Let’s start off my new year of blogging here at W&T with a friendly little post that everyone will enjoy and no one will get upset about: What books did you get for Christmas? Which ones did you want but not get (and now you have to go buy for yourself)? Mormon-themed is good, but if all Santa brought you was a book on home plumbing or how to sell a house in 30 days, then so be it. I suppose we could do with only one book per category, unless you are really excited about your literary haul. I’ll start.
The one I wanted and got (thank you, Amazon wish list) was America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (OUP, 2002) by Mark Noll, a noted Christian scholar and historian. You may be more familiar with his earlier book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994), always a good book to have around in case there’s an Evangelical in your life that ribs you about Mormons not being Christian or whatever. You can reply, “Well, at least we’re not ignorant blockheads,” and lend him your copy to read.
I wanted America’s God because it is one of two very good books about theology and doctrine in antebellum America. (The other is Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War (Yale Univ. Press, 2005) by E. Brooks Holifield.) And knowing something about theology in 19th-century America turns out to be very helpful for understanding the doctrinal and theological issues raised in the Book of Mormon. It’s a little puzzling why 19th-century theology turns up so frequently in an ancient book, but it is what it is, and since this is a Book of Mormon Year (happens once every four years), that’s where I’m at. Even when the curriculum studies OT, NT, or Church History, there is still a lot of LDS discussion about the Book of Mormon. When it’s Book of Mormon Year, that’s all you get, 365 days of Nephites, Nephites, and more Nephites.
The book I didn’t get was Don Bradley’s new The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Greg Kofford Books, 2019). I’ve heard lots of good things about this book, which has been in the works for several years. Based on the table of contents, the first third of the book is straight history, reconstructing the history of the manuscript that was created, then lost; and the rest of the book pieces together all that is known about the content of the missing manuscript. This one will go on my list for my next Amazon order.
So what was under or not under your Christmas tree?
Wheat & Tares 
I love books for Christmas. I finally got a copy of Ostler’s Bridges, which I’m making my way through. On my list but not received was a biography of Mormon pioneer Helon Henry Tracy. There was, under the tree, one more book for me, but it’s not religious. It’s Myss’ “Anatomy of the Spirit,” which deals with alternative healing and spirituality. I haven’t started that one yet.
No books for me. I use the library too much.
I bought (with a gift card) Gregory Prince’s “Gay Rights and the Mormon Church” because it is so timely. And all I can tell you after 3 or 4 chapters is wow, Church leaders had some pretty interesting views on homosexuality. So did the rest of society but not everyone was so militant about it.
May I ask other readers to list the top 5 books related to The Church that they believe every “inquiring mind” should read? (I don’t mean to hijack the original post but I think this relates)
I got three books by Reza Aslan, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth”, “No god but God: the Origin, Evolution, and Future of Islam”, and “God: A Human History”. The one I didn’t get is Patrick Q. Mason’s “Planted”.
I listened to Reza Aslan’s “God: A Human History” over Thanksgiving. I enjoyed it a lot, as I did “Zealot.” No books under the Christmas tree for me, but I didn’t ask for any and won’t be going without. I’m planning to work my way through Grant Hardy’s “The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition” (published through University of Illinois Press and using the 1920 text). It’s been on my shelf for years and this will be a good year to do it. I’ve also started reading Bruce R. McConkie’s “Millennial Messiah.” Lots of stuff on my radar. Hopefully at least one full-length collection of poetry as well. Sadly, I’m not the voracious reader I wish I was, so I tend to remain non-committal about what I’ll actually get around to.
Books I got:
The Parables of Jesus, by John Welch & Jorge Cocco
Answer to Job, Carl Jung
Philosophy and Theurgy, Algis Uzdavinys
Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash, Rivka Ulmer
The Holy Grail and the Eucharist, Sergei Bulgakov
Books I’m gonna get:
Leviticus as Literature, Mary Douglas
Theology of the Icon, Leonid Ouspensky
The Gospel of Thomas, Samuel Zinner
Cycle of the Year as Path of Initiation, Sergei Prokofieiff
Divine Scapegoats, Andrei Orlov
I got Don Bradley’s book. Really enjoying it.
1. The short novel “Bruder” by Roger Terry, an autobiographical “true novel” about his missionary service in Germany in the 1970s. It got a positive review in “By Common Consent,” which piqued my interest. A very candid look at the missionary experience that stays quite positive. Author acknowledges all the issues with the Church and still believes that there is something there. Appeals to my own approach to the Church. 60 pages into it, and it brings back memories of my own mission.
2. “The British Are Coming,” by Rick Atkinson, first volume in a planned series about the American Revolution. Atkinson is famous for his trilogy about WW2 in the European Theater. 50 pages into it and really enjoying it.
4. “Under Occupation” by Alan Furst. He writes WW2 thrillers/spy novels that take place in DC Europe. His common theme is that the good guys win in the end, but at a terrible price. What I call high-brow mystery/thriller stuff. I think that he and David Ignatius, who writes intrigue novels about the Middle East, are the best living mystery writers in America.
Church books I didn’t get, so will have to buy them, myself:
1. “The Missing 116 Pages.”
2. Hermana Plunge, another missionary memoir about a sister missionary who served in the Canary Islands. It seems to be much like “Bruder,” but from the perspective of a sister missionary.
For Josh H:
My list would be:
1. Richard Bushman, Rough stone Rolling
2. Juanita Books, The Mountain Meadows Massacre
3. Gregory Prince, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
4. Armand Mauss, Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport
5. Terryl Givens, By the Hand of Mormon
There are MANY more.
Got the Dan Bradley book. Lots of fascinating detail! Highly recommend.
I bought the Jewish Study Bible 2nd edition, with Christmas gift money, so I suppose that counts. It’s been on my list for a while.
My to read stack of books has been getting bigger throughout the year. I’m halfway through Sister Saints, and Voices for Equality.
Have finished Mormon Feminism, Baring Witness and also The Power of Godliness.
Have yet to begin David O Mackay and the rise of modern Mormonism, Gay Rights and the Mormon Church, Religion of a different Color, Race and the making of the Mormon people, Women at Church, The Next Mormons, Women and Mormonism, The plural marriage revelation, A house of females, The ghost of eternal polygamy, the polygamous wives writing club, Mormon women have their say, Decolonising Mormonism and Thunder from the right.
I dip into At the Pulpit and Julie Smith’s Gospel according to Mark BYU commentary.
For my birthday earlier in the year I received John & Mary’s Japanese Fairy Tales, All the light we cannot see, and Joined Up Writing (poetry by Roger McGough).
Yes I’m getting way behind. Still spending more time practicing music atm…
No books for me for Christmas, but I usually buy the ones I want anyway. Bridges is awesome, so is Lost 116 Pages. I’m working my way through Will Bagley’s “The Whites Want Everything,” as well as “Blood of the Prophets.” And I’m looking forward to Saints Volume 2, which should be out next month I hear.