If you're not sure what a Mormon is, let alone a Mormon Mention, allow me to explain:  My name is Susan and I'm a Mormon (you've seen the commercials, right?).  As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon or LDS Church), I'm naturally concerned with how my religion is portrayed in the media.  Because this blog is about books, every time I see a reference to Mormonism in a book written by someone who is not a member of my church, I highlight it here.  Then, I offer my opinion—my insider's view—of what the author is saying.  It's my chance to correct misconceptions, expound on principles of the Gospel, and even to laugh at my (sometimes) crazy Mormon culture.

If these kinds of posts offend you, please feel free to skip them.  If not, read on:

In Sara Zarr's YA novel, How to Save a Life, a pregnant 18-year-old woman is traveling on a train from Nebraska to Colorado.  She meets a man, with whom she has a conversation, in which this exchange takes place:

[Mandy]:  "Are there going to be Mexican wedding cookies? ... I thought since they were called that, they'd be served at a Mexican wedding."

[Alex]:  "More like a Mormon wedding" (19-20).

- It should be mentioned that although Sara Zarr is not LDS, she does live in Utah, which presumably gives her a fairly good handle on many things Mormon.  Just sayin'.

Although Zarr doesn't go into any detail about Mormon weddings, I thought it would be an interesting subject for this post.  You've no doubt seen a Mormon temple somewhere in your travels.  You may have even wondered what goes on inside them (I assure you it's not human sacrifices—we do those in the meetinghouses*).  Since the temple is all about making sacred covenants, this is where LDS couples are married.  We believe that the bonds we form on Earth do not end when we die, but are, in fact, eternal.  Thus, there is no better place for a marriage ceremony to take place than inside a holy temple.

In order to enter the temple at all, individuals must be "worthy" to do so, meaning they've been interviewed by their local ecclesiastical leaders and found to be keeping the commandments, abiding by the tenets of the LDS Church, and trying their best to live lives that are honest and true.  If both the prospective bride and groom are found to be worthy, then they're allowed to be married in the temple.  Because not everyone can enter the temple, not all of the couple's friends and family members can witness the marriage ceremony.  Sometimes, couples with a lot of non-LDS friends and family may exchange rings outside the temple so that everyone can feel a part of the ceremony.  Couples who are not ready to enter the temple may be married in civil ceremonies that often take place at an LDS meetinghouse with a bishop (leader of a ward, or congregation).  After a year, if the couple is deemed ready, they can be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

Wedding receptions, on the other hand, do not take place inside the temple.  They can be held in meetinghouses, reception halls, backyards or wherever a couple chooses.  They are as individual as the people who plan them.  They are also where friends and family members of all faiths can come to celebrate the marriage.

In case you're curious, here's the temple in which I was married:


It's located in Lake Oswego, Oregon, which is near Portland.  It's a beautiful building, inside and out.

*I was totally kidding about human sacrifice.
**To see photos of temples around the world and learn more about their purpose, please visit temples.lds.org.
     

If you don't know what a Mormon is, let alone a Mormon Mention, let me explain:

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the LDS or Mormon Church), I am naturally concerned with how my religion is portrayed in the media.  Since this blog focuses on books, every time I see my church mentioned in a book written by an author who is not LDS, I post it here.  Then, I offer my insider's view of the subject at hand.  It's a chance for me to correct false statements, elaborate on subjects important to me, and, a lot of times, just to laugh at my (sometimes) crazy Mormon culture.

If you're not interested in these kinds of posts, feel free to skip them.

Alright, here we go ... in B.A. Shapiro's literary thriller, The Art Forger, the heroine is trying to find information about a family using the Internet.  The passage reads:

Rik doesn't call until close to nine, and by then I've given up on Rendell's family for the night—even the Mormon Web site doesn't have anything—and fallen asleep on the couch" (310).

One of the things most people know about Mormons is that we're big into families.  Because we believe that family ties are eternal, we go to great lengths to preserve them.  Thus, we're known as the people to contact about genealogy (family history).  The LDS Church does, indeed, have the best genealogical resources around and anyone can use them.  Don't believe me?  Go to Family Search right now.  Type in the name of a deceased ancestor.  Watch what happens.  Cool, right?  Shapiro's heroine may not have found anything, but chances are, you will.  Give it a try.

What do you think?  Are you interested in family history?  Ever used the Internet to find your own kin?

(Please not that the text quoted above came from an ARC of The Art Forger.  It may have been changed in the finished novel.)

