This will be a guided book club with a core group of 20 readers, and some drop ins.
Deconstruction is an important part of healing, and understanding what happened to us under coercive control of many kinds, is crucial.
Deconstruction bookclub will be led by Daniella Mestyanek Young, a scholar of cults, extreme groups, and extremely bad leadership. Daniella wrote the critically acclaimed memoir, Uncultured, about her life growing up in the Children of God religious sex cult, and then going into the US Army, showing many of the culty parallels between the two organizations. Everyone who signs up for bookclub will receive a complimentary PDF of Uncultured, and it will be the first book we discuss.
The format for the 90 minute events will be:
45 mins of group discussion, with some planned discussion questions. We will be learning about themes in high control groups as well.
The second 45 will be small group discussions. One of the most powerful quotes I know about memoir is "nobody reads your story, they read their story". The second part of the meeting will be for us to share our own stories, and what the books are helping us to realize, contextualize, deconstruct, and put into words.
From time to time, Daniella will use her author connections to bring in a speaker, usually whomever wrote the book, for a portion of the meeting time.
I will offer one complimentary meeting (to be scheduled with participants) for those who would like to discuss writing & publishing their own stories.
Reading List
Uncultured--October
Educated--November
Rising Out of Hatred: the Awakening of a Former White Nationalist--December
Scarred--January
I'm Glad My Mom Died--February
A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology--March
Unfollow--April
When the World Didn't End--May
The Secret Practice--June
The Glass Castle--July
Pure--August
A Well-Trained Wife--September
