Hello,
I read the two books.
Awakening - This was the story of a married witness woman (elder husband) with family in the religion. She had childbirth/blood RH issues and had to deal with not 'associating' with a disfellowshipped daughter. Throughout the book she wrestles with various issues and suffers mental anguish jumping through hoops because of the religion. She later decides to leave the religion. I confess that she was a JW who tried to do everything 'right' and she was a far better witness than I ever was. This was a fast read.
Crisis - This was a harder read but definitely necessary to get insight about what goes on inside behind the closed doors in secret. It blows their 'holy' mystique away. It exposes them the way they have to be exposed. The reason I say it was a harder read is because you have to read about the history of the organization. While some may find this interesting it bores me but I read through those parts anyway. Some of these facts are things I once heard about vaguely but forgot. His style of writing is not emotional or vindictive and in some cases his important points are actually understatements. He reprints letters that were sent back and forth, etc.
You definitely get the impression that he was railroaded because he said the 'wrong' things. Even though he was not a 'troublemaker' per se, he feels that they still wanted him out. It was sad to see how his friends, loyal for many years, were disfellowshipped. In the end he shows how religious organization can be bad. Even though I always felt that an organization was bad, this book spells out exactly how it is bad. You see cronyism and people who are intimidated. He points out that all organizations want to protect their existence and will crush any threat or opposition. (I feel this way about governments also.) It almost seems as though Bethel in those days was like a communist regime where people were afraid to talk and were arrested. It didn't matter what you said to defend yourself, because your accusers said witnesses (who were frequently anonymous) quoted you as saying certain things. I confess that it made me sick to read these things but I feel it was necessary and I am glad I did. Too bad the average JW doesn't know about this.
I recommend reading them.
LHG