The Largest Repository Of Ex-Mormon Material In The World
Containing 3,238 Articles Spanning 204 Topics
Online Since January 1, 2005
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BOOKS - AUTHORS AND DESCRIPTIONS
Total Articles:
6
There are many LDS and NON-LDS Authors who have published books pertaining to recovering from Mormonism. Because I receive requests from authors to help make their books aware, this section is dedicated to those authors. See the section on Books - Comments for peer reviews.
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Hello Everyone,
Like most of you, I am a former Mormon who left the church in my early 20's after becoming very disillusioned by its teachings and practices. I have recently written a book about my growing up in and eventual departure from the Mormon church. The name of my book is called "Woman Redeemed." This memoir also deals with abuse (sexual, physical, emotional) and the leaders' lack of response, a serious eating disorder that I overcame, suicide attempts, severe depression (incredibly common in the Mormon church as you know) and even "taboo" subjects like masturbation; a "sin" that the Mormon church practically links with murder. In addition to these themes, I also discuss how I have used my gift of music to help me throughout the process of healing.
If you are interested in reviewing and/or purchasing my book, you can go to: www.womanredeemed.com, or call 1-888-280-7715. My book is also on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.
Thank you for your time! I am so glad that I am not alone in this process of recovery from Mormonism. There are SO MANY others just like us out there! If you know of other Ex-Mo's, would you mind forwarding this message on to them?
Many thanks!!
Diana Kline, M.S.,C.R.C.
Providence, UT
Author of "Woman Redeemed"
| Spirited Yearling Wounded by Loren Jenner
ISBN: 1-4116-3723-2, 4th ed., 234 pages, Angel Warrior Publishing, © 2005 by
Loren Jenner
For more information, go to http://www.lorenjenner.com
"I had already talked to my counselor at BYU, Sister Jenson, about Kate
because sometimes I had visions of kissing her on the lips. They would just
sort of flash in my mind and leave me feeling dirty and disgusting. I didn't
tell anyone about it except Sister Jenson, not even my friends in the
support group on campus. All she said was that it was ok to have the
thoughts but not ok to act on them." p. 37
"I'm worried that the reason I feel these sexual feelings toward other women
is because of [being sexually abused by a man when a teenager]. What if I
will never be able to have normal sexual feelings toward a man? I feel so
ashamed. I hope that one day I will be able to have normal sex with a man
and not feel sexual feelings toward a woman ever again." p. 165
"...[Beth] planted one right on my lips ... Time slowed to a standstill and
fireworks exploded on the canvass of my mind; all those things happened that
people talked about when it came to kissing boys, but I had never felt until
this moment with a woman ... When once I feared this moment would kill me,
it filled me. I didn't feel dirty at all but beautiful all over." p. 189
"... I cried. I didn't know why I grieved. I didn't anticipate giving up the
gospel, for I intended to live its principles. I suspected I grieved the
support of the church as a whole, knowing that I would be judged and
ostracized. This realization devastated me because I had relied solely on
the church for a sense of identity and self-esteem ever since I was sixteen
years old. Now I stood on my own." p. 193
"...What is a bigger sin? ... What if God would hold me more accountable for
denying myself rather than acknowledging myself? ... I have been living my
life according to the teachings of the church and condemning those who don't
-- like homosexuals -- and now here I stand, prostrate, ready to be
crucified as I have crucified them." p. 181
"If following the advice of the prophets by marrying a man or staying
celibate was truly good for me, then I would feel light and love come into
my life even though the lifestyle might be difficult. Just the thought of
doing either one of those things breeds darkness and shame inside me whereas
the idea of opening myself up to the possibility of being with a woman
brings me internal peace." p. 221-222
"A budding peace filled my spirit as I looked to my future, reassured. I
finally understood what people meant when they said that one could find
heaven on earth; my contentment, in that moment, was everything I had
imagined the Celestial Kingdom to be." p. 225
| Michael Marquardt just emailed me and said that the book he's been writing about Mormonism is finally out and ready for purchase. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure it's a great book. Based on my relatively frequent conversations with him (as well as the books of his I've read), I can say with confidence that his knowledge of Mormonism is among the best of any scholars on Mormonism I know of. I'm really looking forward to reading The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844.
I think this may be the perfect book with which to celebrate JS's birth this year -- a complete and factual history on the organization he started!
I wouldn't consider Michael an anti-Mormon, but I will say that apologists like Daniel Peterson don't like him, because he tells the history like it is, and doesn't whitewash it. It's probably safe to say that the folks over at FAIR would brand him as an anti-Mormon, though.
Here's the blurb on the book from the publisher:
The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844 By H. Michael Marquardt
Here is an open, honest, and refreshing history of the foundational years of the Latter-day Saints restoration movement. You may have heard that Joseph Smith was the prophet of Mormonism. But do you know the story behind the gold plates? This book examines the background, evolution, conflicts, and sacrifices made by church members. Primary sources are used to cover over a twenty-five-year period of history. This book covers before the establishment of the church and during Joseph Smith's fourteen-year ministry. If you want to know the history and basis for every church whose teachings go back to the Book of Mormon this is the book. Read from the records of the day.
http://www.aimoo.com/forum/postview.c...
| "The richly told story of a nineteenth-century womanthe author's great-great-grandmotherwhose religious faith was betrayed and regained on a journey across the American West.
