Millions met Susan Atkins in "Helter Skelter." She was young and attractive, but desperate to find happiness. Alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity didn't satisfy her.... She was looking for more. When she met Charles Manson, she felt she had met the world's savior. Here is her eye-witness account of life and death with the Manson "family." Condemned to die, rejected by society, she found life on death row - a miraculous rebirth as real as a resurrection.
Sometimes, life can be really hard. A lot of times we make our own life difficult with the bad choices we make. Other times we grow up in a bad environment, and never had a chance before we got started. Then there are cases where you do your best and life just deals you a really bad hand. Life is not easy for most of us. I can sympathize because it wasn't easy for me either.The question is... What do we do with the broken messes we call ourselves? Do we give up? Do we use our hard circumstances as a crutch for the rest of our lives to excuse the fact that we will never be happy? Or, do we pick ourselves up out of the dust and fight for our happiness?Maybe your situation is so bad that there will never be a chance to change things around. Well, if I can go through hell and back and end up where I'm at today than anyone can. The reason I wrote this book is to show others the first steps to take who don't think there is a way out. I'm telling my story to help people in the most extreme hopeless situations that even they can find a happy ending to their story. I've always said, "Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil", not because I needed a false protection from God, I fear no evil because I was something a whole lot worse.I realize using the phrase, "I went through hell and back", has become a cliché. Well, what if you witness your mother being physically abused daily. While suffering violent beatings yourself on a normal basis you became so pathetically addicted to drugs that you constantly attempt suicide. Due to the overwhelming stress on your body and mind you develop multiple personality disorder. You become a violent sociopath, and survive ten years in prison after escaping constant hits on your life due to the fact that there is a murder contract on your head. Living your whole life breaking anyone's heart who ever cared about you, all the while suffering the deepest emotional torment, and hate ever known to man. In this case I don't see anything cliché about my life's story.This was just the beginning of my life. I could have lay down and died and nobody would have blamed me for giving up. Where you have been in life doesn't define who you are now. Society, people around you, and even your own mind may tell you there is no way you will ever be happy, but if I can beat the odds by overcoming the past then anyone can. My story is proof of that.
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road • In this taut, chilling story, Lester Ballard—a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape—haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance. "Like the novelists he admires-Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner-Cormac McCarthy has created an imaginative oeuvre greater and deeper than any single book. Such writers wrestle with the gods themselves." —Washington Post Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.
Are you struggling to accept God’s love? We’ve bought into the lie that we are worthy of God’s love only when our lives are going well. But when life begins to fall through the cracks and things become less-than-perfect, we scramble to present a good front to the world—and to God. God longs for us to deeply believe and know that He loves us and accepts us as we are. He calls for us to remove our mask and establish an honest and deep relationship with Him. When we are our true selves, we can finally claim our identity as His own—Abba’s child. Let go of the pressure of an impostor lifestyle and lean into the life-changing wonder of a truly loving relationship with God. Abba’s Child will light the way to freely accepting your belovedness and being renewed by the reassurance of our Father’s deep care for you—regardless of how perfect your life isn’t. “Honest. Genuine. Creative. God hungry. These words surface when I think of the writings of Brennan Manning. Read him for yourself—you’ll see what I mean!” —Max Lucado, New York Times bestselling author “I pray that Brennan Manning and the timeless voices . . . in this book might offer you hope. May they remind you that you are loved by the Father-Creator Himself. May they sing and speak into your life against the voices that tell you otherwise.” —Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot
Recounts the true story of the murder of his parents committed by sixteen-year-old Sean Sellers, his involvement in Satanic rituals, and his belief that Satan commanded him to commit the crimes
Does God Really Have Your Best Interest at Heart? Doubting His holiness? Thinking maybe you shouldn’t completely surrender to Him, that you’re better off in charge of your own life? Well, say hello to the father of these lies: Satan. He’s an old pro using the same brilliant, deceptive tactics to harm you every time—unless you dare call his bluff and refuse to ever be his victim again. In God Can Not Be Trusted (and Five Other Lies of Satan), you’ll discover how to recognize the devil’s six ancient tactics, and claim victory over each one. Your only hope is in the power of Jesus Christ. Because only Christ can conquer Satan. He already has. So flood your mind with truth, and begin to see the lies for what they are. You’ll never be duped by them again, free to live abundantly in light of God’s truth! Have You Been Fooled? God must be out to get me. I’m better off doing my own thing. Sure it’s a sin, but I can get away with it! Do you recognize these thoughts? Then you have been fooled. And Satan is laughing. Because if he can deceive you, he will destroy your state of mind, ruin your relationships, and steal your joy. Do not let him. Dr. Tony Evans equips you to recognize Satan’s conniving tactics and boldly declare his lies for what they are. Winning this game is easier than you may think. And victorious living in light of God’s truth is your daily reward! Story Behind the Book A common theme emerged as Tony Evans held counseling sessions with countless individuals. People seemed completely unaware of how the spiritual realm was at work in their lives. “They saw clearly with their physical eyes,” he says, “but remained unaware of the evil, unseen spiritual activity that either caused or aggravated their physical world. Even in my own life, when I faced challenges or struggles, I would often reference the physical system without first looking at the spiritual cause,” says Tony. “Thus this book’s message was born to more effectively help people understand and address their struggles from a spiritual point of view.”
