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Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear" on New York Times Bestseller List!

TG1

Angelic Poster
Oooohhh, Larry didn't win. George Packer won for The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin.

But he got lots of applause and cheers. :)
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
That's a shame. It would have been great if he'd won. But wonderful that he was nominated.

It really was. :yes:

The people that choose the winners have actually reviewed over 500 books just in the non-fiction category alone.

To make it as a Finalist (Top 5 in the non-fiction category) is a great achievement. :yes:
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
Here was an amusing headline from the Washington Post (before the winner of the National Book Award was announced):

The Church of Scientology will skip tonight’s National Book Awards

On Wednesday night, while New York theater goers laugh at “The Book of Mormon,” another American-grown religion will be enduring far more uncomfortable attention just a few miles away.

“Going Clear,” Lawrence Wright‘s devastating critique of the Church of Scientology, is one of five finalists for this year’s National Book Award in nonfiction.

Even for a church legendary for defending itself, Wright has posed a particularly tough challenge. His credentials — New Yorker staff writer, Pulitzer Prize — are solid gold. His methodology is rigorous and exhaustive. And perhaps most formidable, his manner is calm and thoughtful. He never sounds caustic, vengeful or even impolite. He’s no spiteful apostate out to wreak vengeance. Reading his book, one senses that he sincerely wants to understand this organization and its members.

<snip>

Full Story Here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...logy-will-skip-tonights-national-book-awards/
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
www.citypaper.com (from Baltimore) chose "Going Clear" as the Top Non-Fiction Book of 2013.
http://citypaper.com/news/2013-top-ten-non-fiction-1.1602531



larryW_zps9236523b.jpg
 

JBWriter

Happy Sapien
Re: Wright's "Going Clear" - Best Non-Fiction Finalist Texas Institute of Letters

Just wanted to let folks know that Lawrence Wright's book, Going Clear, is a finalist in the Texas Institute of Letters' (TIL) 2014 awards for "distinctive literary achievement". Link to TIL here: http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/default.htm

The awards will be announced & presented on April 5, 2014 in San Marcos, Texas.
In Mr. Wright's category, non-fiction, the award comes with $5k.

Note: A journalist who writes for the San Antonio Express-News, John MacCormack, is also nominated for an award in the 'short fiction' category. He's one of the reporters who has covered the Rathbun v Miscavige trial in New Braunfels, TX and, while the story he's nominated for isn't about that trial, I sure hope he wins!

Here's a link to the story featured on The Statesman blog: http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/the-reader/2014/mar/18/texas-institute-letters-names-finalists/

To both: :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

JB

ETA: Here's a link to an ESMB post that shows a sample of Mr. MacCormack's work: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...-Media-Reports&p=845877&viewfull=1#post845877
 
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CommunicatorIC

@IndieScieNews on Twitter
Going Clear, Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief wins the Investigative Reporters and Editors award.

LA Observed: Joel Grover story on NBC4, Scientology book win IRE awards | LA Observed
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2014/04/joel_grover_story_on_nbc4.php

Excerpt:
Winning in the book category was Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear, Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief." Say the judges:

Wright's investigation of the Church of Scientology is groundbreaking in its examination of one of the most well known, but secretive, religion organizations in the world. He draws on previously secret documents -- including internal works of the church's founder L. Ron Hubbard -- interviews with former and current members of the church and hundreds of court records to present a hard-hitting, but balanced view of church and its followers. The book shines a light on the church's harsh treatment of those who try to leave, but also highlights those, including some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, who have benefited from its teachings. The book also explores the complicated biography of the church's founder and its relationship with its most famous member, actor Tom Cruise. Despite threats from the church, which is known for its aggressive defense of its works and members, this work provides the best understanding of Scientology to date.
 

JBWriter

Happy Sapien
Re: Wright's "Going Clear" - Best Non-Fiction Winner - Texas Institute of Letters

Just wanted to let folks know that Lawrence Wright's book, Going Clear, is a finalist in the Texas Institute of Letters' (TIL) 2014 awards for "distinctive literary achievement". Link to TIL here: http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/default.htm

The awards will be announced & presented on April 5, 2014 in San Marcos, Texas.
In Mr. Wright's category, non-fiction, the award comes with $5k.

Note: A journalist who writes for the San Antonio Express-News, John MacCormack, is also nominated for an award in the 'short fiction' category. He's one of the reporters who has covered the Rathbun v Miscavige trial in New Braunfels, TX and, while the story he's nominated for isn't about that trial, I sure hope he wins!

