Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life


Boyd Jay Petersen - 2002
    Through complete access to Nibley's correspondence, journals, notes and papers, Petersen has painted a portrait that reveals the man behind the legend. Starting with a foreword written by Zina Nibley Peterson (the author's wife and Nibley's daughter) and finishing with appendixes that include some of the best of Nibley's personal correspondence, the biography reveals aspects of the tapestry of the life of one who has truly consecrated his life to the service of the Lord.

The Liberating Truth: How the Gospel of Christ Empowers and Liberates Women


Danielle Strickland - 2011
    Consequently many women fail to play a full part in the healing and restoration of society. The church should take the lead. In this prophetic book Danielle observes: "We should be the ones who model an alternative approach to leadership. We are the ones with the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit who through Scripture, reason, tradition and experience has shown, over and over again His heart for the release of women to exercise their gifts." The book covers: The current situation (exploitation or subjugation); the historical situation (feminism and the Christian tradition); key biblical material; justice (the feminization of poverty); what does the future offer, and what should the church do?"

The Mountain Meadows Massacre


Juanita Brooks - 1967
    The men on the ground after the bloody deed took an oath that they would never mention the event again, either in public or in private. The leaders of the Mormon church also counseled silence. The first report, soon after the massacre, described it as an Indian onslaught at which a few white men were present, only one of whom, John D. Lee, was actually named.With admirable scholarship, Mrs. Brooks has traced the background of conflict, analyzed the emotional climate at the time, pointed up the social and military organization in Utah, and revealed the forces which culminated in the great tragedy at Mountain Meadows. The result is a near-classic treatment which neither smears nor clears the participants as individuals. It portrays an atmosphere of war hysteria, whipped up by recitals of past persecutions and the vision of an approaching "army" coming to drive the Mormons from their homes.

Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God Son of Thunder


Benita N. Schindler - 1983
    Travelers sang ballads about him as they gathered around their campfires at night. Mothers used his name to frighten children into obedience. He was accused of literally hundreds of murders, all in the name of the Mormon Church. Yet behind all the myth was a man, a human being. Orrin Porter Rockwell believed in his prophet, Joseph Smith. He spent most of a year chained in an Independence dungeon for his belief, then walked across Missouri to Nauvoo, stumbling into Joseph’s house on Christmas Day. Joseph said to him then, “Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee,” and the legend was born.Rockwell continued to serve the leaders of his church—as hunter, guide, messenger, scout, guerilla, emissary to the Indians, and lawman. He traveled thousands of miles, raised three families, accumulated land and wealth—and favorably impressed almost everyone who met him. But although he walked with presidents and generals, scholars and scoundrels, in a life lived at the center of many of the great events of the American frontier, he has remained an enigma, a source of continuing controversy.Harold Schindler’s remarkable investigative skills led him into literally thousands of unlikely places in his search for the truth about Rockwell. Dale L. Morgan, one of the west’s foremost historians, called the first edition “…an impressive job of research, one of the most impressive in recent memory, in the Mormon field. Mr. Schindler has shown great energy and sagacity in dealing with a difficult, highly controversial subject; and he has also made maximum use of the latest scholarship and newly available archival resources.”But the author was not satisfied until he had probed even more deeply, and this revised and enlarged second edition contains greatly expanded documentation as well as textual additions that flesh out the characters and events of this classic drama of early America.

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond


Deborah Laake - 1993
    At a time when her generation was protesting a war and transforming national headlines into a saga of campus violence, she was instead a typical Mormon girl who experienced her college years at peaceful Brigham Young University as the fulfillment of all her dreams. She received good grades there, was attractive and popular and devout - but most of all she found The One, the man who declared that his claim to her was a matter of divine revelation. The role of dutiful wife and mother was the one she believed she was made for, and thus she was married in the sacred chambers of a Mormon temple while still in her teens, participating in angel-inspired ceremonies of special handshakes and voodoo of which much of the world is still unaware. From there her life - a picture-perfect one according to the Mormon standards by which she was raised - became an out-of-kilter dream from which she feared she'd never rouse. Her husband was a man whom she had never loved, whom she nonetheless believed God had chosen for her, but with whom she couldn't force herself to remain. Divorced by age twenty, she had failed at marriage, the only task that mattered, and gradually she realized that she was being punished. Barred from the Mormon temple by church authorities, even threatened with excommunication, she found her depression deepening. Trying to live up to the church's expectations of her, she married again, unaware that the result would be a spiral of mental illness that would propel her into a hospital ward ofunabashed psychotics, the likes of whom she'd never imagined. There, among the truly unconventional, she somehow recognized a modern world beckoning to her from beyond the closed patriarchal society that had always sheltered her yet kept her from true maturity. Always lyrical an

