Books Read in 2024 (with reviews!)

 

Reviews of the 10 books I read in 2024

Undeniable: The Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon (Audio) by Susan Easton Black

This is a good, faith-promoting overview of the lives of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. I was disappointed, however, that Black didn’t even mention that Oliver Cowdery accused Joseph Smith of having an affair with Fanny Alger. Why leave out that detail? 

The Mormon People (Audio) by Matthew Bowman

A really accessible introduction to Latter-day Saint History, written in a journalistic tone. I got the sense that Bowman wasn’t connected to the church at all. That’s not true; he’s a member of the church and a scholar of its history. But my initial assumption is a testament to how impartial the writing is. I was most intrigued by the impact of Heber J. Grant’s pragmatic impact on the church. I think much of how the church is today–stake and ward structures, priesthood keys, temples–can be traced back to Grant. 

The Heart of the Matter (Audio) by Russel M Nelson

A 100 year old man who claims to be a prophet of God wrote a book about what he’s learned in his long life. I think that deserves attention–even if you don’t buy into the man’s religion. The book’s cover reminded me of President Hinkley’s Standing for Something so I expected President Nelson’s book to be similarly written for a wider audience than the church. But most of what the prophet has learned in the last 100 years is directly church related, and written with the assumption of a Latter-day saint audience. On an icy January commute, I listened to president Nelson offer a unique kind of  apostolic blessing in book form that really spoke to me. Though I’ve been resistant to this kind of advice in the past, it made me want to center my faith a little more than my doubts as I continue to chart a course through both. 

The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (Audio) by Edward J Blum & Paul Harvey 

A fascinating and thorough account of how Americans imagined Jesus through the years. The image hanging in the church has a particular history based on a mix of forgery, misinformation, and evolving dogma. Of course, I was most interested in the Mormon stuff. The emphasis of Joseph Smith on light and even whiteness in the countenance of Christ is emblematic of a larger cultural shift in American religious (and racial) history. 

Kingdom of Nauvoo by Benjamin E. Park

A fascinating deep-dive into the Nauvoo period of church history. Not only does Park elucidate Joseph Smith’s polygamist practices–fascinatingly sharing how the prophet walked a moral tightrope through deceit, family discord, revelation, and public attention–but he reveals the interplay between Joseph’s evolving theology and the evolving structure of his church/family kingdom. I was most impressed, though, with the women of Nauvoo. I don’t know how to say this right, but I think there’s a connection between Latter-day saint women’s willingness to commit to what they saw as religious truth–even to the point of entering plural marriages in secret–and their ability to organize and crusade against moral ill–sometimes the same moral ill others among them were secretly committing to. It’s complicated, but I see nobility on both sides of the coin, and I wish Brigham Young’s quorum of the 12 continued to emphasize the leadership of women more as after Smith’s martyrdom.

Dune by Frank Herbert 

I picked up Dune (and made Dani read it with me!) to prepare to see the Movie Dune Part 2 with friends (I still haven’t seen Dune Part 1). I’ve never been a fan of scifi or fantasy, but Herbert got me craving more of both. I especially like how much the book trusts its readers to piece together the world without much hand holding. I didn’t feel the need to look everything up in the appendix, and instead just assumed things would make sense later. In this way, it wasn’t much different from reading a book set in a different (non-fiction) culture, and I've come out of the immersion enlightened. Lisan al Gaib!

The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction, by Terryl E. Givens

After Dune I fell into a book rut. But I studied the Book of Mormon a lot, and picked up this very short introduction from a book store in Utah. I’m usually a big fan of Givens’s work, but I didn’t get a lot of new insight from this one. Maybe it’s me. Or maybe it was written more to an audience unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon. One thing I was surprised to read in the book is that Givens finds the writing in the Book of Mormon less sophisticated and beautiful than other religious texts, such as the Bible. While I agree that some of the Book of Mormon writing is a bit prosaic, there are parts where the writing touches me deeply. Maybe I’m too much an ignorant pleb or Mormon fanboy. 

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, translated by Joseph Smith Jr.

I wrote about my experience studying the Book of Mormon in a standalone blog post. You should read it here!

American Zion: A New History of Mormonism, by Benjamin E. Park

Another really great overview of church history, published this year and written with the help of previously unavailable sources. As with Bowman’s book, I found myself fascinated by 20th century Mormonism more than earlier periods. And I’m starting to figure out who the real villains are! Park expertly shows the interplay between waves of American culture and the church’s efforts to ride or resist those waves. In various periods the church has been progressive, conservative, scholarly, dogmatic, authoritarian, flexible. The trick now is we have all of that history affecting us from different angles. Seeing the big picture has really made me realize how important so many things that seem like bedrock truly can be–but also how cultural forces can be powerful and hard to shake. Not really a complaint, by the end of reading the book, I found myself needing a reminder that history isn’t shaped primarily by individuals. I mentioned villains, but I don’t think it’s totally fair to say that without George Q. Cannon, Reuben J. Clark, and Dallin H. Oaks, the church would be a progressive utopia. They represented some of those broader cultural forces that I think would have been active without them. I don’t think Park is totally to blame for my intellectual missteps in this area, but he did contribute to it (but maybe also contributed to correcting it)!

The Small Talk Playbook, by Peter Connors

This short book was okay. There were a few models of conversation initiation that I think will be useful to a loud introvert like me. For a short book, though, it was not very efficient. It honestly could have been edited into a 1-pager! But that’s what you get when you have $5 left in your professional development budget and  just a few reading days left in the year.