Emily W. Jensen: Bloggernacle Back Bench: Book reviews

Blogs do a lot of things well: facilitate communication, record experiences, portray announcements and much more. But one of my favorite feature about blogs is the review. Be it movie reviews, article reviews, music reviews and much more, bloggers love to offer their personal and/or educated opinions. Today, I'll focus on what I see as the biggest review type in the Bloggernacle: the book review.Whether it's a mom reviewing a favorite new book, an LDS author promoting his/her own book or reviewing another author's work, or a researcher studying a new scholarly book, the Bloggernacle always has book reviews. It is such a wonderful tool for someone wondering about a new book or someone looking for a good read. So let's review some of the blog book reviews.Scholarly reviews: Garnering five out of five plates, this "Review: Royal Skousen's 'The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text'" is glowing. In fact, BHodges declares it as "a 'must' for anyone interested in studying the Book of Mormon deeply, differently, freshly and otherwise." Turning now to the Doctrine and Covenants, blogger WVS got a hold of the new Joseph Smith Papers volume and provided us with a first glimpse in this "Short Review: The Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations vol. 1." He declares, "This book will be the foundation of a considerable amount of scholarship. It is a stunningly handsome yet understated volume."And while I've highlighted it recently, I was hoping to find a scholarly blog reviewing the new Dan Brown book, and The Mormon Review did not disappoint. In "Exaltation and The Lost Symbol," Scott Holley outlines the main themes of the book and explains, "Believing Latter-day Saints, then, will find little to object to in the main philosophy of the book. In fact, 'The Lost Symbol' mentions Mormonism exactly twice, and both times fleetingly. ... Any offense for this book should be reserved for the recycled plot conventions, wooden dialogue and CGI-worthy stunts that make this otherwise exciting and entertaining book ultimately unsatisfying." Personal reviews: Nicely organized into one site, the Book Blogs at Mormon Mommy Blogs highlight personal reviews of whatever the bloggers are reading. With just a perusal down the list of currently reviewed books, you'll see fiction books, LDS books, non-fiction, non-LDS books, self-help books and more. Take a chance, click in and maybe find your next favorite book. Two great examples of bloggers-turned-book-reviewers are BestBooks, by Julie M. Smith, with hundreds of reviews dating back to December 2004, and the newly redesigned LDS Women's Book Review, which helps you "Find meaningful fiction that doesn't ask you to sacrifice your standards" and includes podcasts and a wonderful book side blogroll.Authors' reviews: While each of these sections could be its own column (really, there are so many book blog reviews), the authors' reviews especially could be a future column topic since so many LDS authors smartly use blogs as a medium for self-promotion and help one another by reviewing each other's latest books. However, the LDS Fiction Review and LDS Readers both showcase works reviewed by LDS authors independent of blog book tours and personal promotion. So scroll through some of their latest takes on LDS literature.And as an example of one author using a blog to coincide with his book, click over to Faith Among Shadows, which includes the stuff that did not make it into the book. And just as a teaser: "I survived a couple of gunshots, some knife wounds, a helicopter crash and a boat (that) capsized. And I still wondered: Is God real? What is faith? Where does it comes from? Why should we have faith?" Intriguing!Finally, if you are looking for a review of an LDS book, it's easy to search the blog reviews just by googling the "book title" and "LDS" and "review" and "blog." Try it today and find your next good read. And then complete the cycle with your own blog book review!Now let's review other posts from this last week in the Bloggernacle:Power pick: In preparing "The Provo Temple Grounds Renovation and Mormon Concepts of Architectural Beauty and Utility" post, Jared T. went digging through the Bloggernacle to find answers as to why and when the Provo Temple's grounds were renovated. He found photos chronicling the before, during and after shots, comments as to how the renovation affected temple attendance and wedding parties, articles describing the renovation and more. Amazing! And living in the Provo/Orem area during the renovation of the Provo Temple, I was reminded by this blog post how unobtrusive the construction really was. And wow, just look at it now.Blog novel: The Jello Belt: A Mormon Blog Novel. How cool is that! With a chapter posted each Monday and Tuesday, this novel forms right before the readers' eyes. Beginning last May at "Chapter 1," the blog novel now has 32 chapters and is going strong. Just read the sidebar to get some intriguing character glimpses as well as the blog novel's premise: "Join the families of the Juniper Bend Ward as they grapple with the aftermath of abuse and addiction, and find their faith in the events that threaten to destroy them." What a great combination of blogging and writing!Techie tip: Are you one of those people who knows about your ward's Web site, but has seldom or never looked at it? Well, Larry Richman of LDS Media Talk is here to help. He has produced this wonderfully succinct and useful handout titled "How to Use the Ward Web Site." In it, he outlines both what you can generally find on your ward's Web site, as well as how to get set up to use and view it. He invites you "to use it in any way that may be helpful," which means you can e-mail it to family, print it out for friends or even post it on your ward's bulletin board. Check both it and your ward's Web site out!