Strange Sects and Curious Cults, first published in 1961, is a well-written overview of a number of important religious sects and cults. Author Marcus Bach divides these into three categories: the sex sects, conscience cults, and the utopianists. The first group includes ancient Baalism of Mesopotamia, Osirism of Egypt, Shivism of India, and more recently, Voodoo of Africa and the New World. The Conscience Cults include the Penitentes, Apocalypticists,...

Throughout human history, people have banded together to pass on traditions, climb the social ladder, and often just have a good time. And sometimes, keeping other people out is part of the fun. (Every hot club needs a velvet rope, after all.) But some of these groups have proved so exclusive and secretive that we on the outside can't resist some speculation. Wouldn't you like to know what they're really up to? No need for secret handshakes or passwords-Members...

"The thing about a downward spiral is that you never know you're in one at the beginning. In fact, in my embarrassingly vast experience, they typically begin with unabashed enthusiasm. I should have recognized the pattern too, having just recently tumbled to the bottommost depths of my own personal barrel. But there I was, back on top, embarking on a thrilling adventure abroad. What was the fun in learning from your mistakes when you could just repeat...

"In The Boy in the Snow, half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk finds herself in Alaska with Sergeant Derek Palliser, helping her ex-husband Sammy in his bid to win the famous Iditarod dog sled race. The race takes a grim turn when Edie stumbles upon the body of a baby left out in the forest. The state troopers are keen to pin the death on the Dark Believers--a sinister offshoot of a Russian Orthodox sect--but Edie's instincts tell her otherwise. Her investigations...

"A human raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith has just arrived on planet Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while his own "psi" powers -- among them telepathy, clairvoyance, telekenesis, and teleportation -- make him a type of messiah figure among humans. Stranger in a Strange Land grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a classic...

After a shocking discovery in Masada, Israel, Sergeant Jordan Stone, Father Rhun Korza and Dr. Erin Granger, racing against time to recover a book written by Christ's own hand, must contend with a force of ancient evil with impossible ambitions and a secret sect within the Vatican called the Sanguines.