Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?: A Mennonite Finds Faith, Meets Mr. Right, and Solves Her Lady Problems
Rhoda Janzen, 2012
Grand Central Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455502875
Summary
What does it mean to give church a try when you haven't really tried since you were twelve? At the end of her bestselling memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen had reconnected with her family and her roots, though her future felt uncertain. But when she starts dating a churchgoer, this skeptic begins a surprising journey to faith and love.
Rhoda doesn't slide back into the dignified simplicity of the Mennonite church. Instead she finds herself hanging with the Pentecostals, who really know how to get down with sparkler pom-poms. Amid the hand waving and hallelujahs Rhoda finds a faith richly practical for life--just in time for some impressive lady problems, an unexpected romance, and a quirky new family.
Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? is for people who have a problem with organized religion, but can't quite dismiss the notion of God, and for those who secretly sing hymns in their cars, but prefer a nice mimosa brunch to church. This is the story of what it means to find joy in love, comfort in prayer, and—incredibly, surprisingly—faith in a big-hearted God. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1963
• Where—North Dakota, USA
• Education—Ph. D, University of California, Los Angeles
• Currently—lives in Michigan
Rhoda Janzen is an American poet, academic and memoirist, best known for her three memoirs: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (2011), Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? (2012), and Mennonite Meets Mr. Right (2013).
Janzen grew up in a Mennonite household in North Dakota. She earned a Ph.D. from UCLA, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997.
In 2006, Janzen’s husband of 15 years left her for a man, and she suffered serious injuries in car accident a few days later. While on sabbatical from her teaching position, she went home to her Mennonite family in Fresno, California, to heal from these crises. These experiences are recounted in her memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.
Her second memoir, Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?, tells the story of her experiences surviving breast cancer, becoming a stepmom, and attending her new husband’s Pentecostal church. Mennonite Meets Mr. Right recounts Janzen's courtship with her eventual husband.
In addition to her memoir, Janzen is the author of Babel’s Stair, a collection of poetry. Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/01/2013.)
Book Reviews
[Rhoda] Janzen continues her quirky tales of finding faith in unlikely places in this dotty, squeaky-clean postdivorce sequel in which she describes life with a new boyfriend and the courage to battle breast cancer.... Janzen meets and falls for a Pentecostal born-again.... [U]nderneath her limpid facetiousness...run serious concerns about her faith, spiritual growth, and the meaning of prayer and humility.
Publishers Weekly
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Janzen's pointedly funny memoir of returning home at low ebb to her cheerily faithful family, dwelled on the New York Times best sellers list for more than 40 weeks, sometimes in the top spot. Her new memoir charts her growing comfort with faith, though she goes for the hallelujah-swaying Pentecostals, and eventually meets the right guy.
Library Journal
A hilarious account of the small details that make a life.... Readers from all backgrounds will be inspired by Janzen's tale of love and faith told with her trademark wit and honesty.
Booklist
Continuing her search for spiritual relevance in everyday life, Janzen recounts the travails and joys encountered while finding love, embracing her new beau's religion, and surviving breast cancer.... A welcome second installment for readers who enjoyed Janzen's first memoir. Others may want to turn elsewhere.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.
Mennonite Meets Mr. Right: A Memoir of Faith, Hope, and Love
Rhoda Janzen, 2013
Grand Central Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455502875
Summary
At the end of her bestselling memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen had reconnected with her family roots, though her future felt uncertain. When this overeducated professor starts dating the most unlikely of men—a weight-liftin', church-goin', truck-drivin' rocker named Mitch—she begins a surprising journey to faith and love.
Nothing says, "Let's get to know each other!" like lady problems on an epic scale, but Mitch vows to stay by her side. Convinced that his bedrock character has something to do with his Pentecostal church, Rhoda suits up for a brave new world of sparkler pom-poms and hand-clappin' hallelujahs.
Written with her trademark "uproarious, bawdy sense of humor" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune), Mennonite Meets Mr. Right is witty and moving, perfect for anyone who has taken an unexpected detour only to find that new roads lead to rich destinations. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1963
• Where—North Dakota, USA
• Education—Ph. D, University of California, Los Angeles
• Currently—lives in Michigan
Rhoda Janzen is an American poet, academic and memoirist, best known for her three memoirs: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (2011), Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? (2012), and Mennonite Meets Mr. Right (2013).
