A Prayer of Faith

What comes to your mind when you think about Mary and Martha, the New Testament sisters? I suspect most of you would probably respond with the story most commonly reflected in a Del Parson painting that often adorns the walls of Relief Society rooms. (In fact, it is usually the only story that comes to my mind, even though there are three stories in the New Testament about these sisters.)

Some of us have probably found ourselves thinking about the story in Luke 10 and trying to determine if we are more like Mary or more like Martha. Perhaps we compare the two, or maybe even feel that one “type” is better than the other. Martha was busily doing necessary service and work. However, the Savior praised Mary, did He not?

Unfortunately, sometimes the phrase of praise that erroneously comes to mind is that “Mary chose the better part.” Read the rest of this entry »

My response to Laura Hamblin’s collection, The Eyes of a Flounder, has been varied and downright disparate. I cannot review this collection of poems as a whole, for each is a standalone work. Some made me want to sing. Others made me scoff, or roll my eyes. A few, I would stand by themselves in a corner and surround with pylons and warning signs. For all that she writes about the Mormon experience, I found neither inspiration nor useful social commentary in her more culturally-charged pieces.

In the most personal of experience, we often find universal truths revealed, and in many of Hamblin’s poems, I feel the pull to such a connection, but not being of her universe, much of her work fell flat for me. She gives powerful and toothy voice to an aspect of LDS womanhood to which I can not relate, such as her repeated portrayals of “The Next Weird Sister.” They were not only alien, but even unpalatable to me. Read the rest of this entry »

I can feel it in the vibrations of the floor. I can see it in the rhythmic dancing of my monitor. Bam! Bam! Bam! It’s the spin cycle, and once again, my washing machine is unbalanced.

So it is that I can relate to Emily Watts, a self-proclaimed “fourteen-towel woman in a ten-towel-capacity life” (p. 6). Like her, I, too “have lots to do, and all of it is good and worthwhile and important, but I simply can’t do it all at once” (p. 6).

In this short, sweet, and to the point book from Deseret Book’s “Time Out Classics” series, Sister Watts shares a better view of balance and how to get there by listening to the Lord, accepting His love, and living it. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Foo!

Obert Skye discovered it several years ago, and he invites you to make the journey yourself through the characters in his book, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. Foo is “the fantastic realm that allows mankind to hope, imagine and dream.”

Leven Thumps, a fourteen-year-old boy living in Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma, has the power to save Foo from its chaotic state and he must journey to the secret gateway that connects the two worlds, the real one and the magical. But first he must discover the power and potential within himself, discarding self-doubt and believing that he is meant for bigger and better things than the wretched life he has lived thus far. Read the rest of this entry »

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky, –
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away
On either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat – the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.

(Edna St. Vincent Millay “Renascence” [1912] last lines)

Read the rest of this entry »

We were thrilled when Pam Hansen, author of Running with Angels, graciously consented to do an interview to coincide with our review of her book. I hope you enjoy this chance to get to know Pam a little better. I sure did!

APoF: Have you always wanted to write a book?

Pam: Heavens no! I didn’t even pass the A.P. test! That’s really the miracle of it all – writing a book was never one of my goals.

APoF: What was it that led you to write the book? Read the rest of this entry »

Pam Hansen takes her readers on a very difficult and intimate journey, though her misery, her frustration, and her inspiring triumph. Her story begins with the despair of losing a baby, and it continues on through the heartrending trials that follow that first major blow. She describes the pain that she felt, but also the comfort she found in food. This false comfort led her down the path of weight gain and poor self-esteem. She writes:

“For many years, it had seemed that my body was not a true reflection of my spirit. It was almost as if my body was separate from the person I really was. I hated and blamed it for not dropping the weight I wanted to lose. I loathed looking at myself in the mirror. I was not making the connection that my body was just responding to my actons. Read the rest of this entry »

Photography by John Telford

Written by Susan Easton Black

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!
Jesus annointed that Prophet and Seer

Dedicated to the memory of the Prophet Joseph Smith, John Telford and Susan Easton Black have created a fabulous photographic essay, Joseph Smith: Praise to the Man. Glancing though the pages it is obvious that the photos, pull out quotations, and text all work together to portray Joseph, his times and seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

And now, after the many reviews which have been given of this book, this is the review last of all, which I give of it: That it’s worth reading!

There have been many criticisms laid against What Da Vinci Didn’t Know, but I found, upon careful inspections that nearly all of them were addressed in the introduction. Especially things such as “The Da Vinci Code is fiction! Sheesh, no-one should be taking it seriously enough to write a book about it!” Even gripes about the formatting (i.e. all footnotes are in the back of the book) have been explained. Read the rest of this entry »

I had the pleasure of hearing the author, Beverly Campbell, speak at a fireside and then reading her book, so I may be biased in my review. She is an excellent speaker and writer. This is a book that should be read by all women and men. It is interesting, thought-provoking, and inspirational. She has written a book that reminds us of the reality that Heavenly Father loves all of us equally. She takes us on a journey of questioning and understanding the choices Eve and Adam made in the Garden of Eden. With the backing of scriptures and prophetic quotes, she helps clarify the mistakes and misinformation about Eve’s choice that have been passed down through generations. Read the rest of this entry »