New Mormon Books

When I was beginning to write seriously, I attended several writing groups. Some didn’t critique the writers’ work. Those who did usually were attended by writers whose work made me quite uncomfortable. I didn’t fit into the Christian group because my beliefs weren’t exactly in line with theirs. However, over the period of about a year I’d gathered the names of five other LDS women who wrote. It came to me as inspiration from Heavenly Father that I was to get them together in a sisterhood of LDS women writers. We met as strangers one night in October, 1986, and two hours later, we were sisters. The organization evolved from there, and has assisted many hundreds of women to magnify their writing talents, whether for publication or not, as they desired. I never dreamed I would be so heavily involved in ANWA for so long as this.

Interview With Marsha Ward
By Teri Rodeman
LDS Forever Friends Book Nook, 29 June 2009.
http://terirodeman.blogspot.com/2009/06/interview-with-marsha-ward.html

Williams unveils life among the Chosen (a fictitious theocracy) with spare, evocative writing and an honest sense of character that helps bridge the rift between Kyra’s world and ours. In one scene her family takes her off the compound to buy fabric for her wedding dress, and they stop for lunch at Applebee’s. Everyone gawks at them, and readers, most of us at least, are likely to be jolted by recognizing ourselves among the gawkers.

Tightening the Knot
Reviewed by JESSICA BRUDER
New York Times, June 11, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Bruder-t.html

Among my many weird fascinations is polygamy. I have watched and read many books about polygamy. Frontline produces a series of shows on the Mormon Church that was really, really interesting and well done. Political feelings aside, I find the idea intriguing. Why would anyone want to share your husband and, on the other hand, why would a man want to be married to more than one woman?

Book Review: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
By Tracie Yule
Yule Time Reading, June 26th, 2009.
http://www.yuletimereading.com/2009/06/book-review-the-19th-wife-by-david-ebershoff/

David Ebershoff takes two distinct narratives, adds faux-historical documents, letters, and Wikipedia entries, and comes up with a completely engrossing look at the history of polygamy in America. This is a case of a hugely ambitious idea - multiple narrators, different time periods, the blending of history and fiction - that absolutely gets it right. I was grabbed by the first page, and by the end of the 500+ page novel didn’t want it to end.

Review & Blog Tour - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
By Elizabeth
As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves, June 10, 2009
http://needmoreshelves.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-blog-tour-19th-wife-by-david.html

Read more…

Part true crime, part Mormon expose, this book focuses on the pockets of fundamentalist Mormons that have flourished in years past in Utah, Idaho and the Four Corners area. Wrapped around the murder of a young Mormon woman and her infant daughter committed by fundamentalists, the more sordid side of this sect is uncovered in this compelling book.

We’re feeling rather evangelical today….
By Michelle
A Reader’s Respite, June 21, 2009.
http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/2009/06/were-feeling-rather-evangelical-today.html

[In] this second installment of Marsha’s post Civil War Saga… the action is non-stop… I highly recommend this action-packed Western series.

Ride To Raton by Marsha Ward.
By Forever Friends.
LDS Forever Friends Book Nook, 20 Jun 2009.
http://terirodeman.blogspot.com/2009/06/ride-to-raton-by-marsha-ward.html

The book is part historical fiction, part “ripped from the headlines” contemporary novel, and alternates back and forth between time periods and the different characters. Now, I know some people don’t like this tactic; I’ve had people say to me that they find it confusing. Personally, I quite enjoy layering a story in this manner, and seeing the parallels and connections between the two. There are actually two 19th wives in this novel: Ann Eliza Young, one of the Mormon prophet Brigham Young’s wives, and the other is a plural wife from a polygamous sect in rural Utah, accused of murdering her husband.

A Woman Scorned
By Lesley
A Life In Books, June 4th, 2009
http://www.alifeinbooks.com/?p=592

I have been reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, so I am now a bit of an expert on polygamy. While The 19th Wife is a pretty sad story - I’m not sure any fundamentalist religious sect is a heap of fun to be part of unless you are top dog.

Of policemen and polygamists
By Miranda Spary
Otago NY Daily Times, 5 Jun 2009
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/59718/of-policemen-and-polygamists

The thread of polygamy stitches together the two stories in this novel: The first is a fictionalized account of Mormon leader Brigham Young’s 19th wife. The second is a modern-day story surrounding a young man who has been cast out of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that still engages in plural marriage.

Novel mixes history, mystery
BY LISA MCLENDON
The Wichita Eagle, Jun. 07, 2009
http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/books/story/842560.html

Best-selling novelist David Ebershoff is coming to town with his new pony, a dappled wonder titled, “The 19th Wife.”

The initial inspiration for “The 19th Wife” was not a historical urge, however, but a fictional one. Ebershoff saw that Ann Eliza had what it takes to fuel a few hundred pages and a two-year effort. “She possessed a number of traits,” the author reveals in the interview at the back of the new Reader’s Circle trade paperback, “that can make a character in a novel unpredictable.’

Polygamy unveiled: Author of historical Mormon novel comes to WNC
By Rob Neufeld
Asheville NC Citizen-Times, June 7, 2009
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090607/LIVING/906070305

I loved this book. It is probably not one that I would have chosen myself. It took me a long time to read it - I think that was because I was taking in all the historical parts. While I was reading it I was conscious that it was fact interwoven with fiction.

BLOGOSPHERE BOOK CIRCLE - MAY
By Melissa
eMpTy, May 26, 2009
http://tuataragirl.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogosphere-book-circle.html