Janzen grew up in a Mennonite household in North Dakota. She earned a Ph.D. from UCLA, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997.
In 2006, Janzen’s husband of 15 years left her for a man, and she suffered serious injuries in car accident a few days later. While on sabbatical from her teaching position, she went home to her Mennonite family in Fresno, California, to heal from these crises. These experiences are recounted in her memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.
Her second memoir, Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?, tells the story of her experiences surviving breast cancer, becoming a stepmom, and attending her new husband’s Pentecostal church. Mennonite Meets Mr. Right recounts Janzen's courtship with her eventual husband.
In addition to her memoir, Janzen is the author of Babel’s Stair, a collection of poetry. Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/01/2013.)
Book Reviews
Janzen is the kind of writer-world-weary yet incredulous; girlfriend-esque and conversational-that draws you along through a story with ease...[Does This Church Make Me Look Fat] would fit naturally on a shelf, say, next to your collection of beat-up Anne Lamott paperbacks. It has that same sort of accessibility to it; that same sort of acceptance.
Charity Vogel - Buffalo News
Smart and witty.... Janzen has a remarkable ability to demystify religion through humor and humanity.
Susanne Jaffe - Columbus Dispatch
Amazingly light-hearted... [Janzen] is not so much proselytizing for her particular religion as she is pointing toward the value of examining one's own beliefs, whatever they might be, and finding a way to live with them in joy.
Colette Bancroft - Tampa Bay Times
A delight for fans of [Janzen's] warm, wisecracking style.... Her enthusiasm and spirit and knack for finding humor in the God details make this book a crowd-pleaser.
Hannah Sampson - Miami Herald
(Starred review.) Following up on the success of her previous memoir (Mennonite in a Little Black Dress), Janzen tackles her next set of difficult and joyful experiences with humor and gratitude.... Janzen’s new love, a devoted Pentecostal, rekindles her lackluster feeling about religion and she delights in comparing her Mennonite faith to the brash style of Pentecostals.... This is a joyful trek through one woman’s spiritual journey into a new life as a wife, stepmother, and believer.
Publishers Weekly
A hilarious account of the small details that make a life.... Readers from all backgrounds will be inspired by Janzen's tale of love and faith told with her trademark wit and honesty.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Much of this memoir turns on the contrast between faith and intellect. Do you believe that the two are fundamentally incompatible? Does Rhoda?
2. The story frames breast cancer as a "lady problem," but the narrative implies that there are other far more significant lady problems. What are they? Does Rhoda suggest any solutions for these lady problems?
3. When Rhoda and her brother played the geography game, she stumped him by choosing Chad, a country so large and obvious that her brother wouldn’t spot it. Have you ever had a blind spot the size of Chad in your life? What was it? What did it take for you to notice it?
4. Why does Rhoda use humor to downplay her struggle with cancer? At one point Rhoda suggests that since childhood she has struggled with avoidance. Is the cancer humor an example of avoidance? If so, what is Rhoda failing to confront? If not, what positive function might the humor have? Can humor enable growth? Can it free us from fear?
5. Rhoda grew up in a sober Mennonite community, and she is surprised to find that the Pentecostals really know how to shake it. What other differences did you notice between Mennonite and Pentecostal services? Have you ever visited places of worship different from your own? Did your visit broaden your understanding of your faith?
6. Rhoda says that gratitude has become so important to her that she is willing to do almost anything to get more of it. In your experience, what are the positive outcomes of gratitude? Gratitude is an action that Rhoda goes out of her way to practice. How does she achieve it? Can anyone achieve it, or do you have to be predisposed to it? Can you think of any dangers inherent in the deliberate cultivation of gratitude?
7. Rhoda speaks of learning to put down past resentments and grudges. How has she achieved that? Have you been able to set down your biggest grudge, your all-time worst hurt? Can it be done without calling on a Higher Power?
8. When it comes right down to it, chapter eight, "The Gottman Island Survival Experience," is an argument for abstinence. What are the pros and cons of abstinence in contemporary American culture? How would your life have been different if you had (or had not) embraced abstinence before making a commitment to your partner?