In case you don't know what a Mormon is, let alone a Mormon Mention, allow me to explain:

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly referred to as the LDS or Mormon Church.  Naturally, then, I'm concerned with how my religion is portrayed in the media.  Since this is a book blog, I pay special attention to mentions of the Church in literature.  When I find a reference to LDS religion, culture, etc., written by a non-Mormon, I highlight it here, along with my own commentary.  I use my "insider's view" to correct misconceptions, add insight using my own experiences and, sometimes, just to laugh at my (sometimes) crazy Mormon culture.

If these kinds of posts offend you, please feel free to skip them.  If not, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here we go—

The narrator of Karen Thompson Walker's new adult dystopian novel, The Age of Miracles, is an 11-year-old girl named Julia.  Her best friend is Hanna, a Mormon.  The following passages are about her:

"She hadn't brushed her hair, and hers was hair that demanded attention, having grown uncut since second grade.  All the Mormon girls I knew had long hair" (11).

- Like many people, Walker's image of Mormons seems to have come through the television screen straight from Colorado City, Arizona,  home of a polygamist splinter group known as the FLDS Church.  In the mainstream church (of which I am a part), girls and women (boys and men, too, for that matter) are allowed to wear their hair any way they please.  Mormons are—generally speaking—a conservative lot, so you won't see a lot of mohawks or dreadlocks, but still ... there are no rules about how hair can, or cannot, be worn.

"Hanna's house was full of sisters, but mine was the home of only one child.  I never liked it when she left.  The rooms felt too quiet without her" (11).

- If there's one thing you know about us Mormons, it's probably that we tend to have large families.  This is because we value family above everything but God himself.  We believe that our family relationships are binding not just on the earth, but in heaven as well.   As Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the church's general authorities, once put it, "I don’t know how to speak about heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal beauty that we speak of heaven–I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife and my children.  It would not be heaven for me."  Because of this doctrine, we feel that it is our duty to not just raise a family, but to nurture it in love and righteousness.  Forever.

"As I would later learn, thousands of Mormons gathered in Salt Lake City after the slowing began.  Hanna had told me once that the church had pinpointed a certain square mile of land as the exact location of Jesus' next return to earth.  They kept a giant grain silo in Utah, she said, to feed the Mormons during the end times.  'I'm not supposed to tell you this stuff because you're not in our church,' she said.  'But it's true'" (25).

- Like I've said before, I'm no scholar or theologian.  I don't claim to be any kind of expert on LDS doctrine, history or beliefs.  But, I've been a member of the church for almost 37 years and I can tell you what I've learned in that time:

The "certain square mile of land" is a reference to Adam-ondi-Ahman, a section of land in rural Missouri that, as the Prophet Joseph Smith prophesied in 1838, would be a place where in the future, Jesus Christ would meet with His people (see reference from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism here).  The significance of Adam-ondi-Ahman isn't something that's widely discussed in the church or seen as a big deal, really.  It just is.

If the world appeared to be ending, I can definitely see Mormons flocking to Adam-ondi-Ahman, although we have never been told to do so.  Personally, I wouldn't head for Missouri or even Utah, for that matter, unless the current prophet advised me to come.  

Obviously, it would be impossible to gather every one of the more than 14 million church members worldwide in one place, so we are told to make sure we are always prepared for disaster by storing food and other supplies in our own homes.  Self-reliance, as you can tell from the paragraph below, is definitely something the church preaches and encourages.

Although I have never visited the site myself, I know that there is a giant (178 foot tall, as a matter of fact) grain elevator as well as other storehouses and processing operations in Salt Lake City, Utah (see LDS Historic Sites: Salt Lake City Welfare Square for more information).  The Church has always preached self-reliance to its members, so its own preparation for hard times should come as no surprise.  Still, whatever stores the church has can only be seen as a back-up measure.  LDS people have long been advised to store food and other supplies, simply so that they can be self-sufficient in case of natural disasters, unemployment, and economic crises—whether they come next year or when the world ends.  Of course, not every member of the church has a year's supply of food crammed under their beds (although many do), whether because they lack the money to buy it, the space to store it, or because their country's laws prevent them from doing it.  Still, if the world starts to tank, it would be an excellent idea to cozy up to your nearest Mormon!

You may wonder what happens if church members cannot support themselves financially in the here and now.  In that case, help is available via a well-organized church welfare system, which you can read about here.  

Another huge principle taught by the church is helping the poor and needy, whether they belong to the LDS church or not.  This includes distributing food to those in trying circumstances, as well as shelter, clothing, medical help, education, etc.  Practicing self-reliance not only helps the individual, but that person's friends, neighbors and community.