An inspirational look at how God works in the life of an ordinary woman who just wants to serve Him. Often funny or thought-provoking, this blog-to-page book is filled with stories that will make you look at God, and the world around you, in a different way.
Just included in the Los Angeles Times' "Making sense of the Manson family murders" reading list! An impressionable 22 year old kid from a small town in Texas comes to California like many thousands of others: to seek the freedom, good times, and easy living that the culture of the decade promised. After bumming around for a time, enjoying his new freedom from parents and a heavily Methodist small town, he picks up a hitchhiker on Sunset Blvd: Dennis Wilson, drummer of The Beach Boys, who invites him back to his home where there is a party going on. At the center is a gentle, charismatic hippie with a guitar, singing to a crowd of Hollywood's elite who all seem entranced by this man's every word.What he didn't know was that this guy named Charlie -whom the Hollywood jet-set embraced as a purveyor of good dope and easy girls- was a violent psychotic with extraordinary abilities for seduction and an apocalyptic vision of himself as Jesus Christ. Within eighteen short months, the young Texan would slaughter seven innocent people in cold blood for his guru Charles Manson in some of the most infamous crimes of the last 100 years. This is the first person account of descent into the madness of the Manson Family, directly through the eyes Manson's 'right-hand man' -and murderer of all seven of the Tate-LaBianca victims- Charles "Tex" Watson. Through 'Tex' Watson's eyes, readers will experience the Manson Family from a perspective that is not only authentic, unique, and chillingly close, but which sheds unexplored light on the social and political climate of the times and its contribution to the conditions that made such an unthinkable thing almost inevitable. Following the 'turn on, tune in, drop out' credo of the day, young Charles was on a quest for pleasure and freedom over the hard work and Christian values of his parents. On his own in LA, he was relatively easy prey for a charismatic cult leader dishing out plentiful psychoactive drugs and an army of young girls, along with frequent hints that he is perhaps the Jesus Christ that Watson's parents had pushed him to find. Meeting Charlie Manson and his 'Family' through a major celebrity -drummer Dennis Wilson- made the situation all the more enticing. This is the Manson saga from a unique perspective; one that is brimming with heretofore only partially known or entirely unknown facts, and which doesn't have to fictionalize anything or employ gimmicky storytelling to remain engrossing. It provides insight into seductive the promises of Manson and the adolescent fantasy world he created before turning to murderous hatred against the establishment. . At its heart, it's the cautionary tale of a young man's downward spiral to self-annihilation as he gets caught up in the times -and the events that forever changed those times. On this journey readers will encounter a series of historical pop-culture figures, bizarre counter-culture characters and events, and will witness firsthand the death throes of the most dynamic, exciting, and influential decade in American history. It also offers a front seat view to the turning point in Manson's pivot from peace and love to enraged vengeful blood lust: the perceived theft of Manson's song "Cease to Exist" by The Beach Boys. Originally released by a Christian publisher in the '70s under the title "Will You Die For Me?" the book remains -along with police-procedural "Helter Skelter"- by far the best account to understand the tragic events of August 1969. Charles Watson does not receive any benefit from this book other than the hope that others will look at his story as a cautionary tale, and not go down the path that destroyed the lives of seven human beings, arguably along with his own. "Charles "Tex" Watson is perhaps Manson's best piece of work, going from high school track star to knife wielding maniac in 18 LSD and belladonna soaked months"-John