9. Rhoda and Mitch wonder if other couples have been similarly impacted by the sacramental power of the marriage covenant. What do you think? Is the institution of marriage ultimately any different from a monogamous romantic partnership?
10. Chapter ten, "The Poovey Voice," suggests that spiritual seekers must learn to give before they will receive. Do you believe that financial giving is important to spiritual growth? What about other kinds of giving? Think of the greatest, hardest gift you have ever given; did it result in your growth?
11. Mitch admits that Albert does not love him "overmuch." Do you know any parents who do not love their children "overmuch"? Rhoda and Mitch believe that Albert’s chronic negativity is harmful. How do they respond to it? What should adult children do when parents display unhealthy behavior? How can we have both boundaries and forgiveness?
12. Albert keeps all of his late wife’s things. Rhoda says she believes in "a clean sweep" after a breakup or the death of a loved one. In what ways is Rhoda making "a clean sweep" after her first marriage? How is Mitch making a sweep of his own?
(Questions from the author's website.)
A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life
James Bowen, 2012
St. Martin's Press
279 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250029461
Summary
James is a street musician struggling to make ends meet. Bob is a stray cat looking for somewhere warm to sleep.
When James and Bob meet, they forge a never-to-be-forgotten friendship that has been charming readers from Thailand to Turkey.
A Street Cat Named Bob is an international sensation, landing on the bestseller list in England for 52 consecutive weeks and selling in 26 countries around the world. Now, James and Bob are ready to share their true story with the U.S. in this tale unlike any you’ve ever read of a cat who possesses some kind of magic.
When street musician James Bowen found an injured cat curled up in the hallway of his apartment building, he had no idea how much his life was about to change. James was living hand to mouth on the streets of London, barely making enough money to feed himself, and the last thing he needed was a pet. Yet James couldn't resist helping the strikingly intelligent but very sick animal, whom he named Bob. He slowly nursed Bob back to health and then sent the cat on his way, imagining that he would never see him again. But Bob had other ideas.
Perfect for fans of Marley & Me and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat, this instant classic about the power of love between man and animal has taken the world by storm and is guaranteed to be a huge hit with American fans as well. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— March 15, 1979
• Where—Surrey, England, UK
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in London, England
James Bowen is an author and busker currently based in London. James was interviewed by journalist Garry Jenkins, resulting in him writing the 2012 autobiography, A Street Cat Named Bob. The title is a play on the title of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
Early life
James Bowen was born in Surrey, England, in 1979. Following his parents’ divorce, he moved to Australia with his mother and stepfather. Home life was tense and, because the family moved frequently, James was unsettled at school. He was frequently bullied, and began sniffing glue while still in education, becoming a self-confessed “tearaway kid” who would later be diagnosed with ADHD, schizophrenia and manic depression.
In 1997, he returned to the U.K. and lived with his half-sister, but this arrangement did not last; in time, he became homeless and began sleeping on the streets. From this point, James spent almost 10 years either sleeping rough or staying briefly in charity-run shelters; it was during this time that he began to use heroin in an attempt to escape the realities of homelessness.
Meeting Bob
In Spring 2007, James was enrolled on a methadone programme, busking in Covent Garden, and living in sheltered accommodation in Tottenham, London. One evening he returned home to find a ginger cat in the hallway of his building; assuming it belonged to another resident, he simply returned to his flat. When the cat was still there the following day, and the day after that, James became concerned and discovered the cat was wearing no collar or ID tag, and had an infected wound on his leg. James checked with other residents to see if the stray belonged to any of them, and when none of them claimed ownership of the animal James decided to help the cat himself.
He took the cat to a nearby veterinary surgery run by an animal charity, which provided antibiotics to treat the infected wound. In order to make sure he received the full two-week course of medication, James decided to take him in for a time while he continued to look for the stray’s owner. When he couldn’t find any information, he released the cat back on to the street, hoping he’d find his own way home. Instead, he began to follow James around, even following him onto the bus when he left to go busking. Concerned that the cat had nowhere else to go, James took him in on a permanent basis, naming him Bob after a character from the television drama Twin Peaks.
