A Prayer of Faith

Merrilee Boyack has done it again! The author of The Parenting Breakthrough and Strangling Your Husband is NOT an Option has brought us yet another way to enhance our family lives in the delightfully readable and easily practicable52 Weeks of Fun Family Service.

Whether you are new to the idea of family service projects, or already incorporate a great deal of service into your family life, 52 Weeks of Fun Family Service can help inspire you and guide you to ways to touch the lives of others and strengthen your own family in the process. Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s review is a scrumptious little Valentine’s bon-bon. It’s The UnValentine, by Sam Beeson with paintings by Jesse Draper; it’s delightful; it’s adorable; and it’s something completely different. Beeson and Draper’s respective works are well married in this piece, as they both perfectly portray overwrought teenage romance tinged with a comically naive cynicism.

It’s a stand-alone piece, just one brilliant, darling, hilarious poem exquisitely illustrated with spectacular mixed-media work of original oil paintings and vintage valentines amidst candy hearts and gaudy gilt frames that would do any Victorian parlor proud. The poem tells of Lily, lost in her distaste for all things Valentine, who experiences a sudden change of heart with an unexpected note from Ray, a boy just as romantically disenfranchised as she. I can’t help but see it as something of a bound printed matter version of performance art–beautifully crafted, flawlessly executed, and yet, tantalizingly obscure. While I loved it, I honestly didn’t quite know what to make of it upon first read. Luckily, I had the chance to exchange an email with the author, Sam Beeson, and was able to ask him a few questions. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been reading The Infinite Atonement, by Tad R. Callister, and I came accross a passage so sublime, which has left me with much to ponder, that I have felt inspired to share it here. From page 65, referring to the Savior:

One wonders about his emerging godhood, as he grew from infancy to boyhood, and boyhood to manhood. What were his feelings? What was it like to be a god among mortals? With whom did he discuss his burdens? True, the bodies of other men walked by his side, but none was his intellectual and spiritual equal. None could see and feel and understand as he saw and felt and understood. What was it like for Christ to walk the dusty trails of his own creation, to see his divine works through mortal eyes? When did he come to know that the birds that sang music to his ears, the flowers that scented the air, the hills and valleys on which he loved to run and play, the sunsets and stars upon which he longed to gaze and ponder were his creations? He was their designer, their architect, their framer—yes, their very creator.

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Originally published in 1975 as Of One Heart, The Enoch Letters, by the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell is a fictional, yet truly intelligent correspondance between Mahijah, a prominent man of his time who is converted by and comes to follow Enoch the prophet, and his friend in another land, Omner. In it, we have a beautiful first-person portrayal, not just of the wonder that is the community of the City of Enoch, but of the miraculous softening of the heart that comes with the gospel of Christ.

Through these letters, we experience conversion and the birth of a community in a very real and human way, seeing the evolution of the understanding of one man. Read the rest of this entry »

Naiah: Jenny, it’s so neat to have this chance to find out more about you, your life, and your music. Thanks for taking the time to correspond. I have absolutely fallen in love with your album, and I know that there are a lot of sisters out there who will love it, too. At Time Out for Women (TOFW), I was so relieved to hear that your voice is just as great in person as it is on the album. In this day and age of hyper-produced albums and studio tricks, it’s downright refreshing to see someone of true, profound natural talent releasing music.

You’ve been recording since you were 17; your voice has been on over 100 albums at this point. How did you decide that this point in your life–married with three children and one on the way as you went into the studio–was the time to come into your own professionally and record for yourself?

JJF: People ask me that all the time. I have been asked ‘where’s the album’ for at least the last 10 years! In all honesty, I just never felt that it was ‘my time.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Not only is this week’s review not a book, it’s not like anything else. After years and years of singing for other people, one of the best voices in LDS music released her very own self-titled debut album this past February. Of course, I just discovered it. I only bought the CD because she was scheduled to perform at the Time Out For Women (TOFW) presentation I was going to attend, and I enjoy music more if I have a chance to give it a good listen before the event. From the first listen, I loved the album–albeit cautiously. It’s almost scary how good studios have gotten at manufacturing pop music from artists with little to no natural talent. I liked the album so much that I found myself hoping with a near-intensity that Jenny was not one of those. Still, even though the music moved me, I wasn’t anything you could call a fan. Read the rest of this entry »

“Do you know what sabotage is?” Simone asked. “Sabot is the name for the shoes we wear out here on the farm–wooden shoes like the ones you two are wearing. During strikes, workers tossed them into the machinery as a way to shut down factories that weren’t fair to them. It took courage to do such a thing, but it was the right thing to do” (p. 178).

In Saboteur, by Dean Hughes, we meet Andy Gledhill, a young Latter-day Saint man serving his country in the second World War who is assigned to the OSS, America’s fledgling military espionage devision, where he is trained as a spy, saboteur, and assasin. Read the rest of this entry »

This darling little gift volume featuring quotations from President Gordon B. Hinckley, beautifully typeset and set against lovely photography, celebrates our place and mission as sisters in the church. The quotations vary from the soothing to the stirring. In many of them, President Hinckley directly addresses or speaks about the sisters of the church. He calls us to stand fast in the world, celebrating us as the “crowning of [God’s] glorious work…His masterpiece” (page 7), even offering the much needed tender reminder that “[n]o woman can afford to demean herself, to belittle herself, to downgrade her abilities or her capacities. Let each be faithful to the great, divine attributes that are within her” (page 45).

Some of President Hinckley’s words speak of gospel life in general. All of them honor, uplift, and edify the reader. One Bright, Shining Hope is a wonderful expression of love for the women of the Church, as well as a rousing call to us to be the best that we can be.

Cover image © Deseret Book. Used with permission.

In this delightful episodic memoire, Elder John H. Groberg (emeritus) of the Seventy brings us the next chapter in his life after those featured in his previously published works: The Other Side of Heaven (originally titled In the Eye of the Storm, and now a major motion picture), which detailed his years as a young missionary in Tonga and The Fire of Faith, from his time as a mission president.

Upon reading his anecdotes, which feature not only himself, his wife, and their children, but an entire spectrum of people from lovingly sweet, aged Tongan sisters to a harsh Army General, to other General Authorities of the Chuch, one can only say “What a life!” In these pages, we get to accompany Elder Groberg as he goes about the Lord’s errands in such places as Mongolia, Hong Kong, and Cambodia. He shares with us miraculous experiences, as the gospel gains entrance to and begins to take root in these far-flung corners of the earth. Read the rest of this entry »

The King’s Highway, retold and illustrated by Howard Fullmer is one of those rare children’s books that has a place on every shelf and in every heart, regardless of age. It pulls together within its covers the perfect symbiosis of story, art, and moral. The story is the timeless fable of the young shepherd, Michael, who in the course of his humble service, freely given, finds himself in a place of unexpected greatness. Fullmer’s retelling is involved enough to reel in the attention of older listeners, and yet worded in a way that brings younger ones along, just as enraptured. Read the rest of this entry »