through egocide and transformation where one loses old destructive personas or egos and achieve individuation towards a new, truer and healthier self.

This is a must read for all who have struggled with depression. Dr. Rosen helps us understand depression and different ways of healing. He examines the motivations to live and the transformations that must take place. The four studies given in part three are amazing journeys to read.

This book was absolutely wonderful to see. I got it and couldn't put it down. I have lived with depression for many years and been diagnosed for 3 years. I read this book and found it very helpful. I am a poet during my depressive and non-depressive stages (not a very good one, but a poet nonetheless), and I think it is a wonderful approach that seems not to be taken very seriously. The pictures included in the book speak to me as well. I also do many collages, and they seem to help. If you want a good book, I recommend this one.

In this day in age, celebrities reign supreme. Look anywhere and you are sure to run across detailed information on their whereabouts, what they like, what they wear and what they love to do. So it's not a surprise when twenty-five year old Kelly Coltrane, like many young women, fantasizes about living the same glamorous life broadcasted in her glossy gossip magazines.

But tragedy strikes. Screen legend Ruby Valentine commits suicide and the whole world mourns her untimely death. Kelly is definitely not prepared for the news that comes next. Her dad confesses to her that Ruby was her mother. Though shocked by this news, Kelly sees this as an opportunity to get some answers and a taste of the alluring Hollywood scene.

Throughout this journey, the things she learns about her mother, her new family and most of all herself is completely unexpected.

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY VALENTINE reads like a really good movie. It was very realistic and you got the sense of the true meaning of finding oneself. I especially enjoyed the way Alison Bond masterfully incorporated flashbacks of Ruby's life in between Kelly's story. It was truly well written and you will definitely find yourself escaping with the characters.

Loved this book, probably got it the wrong way around but read this one first, as soon as I had finished it I dove straight into How To Be Famous. I really enjoy Alison Bonds writing, really down to earth and laugh out loud funny - I felt like I was taken on a journey to behind the scenes LA.

A great read.

The BBC reported that screen legend Ruby Valentine was found dead in Los Angeles from an apparent overdose. The office was gossiping about the death when Kelly Coltrane's dad Sean tells her to come home immediately which she does because it has always been her and him with no mom. Sean shows her photos he took of Ruby, explaining they were friends who had an affair and a baby girl, Kelly.

Kelly tells her boyfriend Jez before deciding she needed to know her mom especially why the renowned actress rejected her and now apparently committed suicide. She flies to California to learn who Ruby Valentine was. As Kelly becomes engulfed in the Hollywood lifestyle, she begins to find some startling clues about the life and death of her mother starting with the agent Max and Sunset Boulevard

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUBY VALENTINE is an intriguing contemporary tale that focuses on the price of fame. Ruby gave up plenty to become a Hollywood icon including her daughter, who seeks some connection beyond the DNA to her famous mom. Kelly is a fine lead protagonist as she does not hesitate to do what she believes is right, which helps her retain some of her equilibrium once she gets caught up in the glitz. A final twist feels right for this exciting book that looks at the downside of becoming famous.

Harriet Klausner

'The Truth About Ruby Valentine' is a great book, but in my opinion it's lacking something.

I did like the way it's written. There's flashbacks about Ruby Valentine and how she became the celebrity she is today. The other parts are present day about Kelly Coltrane trying to find out things about the mother she's never come to know.

Overall, a great book to lose yourself in.

I read this book in, I think, 10th grade. This book really made me even more suicidal. The Poem that Anthony wrote, in the end, I was going to leave as part of my suicide note when I finally got the courage to "leave" which I never did. I've been looking all over for this book. Can't wait to read it again.

i liked it like um a guy hung himself

I read this book in the midst of a serious battle with teenage depression, and surprisingly enough, it helped me through it. Seeing that this boy thought he had nothing left to live for, and then seeing how many people actually cared for him, it really put things into perspective. I definately recommend this book to everyone.

