Kevin Roose's Blog, page 5

The hour is nigh (PLUS: Update on Liberty bookstore situation)

It’s been a long time coming…

And tomorrow, The Unlikely Disciple is officially on sale!

(Yes, I know it’s been out in most stores for a few weeks now.  I had nothing to do with this, I assure you.)

In order to have maximum impact and boost the sales rankings, I’m asking everyone to order a copy beginning at noon tomorrow.

Amazon link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Disciple-Semester-Americas-University/dp/044617842X

Full list of sellers is here: http://www.kevinroose.com/order

If you missed t

TUD in the Daily Beast!

Media website The Daily Beast is running a story on The Unlikely Disciple (which officially comes out on Thursday!), focused on the reactions to the book from Liberty chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.  It’s a great article, and I’m glad Chancellor Falwell recognized that the book was “fair,” but I’m intrigued by what he told Daily Beast writer Jo Piazza about Liberty’s official policy vis à vis stocking the book:

“Barnes & Noble operates the campus bookstore. I am sure students will be able to order t

I got into Harvard!

Blog reader Craig Carpenter sends a photo of The Unlikely Disciple outside the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, Mass.

Any more sightings?  E-mail photos to kevin@kevinroose.com.

Vanity of Vanities (or, pre-pub media roundup)

If you’re curious, here’s an almost-complete list of The Unlikely Disciple’s media hits from the past week or so (with apologies in advance for all the self-promotion, which is reaching P.T. Barnum-esque heights).  I’ll have some actual content up soon, I promise.

The cover story in the March/April issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine is a piece I wrote about my Liberty experience, called “Crossing the God Divide.”Today’s Lynchburg News & Advance includes a feature on my Liberty semester, written b

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Jerry Falwell

(Cross-posted from mental_floss)

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Jerry Falwell

There’s no doubt that Jerry Falwell was controversial. Many remember him as the arch-conservative Moral Majority leader who took to the airwaves after September 11, 2001 and blamed the terrorists attacks on homosexuals, feminists, and the ACLU (among others). Or they remember him as the guy who outed the purple Teletubby.

But when I spent a semester living at Liberty University, I got to see a different side of Rev. Falwe

My mom, America’s best bookseller

This afternoon, my mom texted me photos she took of bookstore displays in our hometown featuring The Unlikely Disciple.

The first (from Oberlin’s indy bookstore, Mindfair) seems reasonably-sized, but I’m trying to imagine the conversation that led to the second.  “Mrs. Roose, we really don’t have space to display 100 copies of your son’s book.”  [Death glare.:]  “Okay, we’ll display them.”

Blog readers: I’m curious about how stores will display their copies of the book, so if you come across an int

What would Jesus do (on spring break)?

Salon.com is running the first excerpt from The Unlikely Disciple, a chapter about my missionary evangelism trip to Daytona Beach with a group of Liberty students, and the successes and failures (mostly failures) we experienced while trying to convert  drunken coeds.

Read it here.

For once, this isn’t book-or-Jesus-related

(It also isn’t real.)

From today’s Brown Daily Herald:

Kevin Roose ‘09.5: If RISD ran the world

“The Rhode Island School of Design collaborated earlier this year with Gap, the clothing retailer, to produce a series of unique cardigans that sold out hours after they were put on display at the G.A.P. Adventures New York Concept Store, a space adjacent to Gap’s flagship store in New York City,” (”At trendy Gap store, clothing by RISD students,” March 13).

Following the overwhelming success of the Gap

LU spring breakers do good

In more pleasant news, I just got an e-mail from Johnnie Moore, Liberty’s Campus Pastor and right-hand man to Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.  Johnnie, a truly remarkable guy who has become a good friend in recent months, has been updating me regularly on his mission trips around the world.

This latest dispatch comes from Bosnia, where Johnnie and a dozen Liberty students have spent their spring break distributing food to the poor widows of slain soldiers and performing other humanitarian deeds, lik

“Don’t let the sign fool you. This guy’s only a little older than Billy Graham.”

The front page of last Wednesday’s Washington Post brings us an enlightening (if predictably condescending) article about a group of Liberty University students going on a field trip to the Smithsonian, under the guidance of their biology professors.

The catch, of course, is that the Smithsonian trip was designed as opposition research — Liberty teaches young-earth creationism, and neither the professors nor the students believe in Darwinian evolution, carbon dating for fossils, or an earth whose