Since Bob seemed keen to accompany James to work, he constructed a harness from shoelaces and began to bring him along to his regular spots in Covent Garden and Piccadilly, travelling in the window seat of the number 73 bus. The public reaction was positive and the pair became popular, their visibility increasing still further when James began selling the Big Issue.
Soon the public began uploading videos of James and Bob to YouTube, and tourists from across the world would visit Covent Garden to see them. During this time, James decided to withdraw the methadone treatment; he credits his success to Bob, saying “I believe it came down to this little man. He came and asked me for help, and he needed me more than I needed to abuse my own body. He is what I wake up for every day now... he’s definitely given me the right direction to live my life.”
Books
Currently, three books have been published about James and Bob.
• A Street Cat Named Bob was first published in 2012. It began with the Islington Tribune, which printed his story in September, 2010. Mary Pachnos, the literary agent responsible for the UK rights to John Grogan’s Marley and Me, read the story and subsequently secured the pair a book deal with U.K. publishers Hodder & Stoughton. Co-written by Garry Jenkins, the book sold over 1,000,000 copies, been translated into 29 languages, and spent over 76 weeks at the top of the Sunday Times’ bestseller list in both its hardback and paperback format. In 2013, St. Martin's Press issued the book in the U.S.
• The World According to Bob is the follow-up to A Street Cat Named Bob. It was released in 2013. It has now spent every week in the top 10 of the London Sunday Times' bestseller list with only two of those weeks not at No.1
• Bob: No Ordinary Cat is a version of the book A Street Cat Named Bob re-written specifically for children. It was released on Valentine's day in 2013.
James and his literary agent are in talks with a producer for a possible film adaptation of the book. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/22/2013.)
Book Reviews
Move over, Marley. A stray cat from north London could be heading for the lap of luxury as the cinema’s next box office pet sensation.
(London) Times
A simple, sweet and ridiculously heartwarming story.
Huffington Post
A book with the strong ingredients that made Marley and Me and Dewey big successes…A warm and poignant memoir.
Guardian (UK)
Fans...queued around the block at James and Bob's first signing. The purrfectly behaved Bob signed an impressive 180 books in just two hours.
Bookseller (UK)
Bowen isn’t exaggerating; when he met a stray ginger tomcat...he was estranged from his family and recovering from heroin addiction.... His chance encounter with Bob in 2007 changed everything. The injured animal attached himself to Bowen, and quickly proved more than just an emotional asset.... Given Bowen’s inherent decency, he might well have turned things around even without his feline friend, but he convincingly makes the case that Bob was the cat-alyst.
Publishers Weekly
A heartwarming, insightful read about two lost souls who find each other, this book, a No. 1 London Times best seller, is not to be missed for fans of Lisa J. Edwards's A Dog Named Boo and Gwen Cooper's Homer's Odyssey. An inspiring story of healing, redemption, and, perhaps most important, the transformative powers of friendship. —Melissa Culbertson, Homewood, IL
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Stellar...A beautiful, never maudlin story of second chances for both man and beast and a poignant testimony to how much caring for someone—or some feline—can give you renewed direction where you're down and out. Understandably, this was a best-seller in England.
Booklist
How a cat helped one man on the road to recovery from drugs.... The author describes delightful moments spent with Bob as well as a harrowing instance when the cat streaked off into the city streets after being threatened by a dog. With confidence gained through his ability to earn money and to tend to Bob's needs, Bowen was finally able to kick his drug dependency and make amends with his estranged mother. A rich, moving story of the link between a street-wise cat and a man who earns his living on the streets--perfect for cat lovers.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for A Street Cat Names Bob:
1. Talk about the strange connection that exists between humans and animals. What makes us bond with one another? James was barely able to care for himself, as he admits, so what prompted him to undertake the care and added expense of a sick animal?
2. Bowen says that Bob attracted people and motivated them to offer money, far more generously than when he was playing on his own. What is it about animals—but not people—that brings out people's kindness charity? is there something strange about that? Isn't that backwards?
