Apocalypse Child

For the first thirteen years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the Children of God. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor would be thirteen years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where they would eventually disband, leaving Flor to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around her. Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real life Kimmy Schmidt, Edwards's clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes.

Ellen White's two thousand visions, revered by her twenty million disciples, were doctrinally inspired by William Miller, who fathered the largest millennial movement in US history. He and Samuel Snow, during the movement's climax, the "Midnight Cry," predicted Christ's Second Coming for exactly October 22, 1844, on the basis of fifteen proof-texts. Ellen was twelve, suffering from severe brain trauma and the conviction that she was hell-bound, when Miller converted her. By sixteen she became convicted that she was having divine dreams and visions confirming Miller's prophetic role and message. When Miller's predictions failed and he repudiated his own predictions, Ellen announced that God had commanded her to endorse Miller's failed "Midnight Cry" as divinely inspired, and her authority replaced Miller's in the "shut-door" faction of ex-Millerites who evolved into the Seventh-day Adventist church. Miller claimed that his dogmas were the result of merely allowing the Bible to interpret itself and that his method was literal commonsense. White seconded this claim and said God's angels routinely guided Miller's interpretations. However, not only were his interpretations falsified, but examination reveals them to be farfetched allegorical treatments of parables. Nonetheless, White's visions and SDA theology still retain many of Miller's falsified predictions.

This is not the Africa of Isak Dinesen, nor the Africa of Joy Adamson. This is the Africa of civil wars and tribal massacres, where the Lord’s Resistance Army recruits child-soldiers after forcing them to kill their parents and eat their hearts. The aid workers who voluntarily subject themselves to life here are a breed of their own. Meet Hickey, an American school teacher in his late thirties, an American school teacher who burns his bridges with the school board and goes to Africa as an aid worker. Working for an agency in Nairobi, one of his jobs is to drive food and medical supplies to Southern Sudan to an aid station run by Ruth, a middle-aged woman, who acts as nurse, doctor, hospice worker, feeder of starving children, and witness. Ruth is gruff but efficient, and Hickey, who is usually drawn to youth and beauty, is struck by her devotion. Returning to Nairobi, he can’t forget what he has seen. When the violence and chaos in the region increase to a fever pitch and aid workers are being slaughtered or evacuated, Hickey is asked to save Ruth overland by Jeep. What happens to them and the children that have joined their journey is the searing climax of this novel. Hoagland paints an unflinching portrait of a living hell at its worst, and yet amid that suffering there is hope in the form of humility, sacrifice, and life-affirming friendship.

Parenting is difficult under the best of circumstances--but extremely daunting when humanity faces cataclysmic annihilation. When the dead rise, hardship, violence and the ever-present threat of flesh-eating zombies will adversely affect parents and children alike. Depending on their age, children will have little chance of surviving a single encounter with the undead, let alone the unending peril of the Zombie Apocalypse. The key to their survival--and thus the survival of the species--will be the caregiving they receive. Drawing on psychological theory and real-world research on developmental status, grief, trauma, mental illness, and child-rearing in stressful environments, this book critically examines factors influencing parenting, and the likely outcomes of different caregiving techniques in the hypothetical landscape of the living dead.

Ellen White’s two thousand visions, revered by her twenty million disciples, were doctrinally inspired by William Miller, who fathered the largest millennial movement in US history. He and Samuel Snow, during the movement’s climax, the “Midnight Cry,” predicted Christ’s Second Coming for exactly October 22, 1844, on the basis of fifteen proof-texts. Ellen was twelve, suffering from severe brain trauma and the conviction that she was hell-bound, when Miller converted her. By sixteen she became convicted that she was having divine dreams and visions confirming Miller’s prophetic role and message. When Miller’s predictions failed and he repudiated his own predictions, Ellen announced that God had commanded her to endorse Miller’s failed “Midnight Cry” as divinely inspired, and her authority replaced Miller’s in the “shut-door” faction of ex-Millerites who evolved into the Seventh-day Adventist church. Miller claimed that his dogmas were the result of merely allowing the Bible to interpret itself and that his method was literal commonsense. White seconded this claim and said God’s angels routinely guided Miller’s interpretations. However, not only were his interpretations falsified, but examination reveals them to be farfetched allegorical treatments of parables. Nonetheless, White’s visions and SDA theology still retain many of Miller’s falsified predictions.

BORN INTO A MULTI RACIAL FAMILY OF A NIGERIAN FATHER AND A CAUCASIAN MOTHER, Isabella an evil child is on a mission to bring pain and misery to her loving parents. She has done this on four occasions. Will she succeed again despite many obstacles and a mother who is determined to make her stay? Rachel was born into wealth and married to the love of her life.Her perfect life was shattered by the mysterious deaths of her babies after birth and now Isabella, her fifth & only surviving child, about to celebrate her 14th birthday has started showing signs all too familiar to her. Rachel is prepared to go to any length to save her little girl. The Apocalypse Child is a psychological thriller that depicts the battle of conflicting wills.

Enough already! Who ripped your fun out of fatherhood? When did parenting become a war of attrition? Didn't you get the memo? Being a dad is the best damn thing that will ever happen to you. It's the story of a lifetime. It's your own personal 'Once Upon a Time.' You're the director. The screenwriter. You write the first act, the second act, the third act. Do you want a happy beginning, middle and end? Then write one. But you're going to have to work for it. Push yourself beyond what you believe possible. Invest in your daughter. Invest in your son. Invest in yourself. When your kids' time comes - and if Epictetus has taught us anything, their time will come - when they grow up, no matter what, will they know you tried your best? Will you have kept those promises you made at 3 a.m. in the dark on a chill Tuesday morning in April as you sang lullabies into the delicate ear of that sleeping fragile lump of life you call your daughter? I'm like you. I'm a father, I'm a parent. I want what's best for my kids. And I'll go to the end of the world to make that a reality. "Because It's not the end of your world, but what if it was?" The Apocalypse Daddy isn't your traditional guide to fatherhood. You'll find zero nappy reviews. You won't read about car seats and bottle feeding and how to manage your sleep. You won't get a breakdown of the latest gadgets or the top 5 fatherhood mis-haps. They'll be nothing about pregnancy or which pushchair to buy. I don't care what's on your breakfast menu. You'll get something much better than that. Something much more actionable and powerful. You'll get a reminder that the best stories are written in childhood. You'll get a story about Quentin Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs and Stoicism and the ancient courts and emperors and Seneca and Diogenes and Epictetus and Aurelius. You'll learn about the power of running circles in your backyard and playing in grass with your children. You'll read about the magic of sleep deprivation and dreams; of running and jumping and playing; of holidays and the never-ending chaos that always ends too soon. Part love letter to his children, part alternative parenting guide, part stoic meditation, part psychotic breakdown, Apocalypse Daddy is the story of a father and his daughter and how one Spring can last a lifetime. Joining Apocalypse Daddy is a cast of cultural icons, scientists, musicians, dead kings and Schrödinger's cat. Can Buddha, Seneca, Epictetus, Bob Dylan, Diogenes, Richard Nixon, Peter Rabbit, Alfred Hitchcock, Jimi Hendrix and Hunter S Thompson help Apocalypse Daddy overcome the odds and bring education home? Is there enough time for Alice and Luca to teach Apocalypse Daddy about the meaning of life and what being a parent is really about? Undistracted. In the moment.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.