Plastic Shaman Release Party with Annette McGivney

Date and Time

• Tuesday, Sep 15, 2026  6pm - 7pm

Location

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Details

Date: September 15th, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Location: Bright Side Bookshop, 18 N. San Francisco St.

Join us for an evening with Annette McGivney, for a release party for their newest book Plastic Shaman. The event will begin at 6:00 PM with a reading, followed by a Q&A and book signing at 7:00 PM. This is a ticketed event, a book purchase from Bright Side Bookshop or our Eventbrite link is required to attend. If you are purchasing the book from our website and would like to attend the event please include a note at checkout that says, “I would like to attend the event on September 15th.

About the Book: PLASTIC SHAMAN: The True Story of a Deadly Self-Help Retreat and America’s Misguided Quest for Wellness.

A spiritual quest turns into a fatal disaster in this gripping true crime investigation of the wellness industry.

“A fascinating, deeply personal investigation.”
—JON KRAKAUER, Under the Banner of Heaven

In October 2009, more than fifty people attended a $10,000-per-person wellness retreat led by a celebrity self-help guru. For these enlightenment seekers, their time in Sedona, Arizona, culminated in a fake Native American sweat lodge ceremony. Three of them would not make it out alive.
This tragedy exposes the dangerous truth about the booming $2 trillion wellness industry where promises of spiritual awakening and financial success often mask dangerous practices underpinned by cultural appropriation and commodification of nature. Journalist Annette McGivney explores this world, exposing the manipulation and greed that allow charismatic influencers to prey on vulnerable people in search of happiness and healing—no matter the cost.

About the Author: Annette McGivney is an award winning author and journalist who has been writing about Southwest environmental and social justice topics for more than two decades. She is a longtime contributor to the Guardian, Outside, Arizona Highways, and Backpacker. Plastic Shaman is McGivney’s sixth book. Her previous book, Pure Land, won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2018. McGivney lives in Cortez, Colorado.