San Antonio College Library

An intimate memoir of Anne Rice's Catholic girlhood, her unmaking as a devout believer, and her return to the Church--what she calls a decision of the heart. Moving from her New Orleans childhood in the 1940s and '50s, with all its religious devotions, through how she slowly lost her belief in God, the book recounts Anne's years in radical Berkeley, where she wrote Interview with the Vampire (a lament for her lost faith) and where she came to admire...

Armstrong begins the story of her spiritual journey with her departure in 1969 from the Roman Catholic convent she had entered seven years before--hoping, but ultimately failing, to find God. She knew almost nothing of the changed world to which she was returning, and she was tormented by panic attacks and inexplicable seizures. Armstrong's struggle against despair was further fueled by a string of discouragements--failed spirituality, doctorate,...

The residents of Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on the planet, are in the grip of winter, which means 24 hours of total darkness and extreme Arctic weather. After one of the worst storms to hit the town in 30 years, the residents are struggling to come to terms with a huge tragedy - an avalanche which slid down the mountain wiping out many houses and killing the local teacher and a young child. It's a massive blow to the community and its effects...