3. On the publisher's book trailer one man says that James and Bob's story changed his perception of homeless people. He came to see them differently than he had in the past. How do you react to the homeless? Do you ever stop to talk, learn their story, offer money, a word of encouragement, a cup of coffee? Has this book made you see homeless people differently?
4. Bowen's story, of an animal that changes one's life, is exceptional but not unique. What is it about animals that can heal the human soul?
5. Talk about the trajectory of young James's life. How did he end up on the streets of London? What part did his mental health and/or his family history play? How responsible is/was James for his troubled life? To what degree are any of us responsible for the path our lives take?
6. Talk about your own relationships with your pets. Perhaps not as dramatically as Bob has done for James Bowen, but have animals in any way shaped your life?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Killing Jesus: A History
Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, 2013
Henry Holt
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780805098549
Summary
The anchor of The O’Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth.
Nearly two thousand years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God. Killing Jesus will take readers inside Jesus’s life, recounting the seismic political and historical events that made his death inevitable—and changed the world forever. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Bill O'Reily
• Birth—September 10, 1949
• Raised—Levittown (Long Island), New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Marist College; M.A., Boston University;
M.A., Harvard University
• Awards—2 Emmy Awards (Investigative Journalism); National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors' Award
• Currently—lives in Manhasset, New York
William James, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television. During the late 1970s and 1980s, he worked as a news reporter for various local television stations in the United States and eventually for CBS News and ABC News. From 1989 to 1995, he was anchor of the entertainment news program Inside Edition.
O'Reilly is widely considered a conservative commentator though some of his positions diverge from conservative orthodoxy. He is a registered "Independent" (See: Political views of Bill O'Reilly) and characterizes himself as a "traditionalist." He is the author of ten books, and hosted The Radio Factor until early 2009.
Early life and education
O'Reilly was born in New York City to parents William James, Sr., (deceased) and Winifred Angela Drake O'Reilly from Brooklyn and Teaneck, New Jersey, respectively. His ancestors on his father's side lived in County Cavan, Ireland, since the early eighteenth century, and those on his mother's side were from Northern Ireland. The O'Reilly family lived in a small apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, when their son was born. In 1951 his family moved to Levittown, on Long Island. O'Reilly has a sister, Janet.
He attended St. Brigid parochial school in Westbury, and Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola. Bill O'Reilly played Little League baseball and was the goalie on the Chaminade varsity hockey team. During his high school years, O'Reilly met future pop-singer icon Billy Joel, whom O'Reilly described as a "hoodlum." O'Reilly recollected in an interview with Michael Kay on the YES Network show CenterStage that Joel...
was in the Hicksville section—the same age as me—and he was a hood. He used to slick it [his hair] back like this. And we knew him, because his guys would smoke and this and that, and we were more jocks.
After graduating from high school in 1967, O'Reilly attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, his father's choice. While at Marist, O'Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association and was also a writer for the school's newspaper, The Circle. He played semi-professional baseball during this time as a pitcher for the New York Monarchs. An honors student, he majored in history and spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London. Hey received his bachelor of arts degree in history in 1971.
After graduating from Marist College at age 21, O'Reilly moved to Miami, Florida, where he taught English and history at Monsignor Pace High School from 1970 to 1972. He returned to school in 1973 and earned a Master's of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. While attending BU, he was a reporter and columnist for various local newspapers and alternative news weeklies, including The Boston Phoenix, and did an internship in the newsroom of WBZ-TV. During his time at BU, O'Reilly also was a classmate of future radio talk show host Howard Stern, whom O'Reilly noticed because Stern was the only student on campus taller than he was. In 1995, having already established himself as a national media personality, O'Reilly was accepted to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; he received a Master's Degree in public administration in 1996. At Harvard, he was a student of Marvin Kalb.
Broadcasting career
O'Reilly's early television news career included reporting and anchoring positions at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he also reported the weather. At WFAA-TV in Dallas, O'Reilly was awarded the Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. He then moved to KMGH-TV in Denver, where he won a local Emmy Award for his coverage of a skyjacking. O'Reilly also worked for KATU in Portland, Oregon, WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, and WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) in Boston.
