Jesus Land wins Award!
I'm very pleased to learn that the American Library Association has given Jesus Land an award.
It was named one of "the ten adult books that will appeal to teen readers:" The Alex Awards
It was named one of "the ten adult books that will appeal to teen readers:" The Alex Awards
5 Comments:
Congratulations on all the praise that your book has garnered and on this latest award! Our book club just finished reading and discussing it, and we all found it tragically compelling and beautiful. My own parents were missionaries in Bolivia with a rather conservative agency (linked to Wycliffe), and much of the dogma and rhetoric that you describe is all too familiar to me. Sadly, every time you mentioned a Christian praise song, I unconsciously began singing it aloud! Indoctrination is an ugly thing...
Thank you for sharing your story with us, and I hope that this latest endorsement from the ALA will help take it to other people.
Best,
dwain
Hey Dwain! Thanks to your book club for choosing my book!
Those horrid Sandi Patti songs still revisit me in my nighmares. They're worse than Chinese water torture.
Julia
Congrats on your award. I just finished reading the book. I couldn't put it down and had it read in under a week. I was so moved by it. I cried after reading the Epilogue. :(
Julia: I watched the TV movie "Bastard out of North Carolina" with my wife and abusive mother and father.
After the violent rape scene, my mother remarked:
"Jeeze, that wasnt so bad, I dont know what all the hype was about"
It hit me at that point that my mother was truly a sadist and incapable of feeling the pain or being empathetic to another person's pain. I also wondered, if the rape scene didnt satisfy, what voyeuristic portrayal could? I'm not sure I want to go there.
My wife and I excused ourselves from the family room, went upstairs to our guest bedroom (we were visiting from out of town) and screamed into our pillows.
Once I realized that my mother was truly abusive, harmed me, and that I was wounded deeply, only then can I set up the necessary defenses and barriers and boundaries to protect myself from further hurt.
Julia: Sandi Patti songs in your nightmares??? Are you still having nightmares?
Its funny how music can trigger stuff....
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