My copy of the new LDS edition of the Bible in Spanish arrived yesterday, one of the 750,000 copies printed recently (according to a contact I have in the Church department that prints these materials). So I thought I would pass on my impressions.
Category: Book Reviews
12 Questions and a Book by Royal Skousen
5 years ago we published one of my favorite “12 Questions” posts, in which Royal Skousen discussed in some depth what he has learned from his extensive work on the earliest editions of the Book of Mormon. His book, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, is being published in September by Yale University Press (and yes, you can order it at Amazon right now). To mark this milestone, Royal was kind enough to update his “12 questions” discussion, which we have posted below, for the benefit of those who did not catch it the first time. Enjoy!
Four sources of the Apocalypse
With the past two months, I have read — for various reasons — four different novels laying out apocalyptic events within the United States. Here are the novels, in the order I read (or re-read) them, and with the reasons why I read them: — Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1977): a comet fragments and strikes the Earth in numerous places, collapsing much of world civilization, including the United States. I’ve read this several times before; I saw it cited on a blog (Samizdata) in a discussion on “the best end-of-the-world novels” and decided to dig it out and read it again.
A New Book for the Mormon Canon
There are a number of Mormon pamphlets and books that have achieved a kind of semi-canonical status within Mormon studies. Everyone agrees, for example, that Parley P. Pratt’s Key to the Science of Theology or John Taylor’s Mediation and Atonement are key texts for understanding nineteenth Mormon thought. If any evidence is needed, both texts, I believe, are still in print. At the very least both have produced modern reprints. I have a proposed addition to the canon, George Q. Cannon’s A Review of the Decision of the Supreme Court in the Case of Geo. Reynolds v. the United States.
Now a glorious dawn is breaking
What will it be like for a marriage to continue past death into the eternities? What does it mean to have a perfected body, or to love an eternal being? Stephenie Meyer has an answer. Breaking Dawn, the last novel in her Twilight series, presents a sustained and vividly imagined view of one of the core elements of Mormon personal salvation. [This post is going to discuss all the details of Breaking Dawn, including how it ends, so please stop reading now if you don’t want to know.]
“Mormonism”: A Perfect Storm
Library Journal this month ran an interesting article offering a big-picture perspective on the world of LDS and LDS-related publishing, highlighting close to 40 books on doctrine, history, sociology, comparative theology and devotional topics, as well as periodicals, video, and internet resources. The article’s aim is to help librarians choose recent, reliable books about Mormonism, whether they work in a public or small academic library.
Meet Your Inner Fish
I recently read Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion Year History of the Human Body (Pantheon Books, 2008) by Neil Shubin, a paleotologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago. By coincidence, Jared at LDS Science Review had posted the same book in his “Currently Reading” list. Here is our conversation about this interesting book.
Book Review: The Host
by Stephenie Meyers (Little, Brown, 2008). 617 pp. WARNING: major spoilers Stephenie Meyer’s foray into science fiction is a well-deserved best seller, and a great piece of Mormon literature. The romantic interaction between Bella and Edward and Jacob—wait, I mean between Jared and Melanie/Wanderer and Ian—uh, hold on a second…
Book Reviews: Juvenile Non-Fiction
If you are an adult, inevitability comes in the form of death and taxes. If you are a child, it comes as the middle school research project.
Book Review: A Rascal by Nature, A Christian by Yearning: A Mormon Autobiography
A Rascal By Nature, A Christian by Yearning: A Mormon Autobiography by Levi Peterson.
Book Review: An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells
An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells by Carol Cornwall Madsen
Book Review: Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America
Today I abandon my personal policy of only writing book reviews that are, on balance, positive.
Book Review: Celebrating Passover: A Guide to Understanding the Jewish Feast for Latter-day Saints
Easter celebrations and the lack thereof have been a hot topic recently; if you want to add something to your celebration of this season, I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: Stand As a Witness: The Biography of Ardeth Greene Kapp
We begin with a quiz: How many book-length biographies of LDS women can you name? . . .
Book Review: The Salt Lake City 14th Ward Album Quilt
In the 1990s, Carol Nielson inherited a quilt. Or, to be more precise, half a quilt. . .
Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
I have a friend –I know her through the homeschooling community–with an interest in the Church. She told me that one of the books that she read about the church was Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Now, she’s not stupid–she didn’t expect it to be unbiased–but she did want to know my reaction to it. So I read it and then sent her this email:
Book Review: David O. McKay Around the World
Every writer’s worst nightmare actually came true for Hugh J. Cannon: the only copy of his manuscript was “misplaced” by the publisher. . .
Book Review: Early Christians in Disarray
Can you really understand what the Restoration is if you don’t have your mind around what the Great Apostasy was?
Book Review: Sister Eternal
Thank you, Elder Uchtdorf and Ben Sowards, for creating the first LDS children’s book that deserves to transcend the LDS market. .
Nonfiction Books for Children
Most people don’t appreciate the wonderful world of children’s nonfiction books.
Book Review: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball
If you liked the recent President McKay biography, you are going to love the new biography of President Kimball.
Book Review: I Love Mormons: A New Way to Share Christ with Latter-day Saints
The techniques that Evangelicals use to convert Mormons to ‘traditional Christianity’ do not work. The same cannot be said for the method proposed by David L. Rowe in his new book. .
A Letter to Emma Ray
While David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is nearly perfect in every way, one thing it doesn’t do is provide an intimate portrait of President McKay. That lacuna is partially filled by Heart Petals: The Personal Correspondence of David Oman McKay to Emma Ray McKay.
Book Review: The Parenting Breakthrough
You just gotta love any book that has a picture of a seven-year-old boy cleaning a toilet on the cover.
Book Review: The Book: A History of the Bible
I should warn potential readers: there’s a real danger that you will drool on the pages of Christopher de Hamel’s new book.
Book Review: David O. McKay: Beloved Prophet
I have mixed feelings about the very presence of Woodger’s David O. McKay: Beloved Prophet. On the one hand, as someone who wants to read biographies of all of the prophets of this dispensation, I’m always happy to see a new addition to the fold. While there are other biographies of President McKay, the pickings are pretty slim–and expensive (but see post below).
Book Review: David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Yes, I’m reviewing two books on David O. McKay. My original intention was to review them together (and explore the larger issue of writing faith-promoting as opposed to warts-and-all history), but I decided that wouldn’t be fair. It didn’t seem fair because David O. McKay: Beloved Prophet is a credible entry in the well-established subgenre of LDS biography. It does exactly what it is supposed to do. But David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is a category killer.
Book Review: A Statistical Profile of Mormons: Health, Wealth, and Social Life
Anyone and everyone interested in Mormon Studies should read this book.
Book Review: Back to the Well: Women’s Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels
This statement from The Blog of Happiest Fun got a lot of links from other female bloggernaclites: I would like to spend more time discussing the lives of strong women in the scriptures. Women like Hannah, Deborah, Jael, or Anna the prophetess. There are so many women that I find interesting, and I don’t hear about them enough. I’d like to study their lives some more.
Book Review: Women in Eternity, Women of Zion
Imagine, if you will, that a stalwart member of the Church approached you with some concerns about the theological underpinnings of the Word of Wisdom. What might you do? Castigate him as a rebellious secularizer? Remind her that questioning was the fast road to apostasy?