In 1980 O'Reilly anchored the local news-feature program 7:30 Magazine at WCBS-TV in New York. Soon after, as a WCBS News anchor and correspondent, he won his second local Emmy, for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. In 1982 he was promoted to the network as a CBS News correspondent and covered the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He later left CBS over a dispute concerning the uncredited use in a report by Bob Schieffer of riot footage shot by O'Reilly's crew in Buenos Aires during the Falklands conflict.
O'Reilly delivered a eulogy for his friend Joe Spencer, an ABC News correspondent who died in a helicopter crash on January 22, 1986, en route to covering the Hormel meatpacker strike that day. ABC News president Roone Arledge, who attended Spencer's funeral, decided to hire O'Reilly after hearing his eulogy. At ABC, O'Reilly hosted daytime news briefs that previewed stories to be reported on the day's World News Tonight and worked as a general assignment reporter for ABC News programs, including Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News Tonight.
O'Reilly has stated that his interest and style in media came from several CBS and ABC personalities, including Mike Wallace, Howard Cosell, Dick Snyder and Peter Jennings.
Inside Edition
In 1989 O'Reilly joined the nationally syndicated Inside Edition, a tabloid/gossip television program in competition with A Current Affair. He became the program's anchor three weeks into its run, after the termination of original anchor David Frost. In addition to being one of the first American broadcasters to cover the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, O'Reilly also obtained the first exclusive interview with murderer Joel Steinberg and was the first television host from a national current affairs program on the scene of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
O'Reilly had expressed a desire to quit the show in July 1994, and in 1995 he enrolled at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Master's Degree in public administration. His graduate thesis, which he researched in Singapore, was titled "Theory of Coerced Drug Rehabilitation." In his thesis, O'Reilly asserted that supervised mandatory drug rehabilitation would reduce crime, based on the rate of prison return for criminals in Alabama who enrolled in a such program.
The O'Reilly Factor
After Harvard, he was hired by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup Fox News Channel, to anchor The O'Reilly Report in 1996. The show was renamed The O'Reilly Factor, after O'Reilly's friend and branding expert John Tantillo's remarks upon the "O'Reilly Factor" in any of the stories O'Reilly told. The program is routinely the highest-rated show of the three major U.S. 24-hour cable news television channels and began the trend toward more opinion-oriented prime-time cable news programming. The show is taped late in the afternoon at a studio in New York City and airs every weekday on the Fox News Channel at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and is rebroadcast at 11:00 p.m.
O'Reilly's life and career have not been without controversy. Progressive media watchdog organizations such as Media Matters and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting have criticized O'Reilly's reporting on a variety of issues, accusing him of distorting facts and using misleading or erroneous statistics.
After the September 11 attacks, O'Reilly accused the United Way of America and American Red Cross of failing to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks. O'Reilly reported that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. Actor George Clooney responded, accusing O'Reilly of misstating facts and harming the relief effort by inciting "panic" among potential donors.
Beginning in 2005, O'Reilly periodically denounced George Tiller, a Kansas-based physician who specialized in second- and third-trimester abortions, often referring to him as "Tiller the baby killer." Tiller was murdered on May 31, 2009, by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist, and critics such as Salon.com's Gabriel Winant have asserted that O'Reilly's anti-Tiller rhetoric helped to create an atmosphere of violence around the doctor. Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that O'Reilly "clearly went overboard in his condemnation and demonization of Tiller" but added that it was "irresponsible to link O'Reilly" to Tiller's murder. O'Reilly has responded to the criticism by saying "no backpedaling here...every single thing we said about Tiller was true."
In early 2007, researchers from the Indiana University School of Journalism published a report that analyzed O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" segment. Using analysis techniques developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, the study concluded that O'Reilly used propaganda, frequently engaged in name calling, and consistently cast non-Americans as threats and never "in the role of victim or hero." O'Reilly responded, asserting that "the terms conservative, liberal, left, right, progressive, traditional and centrist were considered name-calling if they were associated with a problem or social ill." The study's authors claimed that those terms were only considered name-calling when linked to derogatory qualifiers. Fox News producer Ron Mitchell wrote an op-ed in which he accused the study's authors of seeking to manipulate their research to fit a predetermined outcome. Mitchell argued that by using tools developed for examining propaganda, the researchers presupposed that O'Reilly propagandized.