Here's a link to the story featured on The Statesman blog: http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/the-reader/2014/mar/18/texas-institute-letters-names-finalists/

To both: :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

JB

ETA: Here's a link to an ESMB post that shows a sample of Mr. MacCormack's work: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...-Media-Reports&p=845877&viewfull=1#post845877

Per the Dallas Morning News, Lawrence Wright's Going Clear tied for First Place in the non-fiction category. :hifive:
Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/entertain...as-institute-of-letters-winners-announced.ece

The group’s nonfiction award was split between Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief and John Taliaferro’s All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay from Lincoln to Roosevelt.

(The article didn't say if John MacCormack won in his category or not.)

JB
 

JBWriter

Happy Sapien
Re: Wright's "Going Clear" - Best Non-Fiction Winner Texas Institute of Letters

Just wanted to let folks know that Lawrence Wright's book, Going Clear, is a finalist in the Texas Institute of Letters' (TIL) 2014 awards for "distinctive literary achievement". Link to TIL here: http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/default.htm

The awards will be announced & presented on April 5, 2014 in San Marcos, Texas.
In Mr. Wright's category, non-fiction, the award comes with $5k.

Note: A journalist who writes for the San Antonio Express-News, John MacCormack, is also nominated for an award in the 'short fiction' category. He's one of the reporters who has covered the Rathbun v Miscavige trial in New Braunfels, TX and, while the story he's nominated for isn't about that trial, I sure hope he wins!

Here's a link to the story featured on The Statesman blog: http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/the-reader/2014/mar/18/texas-institute-letters-names-finalists/

To both: :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

JB

ETA: Here's a link to an ESMB post that shows a sample of Mr. MacCormack's work: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...-Media-Reports&p=845877&viewfull=1#post845877

Yay!
John MacCormack did win. :happydance:

Blog link here: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/weeken...-take-home-texas-institute-of-letters-awards/

Express-News Senior Reporter John MacCormack won the Edwin “Bud” Shrake Award for Short Nonfiction for his story “Life on the Shale,” which appeared in the newspaper in late December.

JB
 

JBWriter

Happy Sapien
Re: Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear" - Review: "5+ out of 5"

This review of Wright's Going Clear is exceptionally well-written.

Blog Link: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2014/04/10/going-clear-scientology-hollywood-the-prison-of-belief/

Excerpt #1:

Religion is a complicated thing to talk about. As Wright points out several times with increasing clarity throughout the book, religion requires belief in things unseen or incomprehensible. A pregnant virgin, the parting of a sea, reincarnation – what’s to say that all of these things, if you believe in them and they help you live your life, can’t be ‘true’ for you? Where is the line drawn between belief and outright fiction? And is that line different for different people? Wright’s tolerant and even-handed tone makes the eventual takeaway of this book that much stronger, though: Scientology is dangerous.

Excerpt #2:

But Wright’s systematic uncovering of the abuses, deceptions, and outright thuggery of the modern day “church” of Scientology forces the reader to take a stand on one side of the issue or another. There can be no equivocation here – and based on the well-researched evidence presented by one of the absolute paragons of journalism, it’s hard to come down on any other side of the issue but that Scientology is a cult and a dangerous one.

Excerpt #3:

We’re talking physical, emotional, and mental abuse. We’re talking child labor violations. We’re talking families being torn apart. We’re talking bribery, extortion, espionage, misdirection, miscommunication, and all sorts of other terrible behavior. And Wright lays it all out there for the reader to see – carefully annotated countless times to state that this Scientology representative or that lawyer have stated that this isn’t true or that the real truth is something else, but the categorical denunciation of pretty much anything even vaguely negative about the church is balanced against a multitude of stories from former Scientologists and even vetted to some extent by the church itself (a surprisingly harrowing scene near the end of the book recounts The New Yorker staff meeting w/ some of the head reps of Scientology to do a whole mess of fact-checking and clarification – the whole thing pulses with uncertain dread, making me even less likely to go to Times Square in the near future). It is impossible to read this book, with Wright’s careful and caring tone, and come away with any other sense but that Scientology is a cult – a prison of belief, as it were.

JB
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
Just ran across a new review published earlier today by Caitlin Doughty over at www.themillions.com

Given that this is the book the upcoming HBO documentary is based upon I figured I'd give the thread a bump.
:)


A Year in Reading: Caitlin Doughty

I started the year with Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. I live in Los Angeles, which is Scientology ground zero. For years I had heard stories, seen the Tom Cruise freakout video, watched the guys with the E-meters on Hollywood Blvd. But I didn’t know much about the history of Scientology other than, “L. Ron Hubbard thinks aliens detonated hydrogen bombs in volcanoes.” Damn. It’s more insane than you can possibly imagine. And the best part is that this isn’t a hatchet job by Wright, he tries so hard to be fair to Scientologists, meticulously researching everything and presenting it in an unbiased way. It’s just that the each story is more bonkers than the next. Wright is also a brilliant narrative nonfiction writer, so it’s a pleasure to read.

http://www.themillions.com/2014/12/a-year-in-reading-caitlin-doughty.html
 
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