Facing marital problems and eventually divorce, author Makena McChesney found herself a single mother. Seeking comfort, she was befriended by the charismatic pastor of a nondenominational Christian fellowship of believers, and she joined the cult in 1978. In Seeking Oz, she discusses the twelve years of entrapment in this cult, predominantly in the 1980s, in a rural community in the United States. In this memoir, she answers the often-asked question, How did you end up in a cult? Starting with her formative years in a mainstream Pentecostal Christian church, she underscores the underlying issues that contribute to victimizationconditions that develop from being raised in a fear-based, shame-based religion. McChesney narrates her journey through restrictive doctrines in early childhood and adolescence, through a resultant dysfunctional marriage, and ultimately through the twelve cult years. McChesney travels down the Yellow Brick Road and through the Dark Forest as she finds herself getting increasingly entangled and her choices taken from her. As the entanglement progresses to a form of imprisonment, she angrily and secretly challenges the God of her religion in the way of questions for which she demands and expects answers. Answers pour forth in waves of several disturbing events that impact her and her family until a time of death and destruction that serves to eventually pave a way out. She tells her story not to condemn the offenders, but to encourage victims to be strong and take personal responsibility. I had forewarned Bud that I needed to talk to him, and he was waiting for me when I arrived. I briefly explained that I was having chest pain and would like some relief from teaching for a time. Without any dialogue, Bud motioned for me to sit in a chair near him while he pulled a book from his small bookshelf. He quietly and solemnly reached for his reading glasses, and under the dim light of a lamp, he read me a short story. The story was about a widow who was raising her small child alone, when she contracted a fatal disease. She was concerned about leaving the earth and her young dependent child. Though she was worried, as fate had it, someone came forward and offered to raise the child when she died. As it turned out, it was for the best, because that person was better equipped than even the mother to do the job. When Bud finished the story, I felt mortification. Bud removed his glasses, set them on a nearby desk with the book, leaned back in his chair, folded his hands across his chest, and offered no further explanation for reading me such a story.

A groundbreaking new look at the author of an iconic American novel--"The Wizard of Oz"--this biography offers profound new insights into the true origins and meaning behind L. Frank Baum's 1900 masterwork.

After release from a 12-year cult experience, Makena embarks on an adventure to discover what it means to live life by direct reliance on Source, exclusive of a fear-based religious belief system. Her cult experience was restrictive and stripped her and her family of freedom of choice. Eventually, the cult doctrine nearly led to sacrifice of home and property. On attempting to escape the cult entrapment in 1990, she appealed to God to give her encouragement. She received a three-fold promise from two identical scripture passages that essentially described a release from imprisonment, a time of abundance, and lifetime financial security. The Beyond Oz experience covers a span of 26 years that ultimately delivers all three promises—the last of which appeared impossible when she experienced a devastating loss at age 60. She was also inspired to “close the book,” indicating the Bible and some of the more oppressive messages. She was divinely encouraged to follow her inner guidance, her higher self, Source. She transparently narrates the ups and downs, the highs and the lows, but all with the underlying lessons she brought forward from her cult experience—to release fear, ask Source, gain knowledge, take personal responsibility and above all to love self and fellowman.

Risky behavior can be an expression of a normal, genetically influenced personality trait--sensation seeking. In this fascinating and accessible book, the author offers a comprehensive view of the role of sensation seeking in a wide range of behaviors, from risky driving sports through substance use, sex, crime, or other antisocial behaviors.

The Road to Wicked examines the long life of the Oz myth. It is both a study in cultural sustainability— the capacity of artists, narratives, art forms, and genres to remain viable over time—and an examination of the marketing machinery and consumption patterns that make such sustainability possible. Drawing on the fields of macromarketing, consumer behavior, literary and cultural studies, and theories of adaption and remediation, the authors examine key adaptations and extensions of Baum’s 1900 novel. These include the original Oz craze, the MGM film and its television afterlife, Wicked and its extensions, and Oz the Great and Powerful—Disney’s recent (and highly lucrative) venture that builds on the considerable success of Wicked. At the end of the book, the authors offer a foundational framework for a new theory of cultural sustainability and propose a set of explanatory conditions under which any artistic experience might achieve it.

In The Great Poems of the Bible, James Kugel, acclaimed Harvard scholar and former poetry editor of Harpers Magazine, selects eighteen essential poems from the Hebrew Bible and offers his own original and articulate translations of these core pieces of religious literature. His eloquent renditions are paired with deeply informed discussions about the conditions surrounding each poem, including its history and whatÊthe best religious scholarship and literary criticism tell us about how the poem should be understood. Kugel explains traditions, clarifies often-misunderstood language, and offers readers wonderfully insightful explanations that are indispensable to understanding the poems and, ultimately, the fundamental teachings of the Old Testament.

Karen J. Nolan, Jo-Ann Heslin, and Annette B. Natow, registered dietitians and authors of Pocket’s many phenomenally successful Counter books, bring their astounding expertise to a superb encyclopedia of food values. The essential reference for everyday use, The Most Complete Food Counter, 2nd Edition contains: * listings for calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, sodium, calcium, vitamins A and C, and folic acid * more than 21,000 entries of individual food items—with no repetitions * listings for national and regional brand-name foods, vegetarian, ethnic, organic and take-out items * an A-to-Z dictionary of clearly defined terms all in an easy, accessible format.

Although the capacity for self-awareness is an essential aspect of human nature, self-reflection comes at a high price. Self-awareness and its accompanying egoism profoundly affect people's lives, interfering with their success, polluting their relationships with other people, and undermining their happiness. Drawing from work in psychology and other behavioral sciences, in The Curse of the Self, Mark Leary explores personal and social problems that are created by the human capacity for self-reflection and offers insights regarding how these problems may be minimized.

This book teaches students to learn to read the individual symbols of the alphabet and phonetic alphabet first. Next, it teaches them to focus on the vowel sounds as they read the alphabetic and phonetic stories out loud. To read well, they must blend sounds, syllables, and words into sentences. This means that students must learn to decode and read words sound-by-sound and syllable-by-syllable. To do that, they must practice reading both the alphabetic and phonetic spelling of each word before voicing it.