NO PLACE TO CALL HOME: THE 1807-1857 LIFE WRITINGS OF CAROLINE BARNES CROSBY, ed. by Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne and S. George Ellsworth, Utah State University Press, 592 pages, $29.95, hardcover (photos and maps). In 1834, Caroline Barnes married Jonathan Crosby, and soon after, they converted to the LDS Church. As they moved from Canada to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Indiana, Nauvoo and Utah, Caroline kept a copious journal. After only two years in Utah, they were called to do missionary work in French Polynesia and afterward settled in San Bernardino, Calif., before returning to Utah. This is probably the greatest journal contribution by a woman of her time; it is candid and detailed about everyday life.
OPENING THE HEAVENS: ACCOUNTS OF DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS, 1820-1844, ed. by John W. Welch, BYU Press and Deseret Book, 500 pages, $32.95. A collection of historical documents about key events in the organization of the LDS Church, i.e., the First Vision, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the priesthood, the delivery of priesthood keys in the Kirtland, Ohio, Temple and the passing of the mantle of leadership from Joseph Smith to Brigham Young.
GOD AND COUNTRY: POLITICS IN UTAH, ed. by Jeffery Sells, Signature Books, 356 pages, $34.95. This is an interesting collection of 17 articles about church and state written by such intriguing people as Peer Appleby, Jan Shipps, Gov. Calvin Rampton, D. Michael Quinn, John J. Flynn, L. Jackson Newell and Edwin Firmage.
JUNIUS & JOSEPH: PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND THE ASSASSINATION OF THE FIRST MORMON PROPHET, by Robert Wicks and Fred Foister, Utah State University Press, 328 pages, $45.95 hardcover ($24.95 softbound). This book takes a revisionist view of the history of Joseph Smith's presidential bid in 1844 and his assassination, suggesting a role for Illinois political leaders. The thesis of the book is that rather than a mob uprising, the assassination was "a carefully planned military-style execution."
LOSING A LOST TRIBE: NATIVE AMERICANS, DNA AND THE MORMON CHURCH, by Simon Southerton, Signature Books, 270 pages, $24.95, softbound. The author is an Australian molecular biologist, who argues that the standard line of anthropologists that Native Americans are originally from Siberia and Polynesians from Southeast Asia is correct based on DNA evidence. Southerton ties theology to science in this volume.
THE SECRET JOURNAL OF BRETT COLTON, by Kay Lynn Mangum, Deseret Book, 334 pages, $15.95, softbound. This is a first novel for LDS readers by Mangum, who studied English literature at Southern Utah University. The story centers on Kathy Colton and her brother Brett, whom Kathy knows was not perfect even though he died of leukemia at 17. She discovers his hidden journal, which was intended just for her.
A GUIDE TO SOUTHERN UTAH'S HOLE-IN-THE-ROCK TRAIL, by Stewart Aitchison, University of Utah Press, 96 pages, $11.95, softbound. This is the story of 230 settlers in southwestern Utah who obeyed the call from LDS Church
leaders in 1879 to move to the distant San Juan River country of southeastern Utah. Their six-month journey was one of the most extraordinary wagon trips in North America.
THE MIST OF QUARRY HARBOR, by Liz Adair, Deseret Book, 278 pages, $14.95. The author of three previous novels, Adair spent several years as a reading specialist in Arizona schools. She writes about Cassie Van Cleeve, a career woman who has little time for romance. Then, out of the blue, she gets two marriage proposals, causing her head to reel. When she accepts one, she begins an adventure that will reveal the mysterious past of her husband.
FOLDING PAPER CRANES: AN ATOMIC MEMOIR, by Leonard Bird, University of Utah Press, 152 pages, $14.95, softbound. In this memoir, the author, a retired Colorado professor, writes about Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese victim of the atomic bomb, resulting in her death from leukemia. Bird, who was exposed to radiation during the above-ground detonations at the Nevada test site in the 1950s, ties the story to his own cancer.
THE ZEEZROM SYNDROME, by Rodney Jay Vessels, Deseret Book, 224 pages, $14.95, softbound. The author, an attorney, writes about a syndrome he names after Zeezrom in the Book of Mormon, something he calls a mortal weakness that reduces spirituality in human beings.
JOURNEY OF THE PROMISE, by JoAnn Arnold, Horizon, 248 pages, $14.98, softbound. The author, a veteran of the performing arts, has written a second LDS novel. This one is about Callie McAllister, who falls in love with the perfect man and moves to a perfect house but wakes up to find things are not perfect.
—Dennis Lythgoe
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com