Welfare Square is hardly a secret, as Hanna implies.  In fact, you can see photos using the link above and, if you happen to be in the Salt Lake area, you can take a free tour of Welfare Square.

"As the sun made its way up into the sky, Hanna told me a little bit about Utah.  Her life there was not nearly as bleak as I had pictured.  She told a complicated story involving a Mormon boy who lived next door to her aunt.  One night this boy had popped the screen on Hanna's window and climbed into her bedroom.  They'd kissed while her sisters slept" (99).

- Another thing you may know about LDS people is that we're told not to engage in sexual activity outside of marriage.  Because we believe that marriage is an eternal principle, we treat it, and procreation, as something serious and sacred.  We are counseled to treat their bodies as temples, to keep them clean and pure for our future spouses.  Married couples are taught to be true and faithful to their spouses.  Does this mean there is no infidelity in the church?  No divorce?  No teenage pregnancy?  Of course not.  But compared to other groups, Mormons have lower rates of all of the above.

Phew!  We covered a lot of ground.  Any comments?  Questions?  Ask away.

Just a little head's up—I'm going to be MIA on the blog for the rest of the week.  Why, you ask?  Because I'll be houseboating on Lake Powell.  Cell reception out there is spotty, let alone Internet access, so I'll be letting the blog run itself until I come back.  You won't even notice, unless you try to email me or comment on one of my posts.  Never fear!  I'll only be gone a few days and then I'll return emails and approve comments.  In the meantime, I'm going to be playing with my kids, stargazing with my husband, speeding across the water on my jet ski, and, of course, enjoying some nice, relaxing reading time.

That is, of course, if I can find Lake Powell.  My husband's already on the lake with my sons and a group of other guys, so I'm going to have to drive there myself.  I've made the trip plenty of times, just not from behind the wheel.  Here's hoping Mapquest knows what it's talking about!  Seriously, I'm not all that worried, but apparently my daughters are—the 3-year-old just said, "But, Mommy, we can't drive without Daddy!"  Oh, we can, baby girl, and we will.  I hope.

How 'bout the rest of y'all?  Any fun plans for the week/weekend?  Whatever you're doing, have a great rest-of-the-week.  I'll catch you when I get back.  'Til then, happy reading!

There are always cool bookish online events this time of year. This one sounded fun to me, so I agreed to help promote it on my blog. Here are the deets:


Help Raise 1,000 books for charity and enter to win $200, signed books and swag!

We are excited to share about an ambitious blog tour—Fiction Frolic for All Hallow's Read—where ten authors from several genres are working hard to raise 1,000 books in three weeks for Books for America.

From October 1st to 19th, donate a new book (or books!) and earn extra bonus points in a huge giveaway that these authors are hosting.

Two winners will each receive the following PRIZES!

$100 Amazon G.C.
5 signed books from the authors hosting the event
A swag bag
Plus—in honor of All Hallow's read, gift a signed copy of one of our books to a friend!

With a total of $200, 12 signed books (including the gifted books) and major swag, what better way is there to raise books for charity and celebrate All Hallow's Read?

Each author participating is also donating signed copies of their books to Books for America, an awesome charity that is officially sponsoring their event and excited to be involved with All Hallow's Read. In 2011, Books for America donated more than $800,000 worth of books and materials to DC area schools, shelters and dozens of other educational programs and organizations.

The authors are blogging throughout the event at The Fiction Frolic Blog.

• 10/1-5 Read about how books shaped their love for reading and writing.
• 10/8-12 Read their scariest, funniest or craziest Halloween experiences, or learn about their favorite Halloween themed book or movie, or favorite work of "dark" literature.
• 10/15-19 Enjoy some flash fiction, short stories and novel excerpts.

So donate, share, and look for daily ways to enter to win. Donate to charity for bonus points!.

This event is sponsored by:
Eleanor T Beaty, author of the YA paranormal Veiled Mist
Brewin' author of the supernatural horror, The Dark Horde
Andy Gavin, author of the fantasy horror, The Darkening Dream
Laxmi Hariharan, author of the YA fantasy, The Destiny of Shaitan
Kimberly Kinrade, author of the YA paranormal thriller/romances, Forbidden Mind & Forbidden Fire
Richard Long, author of the supernatural thriller/horror, The Book of Paul
M.C. Mars, author of the mind-bending novel, Burner
Melissa McPhail, author of epic fantasy Cephrael's Hand
Sheryl Steines, author of She Wulf & Days of First Sun
Pavarti K Tyler., author of the Lit Fic Shadow on the Wall and the erotic horror Consumed by Love

Enter here:


a Rafflecopter giveaway