"Tunnel Vision" is a book which looks at the problems which are being faced by teenagers and the self-destruction which a teenager is led to. This is followed by the events of the days following Anthony's suicide, in which every family member and friend looks for a reason as to what was responsible for this outcome. I was grasped by this tenurial story.

When you are needing to explain the concept of death to a child, this is a book that will give you a good start on a difficult subject. The explanations regarding practices and customs of various religions and cultures are given in a factual, straightforward manner. When journeying through grief, children experience a wide range of feelings. This book provides a cognitive approach to death and does not touch on the emotive, feeling side. As usual, I recommend being familiar and somewhat comfortable with the content of the book before sharing with children.

I read this book to my 2 young children (ages 4 and 6) and they were not "scared" as they originally thought they would be. The simple language and the clear thoughts presented, along with the colorful and whimsical illustrations, opened up a lively discussion between my children and myself. Obviously, no one can truly answer these questions but the author gives examples from different cultures and religions and that takes the fear out of this very difficult topic. I recommended the book to another friend who just had a serious bereavement issue with her child and she was equally impressed.

Simple illustrations, like a child's colorful drawings, fill the pages of this book. The book asks questions as a child might - what is death, what happens to the body when we die, why does everyone want to know about death, what happens to the inside of a person (their funny stories, feelings, thoughts, ideas, love) when they dies?

The answsers are sensible. Boritzer talks about what different cultures do with the body, different beliefs of the soul and afterlife (including people who belief nothing happens), what death might be as seen by different people, and how making life meaningful now can help a person's memory live on.

Not a book about grieving, with no definite answers, this is a good book to keep on the bookshelf for the time when the questions will be raised by your child.

This is an excellent book for children, writen by one of the best children's authors I've read. I really recommend this book. It has colorful illustrations, and is a thoughtful book.

Rev. Jim Jones should have been stopped along time ago but when he left San Francisco to Guyana was the final straw. Jones was a complex and evil in so many ways as well as sadistic in the treatment of people he professed to love so much. The book here is about the tragedy that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978. After 30 years, much has changed in our world. What Jones longed for was ultimate power and destruction and control over his own following. In the end, many didn't go willingly but had no choice since there were armed guards everywhere. Either way, the members were prepared after false drills in the past. You wonder what might have been if he had died since he was already dying anyway. The evil was JOnes himself. The people of Jonestown should be remembered as unwilling victims in the ultimate scam and deception. Of course, both American and Guyanese officials were aware of reports of abuse. He would have children and adults wacked with a wooden board for the sheer pleasure of it. Jones was hypocrite who violated the same laws that his own members were being punished for. He instilled a tremendous amount of fear of world enslavement but he became their unwilling enslaver by taking everything including their children without the consciousness of their decision. Of course, Jones should have been apprehended by armies since he kidnapped children in order to maintain the adults and their parents in line. Even in the end, he ordered the children and babies to go first to drink the cyanide poison. He showed no mercy and his members believed they were worthy of him but he wasn't worthy of anyone. He tortured and terrified them more than any monster could have in the jungles away from the prying eyes and legal ramblings. Jones led 900 others to join in his destruction. The disciplinary actions were far cruel and sadistic than any in modern history. In the jungles of Guyana, he was free to execute and administer horrifying torture which caused not only physical but psychological and emotional scars to those who survived the massacre. Prison can be many things to many people but it is just a state of mind. You can be locked up in prison and still be free to think for yourself without having somebody like Jones tell you what to think and how to live. Maybe it was supposed to happen but it should not have in the first place. Jones is probably one of the most evil men in history along with Stalin and Hitler. Maybe more so because he professed to love the people in the people's temple only to humiliate, embarrass, degrade, and dehumanize them in a concentration camp fashion. He had Stalin's sadism and Hitler's obsession with total dominance in mind control. It was all about mind control, if he couldn't control you then he terrified you to the point of obedience. He believe he was God and that broke the first commandent, "There shall be no other Gods beside Me." In the end of his life, he was both soul-less and cowardly in death. As the thirtieth anniversary of the most tragic event in recent times passes by, let us not forget the people of Jonestown as crazy religious fanatic but who were mostly decent, loving, and were tricked by the ultimate con-man of the century into their premature death.