O'Reilly is the main inspiration for comedian Stephen Colbert's satirical character on the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, which features Colbert in a "full-dress parody" of The O'Reilly Factor. On the show, Colbert refers to O'Reilly as "Papa Bear." O'Reilly and Colbert exchanged appearances on each other's shows in January 2007.
Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America on March 18, 2003, O'Reilly promised that "[i]f the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean [of weapons of mass destruction] ... I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." In another appearance on the same program on February 10, 2004, O'Reilly responded to repeated requests for him to honor his pledge: "My analysis was wrong and I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm not pleased about it at all." With regard to never again trusting the current U.S. government, he said, "I am much more skeptical of the Bush administration now than I was at that time."
On May 10, 2008, O'Reilly was presented with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors' Award at an Emmy awards show dinner.
Personal life
O'Reilly was married to Maureen E. McPhilmy, a public relations executive. They met in 1992, and their wedding took place in St. Brigid Parish of Westbury on November 2, 1996. They have a daughter, Madeline (born 1998), and a son, Spencer (born 2003).
The O'Reilly couple currently reside in suburban Manhasset, New York, with each of them living in a different house. They separated in April 2, 2010, and were divorced on September 1, 2011.
Books
• The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life (2000)
• The No Spin Zone (2001)
• Who's Looking Out For You? (2003)
• The O'Reilly Factor For Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families (2004) with Charles Flowers
• Culture Warrior (2006)
• Kids Are Americans Too (2007)
• A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir (2008)
• Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama (2010)
• Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (2011) with
Martin Dugard
• Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (2012) with
Dwight Jon Zimmerman
• Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (2013)
• Keep It Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World (2013)
• Killing Jesus: A History (2013) with Martin Dugard
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/5/2013)
Michael Dugard
• Birth—June 1, 1961
• Where—state of Maine, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Orange County, California
Michael Dugard is the author of numerous nonfiction works: seven of which he authored alone and three with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, including Killng Lincoln (2011), Killing Kennedy (2012), and Killing Jesus (2013). His magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others.
Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain, the Caribbean and Central America. He followed Henry Morton Stanley’s path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process) and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook’s death for Farther Than Any Man.
On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. In 2005, took a walk-on position as head cross-country and track coach at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, a position that he still holds.
Books (sole author)
• Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth (1998)
• Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Capt. James Cook (2001)
• Into Africa: The dramatic retelling of the Stanley-Livingstone Story (2003)
• Chasing Lance (2005)
• The Last Voyage of Columbus (2005)
• The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846–1848 (2008)
• How to Be a Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a
5-K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place) (2011).
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/5/2013.)
Book Reviews
There is a reason why [O'Reilly's] books have been best sellers. Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard don’t simply discuss these historical figures, they take you there. The important related events of the time period, the other related characters in the story, the detail of the physical surroundings and the culture are described very well. I hope their next book is Killing Socrates.... Bill O’Reilly is upfront in the beginning of the book in regards to the historical challenges of this work compared to his other endeavors. He fully admits to contradictions in the scripture which was refreshing considering the amount of Christians who deny that there are any contradictions from cover to cover. But O’Reilly does partake in picking and choosing what versions of stories are in Killing Jesus and which ones are not.
James Kirk Wall - chicagonow.com
Bill O’Reilly and writing partner Martin Dugard bring us their long-awaited “accurate account of not only how Jesus died, but also the way he lived.” This should settle two millennia of Christian debate. Although it lacks suspense (SPOILER ALERT: he dies), it’s a pretty good read and it’s fleshed out with tidbits about the ancient world.
Candida Moss - Daily Beast
From the outset, the authors make it clear that though they are Roman Catholics, they are not writing a religious book. Rather, they are writing a historical account of a historical figure “and are interested primarily in telling the truth about important people, not converting anyone to a spiritual cause.” They necessarily rely on the four gospels for their source material and often tell their story by directly quoting the Bible.
