“Gift Redemption”

I can recount thirty years of disappointing gifts from my husband — he simply had no clue. There was the electric can opener for our anniversary, a garage parking sign, the claustrophobic footed-robe that tripped me when I walked. I was forewarned by my new mother-in-law when she begged me to take over buying the family gifts from him. It got to the point that my husband would automatically include the sales receipts with his gifts, knowing I would likely want to return or exchange them. I felt awful doing so, but could fill only so many drawers with unwanted […]

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“Inhabiting Church as Women of Color Across Mexico, Botswana, and the United States”

Book Review of Caroline Kline’s Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness (University of Illinois Press, 2022) Caroline Kline’s book,

“Reading to Be Good”

Like soil too heavy with clay, my soul needs amendment. Peat and gypsum balance the loam, but I’ll tend my mind with words. Stories to aerate, puncture assumptions, and poems like a hoe through neglected beds. Add a sprinkle of scripture to green up grudges and turn the biases lavender blue. Mix in sandy commentary for well- drained conclusions and finish with layers of veracious mulch. Fortified, it will be as though everything’s happened to me– as weedy traits wither under layers of language, even noxious words nourish when decomposed. With printed leaves I’ll feed myself fertile, absorb all I’m […]

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Vol. 42 No. 1 — Summer 2022

This issue contains stories of people who
were touched by a book at a poignant time in their life.

“The ‘Best’ Books”

A chance conversation at a family reunion saved me from a life of scrupulosity. I was thirteen or fourteen, an earnest middle school student, when

“Reading THE PLAGUE in a Pandemic”

Outwardly, indeed, this spring was like any other.My children and I were at the park in our apartment complex in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico. My then three-year-old, Harvey, dug in the sandpit, and I bounced my chubby, six-month-old baby, Helen, who had still never been to the United States, our home country. I FaceTimed a friend from Virginia, and we joked about whether we should be nervous about what was coming. I remember saying, “I guess we’ll just stay home and watch basketball for two weeks. At least we still have March Madness.”Hours later, we did not still have […]

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“Weaning”

A god that was a child is a difficult god to qualify. Of distance there is plenty little talk of the unsanitary and veiled who, after all, would it benefit to discuss the mystery of god’s tantrums and god’s hunger. Mystery, for Mother Mary did not disclose how long it was before she weaned nor do we know the mother’s tale of the Buddha, or Rabbi Akiva. Mystery, for who can explain the magic that produces milk to satisfy the hungry soul to calm the anguish of hunger to sustain life. Before there was water to wine there was mother’s […]

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“The Power of Stories: Reading WATERSHIP DOWN” by Cybèle Marie D’Ambrosio

People usually laugh when I reveal that my favorite book is Watership Down by Richard Adams.“Isn’t that the book about rabbits?” they ask, suppressing a slight chuckle.“Yes,” I answer. “Watership Down is all about rabbits.”Their eyes widen as they realize that I am serious.“Why do you like it so much?” they ask.My answer: “I’m not sure, but it is so much more than just a rabbit tale.”I first read Watership Down one summer during high school. It absorbed me so completely that I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t even need a stash of M&Ms or Starbursts in my pocket […]

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“Bookmaking” — Interview with Amelia Anne Sorensen

How did your journey with conservation and bookmaking begin? Have you always been drawn to this?Nope. I did not know craft bookwork existed. Granted, I did have a short-lived college work-study job in the library where I bulk-bound periodicals into plastic binders. And my husband, Barry, had a job in the engineering library doing repairs on the circulating collection. But it isn’t exactly a direct path to book conservation from a high school love of chemistry and college economic history studies.Amelia Anne SorensonInteresting! How did you come into it then?In hindsight, this work makes perfect sense. When young, I wanted […]

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“To Choose Hope Is to Choose Love”

Sacrament talk given in Capitol Hill Ward, Washington D.C., on November 28, 2021 I have been a member of this ward since 1997. Even though we lived overseas for seven years, my records stayed here and we always attended during our annual visits to the US. This is the ward where we would have gotten married if I hadn’t been overwhelmed by wedding logistics, and where our son was blessed and will soon be baptized. I love that our ward is welcoming and inclusive, with people who inspire me to do better. I love that our ward truly embodies compassionate service, […]

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Magazine Issue: Summer 2022

RESULTS

“Gift Redemption”

“Inhabiting Church as Women of Color Across Mexico, Botswana, and the United States”

“Reading to Be Good”

Vol. 42 No. 1 — Summer 2022

“The ‘Best’ Books”

“Reading THE PLAGUE in a Pandemic”

“Weaning”

“The Power of Stories: Reading WATERSHIP DOWN” by Cybèle Marie D’Ambrosio

“Bookmaking” — Interview with Amelia Anne Sorensen

“To Choose Hope Is to Choose Love”

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