The book is well-researched. The author talked to many former People Temple members.There were a few boring parts pertaining to the Sociopolitical history of Guyana. It didn't interest me that much.From the descriptions in the book, I did get a better feel for the country however which I enjoyed. In reading this book, remember that it came out in 1979 -many things were nor revealed till some years later.
My favorite part of the book was the information about Maria Katsaris-one of Jim Jones 2 young long time Mistresses who died at Jonestown.I have always found her fascinating.

I've read several books pertaining to Jonestown and this is one of my favorites. I gave 4 instead of 5 stars simply because it lacks photos and illustrations that I find interesting in books. He mentions several important pieces of information that most of the other some 5 or 6 odd books I'd previously read missed. For instances, Marcelines lung cancer, Jones consummate racism, the impregnation of many of his mistresses and abortions ordered by Jones, the amphetamine abuse and Jones secret abberation of the ignorance of his followers to name a few. It is a must read if you are interested in knowing about this fascinating piece of American tragic history.

I liked this book very much. The way I choose to praise it is to write down the text on its front and back flaps. I think it will help the reader to know if this book is what he/she is looking for:

"Many Americans believe, or have been led to believe, that the full story of the events surrounding the deaths of nearly one thousand men, women and children in Jonestown, Guyana, in November of 1978 has been made public.
"Nothing could be further from the truth.
"The real story begins almost twenty years before the terrible, bizarre and almost incredible reports began slowly trickling through, from a forgotten South American country, just before Thanksgiving. The bitter irony is that agencies of the American Government were involved in the creation of a climate for violence: shortly after Guyana achieved independence from Britain, covert American influence was thrown behind what was considered a 'friendly'(i.e. non-Communist) opposition party in order to unseat a duly elected 'unfriendly' government. From that moment, seemingly randon events and personalities moved to a climax with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy.
"From his obscure origins in a small Indiana town, Jim Jones emerged as an apparent champion of the forgotten and unwanted in America - the old, the poor, the blacks and other minorities, dropouts from affluence and conventional religion. Over a fifteen-year period, Jones fashioned an exotic religion and became its living god. How his personality was distorted by his growing messianic claims combined with scraps of radical and socialist rhetoric, how he came to believe that he was beyond good and evil is a chilling but fascinating account of the dangers inherent in the desperate search for charismatic leaders in this rush hour of strange gods.
"From Indiana, to northern California, to San Francisco to the remote back-country of Guyana, Jones left a trail of increasingly unholy rituals and commandments. He was aided and abbeted by a following of blacks, who willingly gave him all of what little wealth and property they had, and largely upper-middle-class whites who were often veterans of radical movements of the '60's. Together, they formed the 'inner circle'and expertly used both political clout and techniques of terrorization and propaganda equal to those of any totalitarian state - except that it all went on in the midst of a democratic society, shielded by the very protection forged by that society for freedom of speech and worship.
"Only in Guyana would the full, ripe madness of his methods and beliefs become fully evident. For the 'Reverend' Jones had struck an intricate bargain with the leaders of his host country - the members of the People's Temple were hostages. Relatives and friends, refugees from Jones's movement, and, too late, one American Congressman, tried to warn the American government and people. Incredibly, the American State Department had more than ample evidence - for months - that Jonestown was a tragedy waiting to happen.
"Not a year has gone by and many Americans think Jonestown is a closed chapter - explained, regrettable, and, possibly, best forgotten. White Night demonstrates, with overwhelming documentantion and investigation, that the so-called Jonestown massacre was not some isolated, freak ocurrence, but that it was the ineluctable result of trends and forces still at work in American society, in the shaping and conduct of areas of American governmental policy, both foreign and domestic, and that the probability of future 'Jonestowns' is all too real. White Night is a chapter in our history; it will not go away."