The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934


Anaïs Nin - 1966
    Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann

Fifty Years in Polygamy: Big Secrets and Little White Lies


Kristyn Decker - 2012
    Media coverage, HBO's Big Love, TLC's Sister Wives, the acts committed by cult leader Warren Jeffs and his followers--all of these keep a slew of polygamy-related issues at the forefront of society. But none can depict the ongoing, daily atrocities and heartaches that are hidden behind the scenes, behind closed doors, within the hearts and souls of thousands of smiling faces.Kristyn Decker's memoir recounts the harsh realities of being born and raised in the second largest polygamist sect in America--the Apostolic United Brethren, or the AUB (Allred Group). For five decades, Kristyn, then Sophie, was caught up in a cult of plural marriage ... and lived it until she thought it would kill her. When she finally had the courage to leave, she knew she had to share her story.Fifty Years in Polygamy: Big Secrets and Little White Lies describes a life of religious submission, lies, secrets, poverty, abuse, jealousy, depression, and loneliness. The gripping, detailed events in this book will shock you but will also inspire compassion, understanding, and perhaps even the courage to change your own life."Fifty Years in Polygamy is a compelling read, full of raw emotion that reveals the abuses hidden under the cloak of religion. Kristyn Decker's book depicts the cries of thousands of women across the world--another voice who through fear remained silent for too many years."--Irene Spencer, author of New York Times bestsellerShattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamous Wife

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan


Ono no Komachi - 1988
    The poems speak intimately of their authors' sexual longing, fulfillment and disillusionment.

How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation


Stephen E. Robinson - 1997
    They often set about trying to convert one another, considering the faith the other holds as defective in some critical way. Unfortunately, much of what they say about one another simply isn't true. False stereotypes abound on both sides, preventing genuine and helpful communication. Having discovered this sad state of affairs, Craig Blomberg, a committed evangelical scholar, and Stephen Robinson, a committed Mormon scholar, set out to listen to one another and to ferret out the real agreements and disagreements between them. In the conversation that develops, you will read what each believes about key theological issues--the nature and bounds of Scripture, the nature of God and deification, the person of Christ and the Trinity, and the essentials of salvation--and see how they interact with one another. What they agree on may surprise you. Though this book does not sweep differences under the rug, it is meant to help Mormons and evangelicals know and tell the truth about one another. It does not expect to end evangelistic efforts from either side. In fact, it may help to promote more effective communication because it can help to get rid of misrepresentations from both sides. In the end, however, you will be able to judge for yourself just how wide the divide between them is.

Finding Baba Yaga: A Short Novel in Verse


Jane Yolen - 2018
    A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself...

Honoring the Priesthood As a Deacon, a Teacher, and a Priest


John Bytheway - 2002
    Your mother would probably ask: "What is that? Where did you get it? What are you going to do with it?" When you receive the Aaronic Priesthood, you'll bring that home with you too (and your mother will be thrilled). Maybe she'll ask you some similar questions: "What is it? Where did you get it? What are you going to do with it?" This book tries to answer those questions what the priesthood is, its origins and purpose, and what you can do to honor it. Using humor, stories, scriptures, and quotations from leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint, Honoring the Priesthood will help a young man learn his duty in the Aaronic Priesthood and help prepare him for advancement to the higher priesthood

Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial


Rabia Chaudry - 2016
    Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listenersBut Serial did not tell the whole story. In this compelling narrative, Rabia Chaudry presents new key evidence that she maintains dismantles the State's case: a potential new suspect, forensics indicating Hae was killed and kept somewhere for almost half a day, and documentation withheld by the State that destroys the cell phone evidence -- among many other points -- and she shows how fans of Serial joined a crowd-sourced investigation into a case riddled with errors and strange twists. Adnan's Story also shares Adnan’s life in prison, and weaves in his personal reflections, including never-before-seen letters. Chaudry, who is committed to exonerating Adnan, makes it clear that justice is yet to be achieved in this much examined case.

Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism


Maxine Hanks - 1992
    LDS Relief Society co-founder Sarah Kimball referred to herself as "a woman's rights woman, " while Bathsheba Smith was called on Relief Society mission in 1870 to preach equal rights for women.The society editorialized that females belonged not only "in the nursery" but also "in the library, the laboratory, the observatory." Sisters sent east to study medicine were assured that "when men see that women can exist without them, it will perhaps take a little of the conceit out of some of them." Temple officiators were called "priestesses, " Eliza R. Snow the "prophetess, " and women were discouraged from confessing to bishops on grounds that personal matters "should be referred to the Relief Society president and her counselors." Women were set apart as healers "with power to rebuke diseases."In addition, Mormon theology spoke reassuringly of a Mother God of the divinity of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Eve. No wonder Relief Society president Emmeline B. Wells could write with confidence: "Let woman speak for herself; she has the right of freedom of speech. Women are too slow in moving forward, afraid of criticism, of being called unwomanly, of being thought masculine."

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America


Laila Lalami - 2020
    citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth--such as national origin, race, and gender--that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still their shadows today.

Becoming the Villainess


Jeannine Hall Gailey - 2006
    The wild and seductive energy in this collection never lets one put the book down. (In fact, any one who opens the collection in the bookstore and reads such poems as The Conversation and Job Requirements: A Supervillain's Advice will want to buy the book!) For her delivery is heart-breaking and refreshing, so the poems seduce us with the sadness, glory and entertainment of our very own days. Propelled by Jeannine Hall Gailey's alert, sensuous, and musical gifts, the mythology becomes all our own." -Ilya Kaminsky, author of the award-winning Dancing in Odessa