The Book of Mormon Girl
The Book of Mormon Girl

Author: Joanna Brooks

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-08-07

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1451699697

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From her days of feeling like “a root beer among the Cokes”—Coca-Cola being a forbidden fruit for Mormon girls like her—Joanna Brooks always understood that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set her apart from others. But, in her eyes, that made her special; the devout LDS home she grew up in was filled with love, spirituality, and an emphasis on service. With Marie Osmond as her celebrity role model and plenty of Sunday School teachers to fill in the rest of the details, Joanna felt warmly embraced by the community that was such an integral part of her family. But as she grew older, Joanna began to wrestle with some tenets of her religion, including the Church’s stance on women’s rights and homosexuality. In 1993, when the Church excommunicated a group of feminists for speaking out about an LDS controversy, Joanna found herself searching for a way to live by the leadings of her heart and the faith she loved. The Book of Mormon Girl is a story about leaving behind the innocence of childhood belief and embracing the complications and heartbreaks that come to every adult life of faith. Joanna’s journey through her faith explores a side of the religion that is rarely put on display: its humanity, its tenderness, its humor, its internal struggles. In Joanna’s hands, the everyday experience of being a Mormon—without polygamy, without fundamentalism—unfolds in fascinating detail. With its revelations about a faith so often misunderstood and characterized by secrecy, The Book of Mormon Girl is a welcome advocate and necessary guide.

The Book of Thompson
The Book of Thompson

Author: David J. Larkin (Jr.)

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2013-02-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781482301182

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Alistair Dodley, an English emigrant, dies in a mining disaster outside Kellogg, Idaho, in 1924, leaving his wife with four mouths to feed, including their twin boys and four-year-old daughter, Doreen. Doreen, who endures the withering criticism of her mother, grows up shy but intelligent in what is essentially a non-religious home. A classmate at school even accuses her of being a "Christ hater." She longs to escape to a better world with expanded opportunities. Her aunt, a practicing Mormon, helps her. Ruth Conrad, a Mormon girl, loses her high school sweetheart first to a Church mission in Australia and then, in 1944, to World War II, where he disappears during battle, his body never to be found. Ruth is so shaken by her loss that at first she withdraws from the world but is finally brought back to life by Gus Hadley, a charmer and a Baptist. He proposes, and she accepts, on one condition-that he join the Mormon Church. Bobby is the second son of Doreen (née Dodley) and Jessie Thompson-or at least he thinks he is. His great-great-grandfather, Isaac Thompson, joined the Mormon Church in England, sailed to the United States, and crossed the plains by ox cart to Salt Lake City in 1863. It is now 1954, and Bobby, a six-year-old fifth-generation Mormon, is proud to be a member of the only true church on earth-so proud that he takes on a singular task: to convert Queen Elizabeth II to the gospel. There's only one problem. He's confused. Why, if his parents have been sealed in the Mormon temple "for time and all eternity" and will live together even after death, do they always fight on earth? Discover what happens as Jessie gets the call to bring Gus Hadley, a so-called "Jack Mormon," back into the fold, and Bobby tries to unravel the truth of what's going on between his family and the Hadleys. There is, Bobby finds, a surprise behind every hedge. This shorter version of THE BOOK OF THOMPSON focuses on the straightforward family drama. The full version, also available on Amazon, provides more detail on Bobby's magical thinking and on Jessie's view of his past life.

The Sisterhood: Inside the Lives of Mormon Women
The Sisterhood: Inside the Lives of Mormon Women

Author: Dorothy Allred Solomon

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2007-10-02

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0230611400

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Many hold a deep fascination with Mormonism but erroneously think of it as a secret religion that celebrates polygamy and confinement. Most outsiders regard Latter-day Saint women as submissive and pitiable. In The Sisterhood, award-winning author Dorothy Allred Solomon takes us inside the lives of women of the faith. She focuses on the roles of Mormon women in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, including fascinating personal stories about family, children, and husbands. She takes us into the lives of the High Priestesses of the Church, draws on histories sustained by the most thorough genealogical records in the world, and addresses the wives of polygamists. The Sisterhood sheds light on an expanding and complex religion and offers a long overdue portrait of Mormonism and women.