"In the 1850s, Jean Rio was a recently widowed English mother of seven. Rich, well educated, musically gifted, deeply spiritual, and increasingly dismayed by the social injustices she saw around her, she was moved by the promises of Mormon missionaries and set out from England for Utah. On her fifty-six-day Atlantic crossing, she began keeping a diary, and this extraordinary chronicle is the basis of Sally Denton's book.
"We follow Jean Rio from New Orleans, where she disembarks, up the Mississippi by riverboat, and, finally, westward by wagon train. We see her family transformed by necessitymastering frontier skills, surviving storms, finding their own food, overcoming illness and injuryduring the five months it takes them to reach Zion.
"We see her initial enthusiasm turn to disillusionment: She is forced to surrender her money to the church. She realizes she has been lied to about polygamyMormons do practice itwhich she detests. Acts of Mormon violence against nonbelievers repel her. Her musical skills are buried beneath the daily rigors of farming. Two of her sons flee to California. We witness her seventeen-year struggle to make peace with her situation before she, too, escapes to Californiato freedom, a career as a midwife, and a new religion that fulfills her.
"Dramatic and powerful, Faith and Betrayal is the moving account of one woman's gamble in an emerging America, and a valuable addition to the history of both the Mormon experience and the long saga of immigrant pioneer women." (From inside jacket.)
http://www.utlm.org/booklist/titles/f...
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Portals of the Night
by Dennis C. Farley
Our price: $22.95
Format: Paperback
Size : 6 x 9
Pages: 412
ISBN: 0-595-34435-6
Published: Mar-2006
Other Formats: Adobe eBook
International orders: Call 00-1-402-323-7800
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A compelling psychological thriller, Portals of the Night tells the story of attorney Robert Farwell and an experimental project that portends an ominous future for all mankind while delivering the shocking truth about Mormonism.
Book Description
A suspenseful psychological thriller, Portals of the Night profiles the ominous battle between good and evil as a small-town attorney confronts the Biblical myths predicting the end of the world and his personal apocalypse.
Robert Ashton Farwell becomes involved in an experimental project that propels him into the subconscious. Farwell ventures into the confusing, unfamiliar realm of inner-space, only to discover his life is in grave danger. Religious fanatics intent on killing Mormon defectors for violating secret temple ordinances force Farwell to become immersed again in the mysteries of the Mormon Church from which he had tried to escape. Former members are being executed. Farwell is next. He has thirty days to identify the assassins and prevent his own murder.
Through these dark portals the shocking truth about Mormonism is revealed.
Portals is an epic battle in the eternal struggle between the righteous and the wicked. It is a story of redemption and hope in a place where time has no meaning. The bridge spanning the gap between believers and nonbelievers is about to fall. The time to choose has arrived.
Portals of the Night
I wrote Portals of the Night primarily for my children who were too young to understand what the family was experiencing and the reasons why I left the Mormon Church after years of faithful service. I also wrote it for Mormons who are concerned that their church is not being entirely honest; for Ex-Mormons struggling to find their identities in a non-Mormon world; and for anyone interested in examining the world of religion from the perspective of someone caught in its tangled web.
Portals is a mytha parableabout modern religious fanaticism. It is an initiation, if you will, from a mystical, fantastic realm where anything is possible into the real world where only the possible is possible.
Joseph Smith, the first Mormon prophet, is alleged to have said about himself shortly before his death, "No man knows my history." That is true of us all. Portals is a fictionalized account of my personal journey of discovery. It arises from an organizational belief system that threatens physical violence to anyone who elects to escape its sphere of influence.
In the fantastic, subconscious world, Portals invites the honest seeker of truth to see his or her reflection in my experiences in the hope they will find a better world on the other side of the looking glass. Those who view it from a Mormon v. Non-Mormon perspective will fail to understand the symbolism of the underlying story of disillusionment and pain caused by associating with any organization that professes to be the sole oracle of truth.
Portals asks the reader to suspend disbelief and enter a marvelous realm where all things are possible so that upon returning to the "real world" the impossible can be identified and rejected as impossible. Portals is entertainment, but much more than that for those entrenched in a fundamentalist, authoritarian organization. Suicide bombers are real people like us once we begin to consider what they believe and the reasons underlying those beliefs. Mormon fanatics, after all, are no different than deluded Muslim fundamentalists, or any other fanatic.
Portals is written from a Mormon apostate perspective, although I provide the true believer's perspective that I once shared. Leaving a cult with the means and ability to enforce death threats as divine retribution is a difficult, fearful experience that no one can understand who has not had that experience.
My hope is that Portals may prevent others from following the same hapless course I took into the darkest nightmare of religious fanaticism. Perhaps by holding up the light of truth, I may discourage others from ever raising a hand in violence against anyone because of a religious belief.
| I am offering a free copy of SISTERWIFE, my very first book, to anyone who cares to download it from my Web site. It's FREE FREE FREE. Hee hee. We all love free, right?
Fiction, ripped from the headlines: Prophesied to be the catalyst in a modern-day Armageddon, Kelsey Waite flees a life in Utah, freeing herself from a polygamous lifestyle and abusive father. She is forced to return to the state, and face her demons--and the charismatic cult leader who believes she is destined to be his second wife -- when her daughter is kidnapped.
http://www.nataliercollins.com/sisterwife.php
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