Tim Challies - challies.com
Discussion Questions
The questions below barely scratch the surface for a good discussion of Killing Jesus. If you have one or two—or more—of your own questions that have helped your group discuss this book, we'd be delighted to add them to our list. Simply email us at
In the meantime, consider these talking points to help start your discussion of Killing Jesus:
1. Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard say that their book Killing Jesus book is not a religious book. Do you agree? Is this a strict historical account or is there a spiritual element to the book?
2. The authors portray Jesus as a rebel against Rome? Does that description of Jesus accord with (or differ from) your own understanding of Jesus?
3. From what you know of the Bible, how closely do O'Reilly and Dugard adhere to the gospels? The authors also write that they are aware of contradictions within the Gospels. Many would disagree that contradictions exist. Where do you stand?
4. Have you come away from this book with a different understanding of Biblical times and the figure of Jesus? Did anything surprise you? What have you learned you didn't know before reading Killing Jesus?
5. How does the book present the critical decisions leading up to the arrest and crucification of Jesus? What roles did both Herod and Pontius Pilat play? What motivated their decisions?
6. The book does not dwell on Jesus's miracle work. It covers but does not emphasize his healing powers, for instance. Nor do the authors explore what happened between Jesus and God on the cross. Why do you supposed they don't? Do you wish they had spent more time exploring the spiritual or supernatural aspects of Jesus's life?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online of off, with attribution. Thanks.)
An Interview with Lisa O'Donnell |
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A: I worked in TV for a while but found myself working on other people’s ideas. I wanted to see my own stories come to life and though I considered novel writing I was a little afraid of the medium. It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to write something down and when I did I wrote: “Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.” Q: Where did the idea for The Death of Bees comes from? Does any of the story come from your own experiences? A: Living on the East Side of L.A I see the same level of poverty I experienced as a child during 80’s Thatcherism. I was in my car recently when I saw this little girl maybe about seven walking in front of her mother and pushing a stroller. The mother was also pushing a stroller and holding the hand of a small toddler, but it was the young girl that caught my attention. I thought to myself “ She’s a wee mother” which later translated in The Death of Bees as “Wee Maw” when referring to Marnie raising Nelly. Q: It seems that in Marnie and Nelly’s world, the adults are the children and the children are the adults – the roles are switched. Except for their neighbor Lennie who is a deeply flawed character with secrets of his own, there aren’t many real adult role models for the two girls. What were you trying to say here? And how does this bode for Marnie and Nellie’s future? A: It’s a sad truth but lots of children out there are left to take care of themselves and if you pay attention you’ll see it all around you. The sin is not paying attention. These children possess a level of maturity that’s almost obscene and it’s thrust upon them if they are to survive the abuses of the people who are supposed to take care of them, but I wanted these girls to survive it. I wanted to illuminate the reliance, the strength, and the character it requires to endure what these girls are put through. I created adults as a device to bring love and protection back in their lives but when I wrote their grandfather it was to illuminate how little they were willing to tolerate and to underline how strong these girls have become. Q: There’s a lot of humor in the book—readers will especially enjoy the scenes when Lennie’s dog keeps digging up the bones of the dead parents – did you have fun writing these scenes? What other scenes and characters are your favorites? A: In Macbeth to relieve tension Shakespeare creates comedy through the Porter. The dog is my Porter. I find people are more willing to pay attention to intense subject matter if they know they’re going to be relieved with a bit of humor. It would have been too bleak a story if I hadn’t peppered it with comedy. I like the scenes with the dog but I also enjoyed writing the scenes where Nelly and Marnie are burying their parents. That was comic to me and I got away with a lot, but at this stage of the material, though a grueling read, the reader knows that laughs are expected and forthcoming and give themselves permission to read on. Q: You’ve moved from Scotland to Los Angeles. Have you been able to see fictional characters and settings more clearly from that distance? Has your writing life improved in any other ways? A: I love the US and I love living in Los Angeles. It is a city awash with experience and everyone has a story here. I glean from people what I can, but I can’t shake the Scottish thing. It’s what I know best, I hear Scotland whenever I write. It’s where my second book is set and hope to look at themes that affect us all. Q: What’s next for you? A: I come from a small island in Scotland where everyone knows everything about everyone and so I love the thought of things that are actually kept secret in a world like that. My next book will focus on a big secret having repercussions for everyone who keeps it. * * * |