The unflinching memoir of a young woman nearly destroyed by Ecstasy abuse follows her inspiring journey to battle drug addiction and become a nationally renowned role model.
“Gottschalk distinguishes himself by placing Christian Science in the larger context of American religion . . . sheds new light on Eddy’s life and work.” —Publishers Weekly This richly detailed study highlights the last two decades of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, a prominent religious thinker whose character and achievement are just beginning to be understood. It is the first book-length discussion of Eddy to make full use of the resources of the Mary Baker Eddy Collection in Boston. Rolling Away the Stone focuses on her long-reaching legacy as a Christian thinker, specifically her challenge to the materialism that threatens religious belief and practice. “Gottschalk has provided readers with a masterful account of Christian Science in its heyday. This book is a first-rate read for students of American religion and provides a look into how one of the country’s more complex religious figures dealt with materialism in the late-nineteenth-century America.” —Religious Studies Review “Gottschalk does a superb job of providing historical context for the chaotic events of Eddy’s final decades.” —Choice “Gottschalk’s account is well told and enriched by fresh material now available from the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity.” —Christian Science Monitor “The book includes a great deal of fresh research and honest scholarship . . . for the individual wanting to sink his or her teeth into a serious study of Eddy . . . you have a lot to look forward to in reading this book.” —The Christian Science Journal
Spanning eras, continents, and genres, CoDex 1962—twenty years in the making—is Sjón’s epic three-part masterpiece Over the course of four dazzling novels translated into dozens of languages, Sjón has earned a global reputation as one of the world’s most interesting writers. But what the world has never been able to read is his great trilogy of novels, known collectively as CoDex 1962—now finally complete. Josef Löwe, the narrator, was born in 1962—the same year, the same moment even, as Sjón. Josef’s story, however, stretches back decades in the form of Leo Löwe—a Jewish fugitive during World War II who has an affair with a maid in a German inn; together, they form a baby from a piece of clay. If the first volume is a love story, the second is a crime story: Löwe arrives in Iceland with the clay-baby inside a hatbox, only to be embroiled in a murder mystery—but by the end of the volume, his clay son has come to life. And in the final volume, set in present-day Reykjavík, Josef’s story becomes science fiction as he crosses paths with the outlandish CEO of a biotech company (based closely on reality) who brings the story of genetics and genesis full circle. But the future, according to Sjón, is not so dark as it seems. In CoDex 1962, Sjón has woven ancient and modern material and folklore and cosmic myths into a singular masterpiece—encompassing genre fiction, theology, expressionist film, comic strips, fortean studies, genetics, and, of course, the rich tradition of Icelandic storytelling.