‘The Divine Comedy’ by Alighieri is 798 pages long. Dante’s classic recreation of the depths and heights of human experience, beginning in the first year of the 12th century. |
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‘The Story of Latter-Day Saints’ by Allen and Leonard is 722 pages long. A candid and historically accurate history of the LDS faith through 1975 |
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‘Confessions’ by Augustine is 341 pages long. A 4th century philosopher explains his theological and philosophical questioning of God’s nature and what it is to be human. |
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‘Meditations’ by Aurelius is 304 pages long. The philosopher and Roman emperor describes his insights as he struggled to understand himself and to make sense of the universe. |
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‘Religion in an Age of Science’ by Barbour is 297 pages long. A comprehensive examination of the major conflicts between science and religion in today’s world. |
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‘Christmas: The Original Story’ by Barker is ### pages long. A Bible scholar explores the nature of the Christmas stories and the use of Old Testament prophecy. |
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‘Creation: A Biblican Vision for the Environment’ by Barker is ### pages long. The author contributes a characteristically Christian voice to the contemporary theological debates on the environment. |
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‘King of the Jews: Temple Theology in John’s Gospel’ by Barker is ### pages long. Only John’s Gospel says that Jesus was cricified as the King of the Jews. Jesus was the keeper for the ways of the first temple. |
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‘The Gate of Heaven: The History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem’ by Barker is ### pages long. A British biblical scholar explores the origins and afterlife of traditions about the Temple in Judaism. |
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‘The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God’ by Barker is ### pages long. What did “Son of God,” “Messiang,” and “Lord” mean to the first Christians when they used these words to describe their beliefs about Jesus? |
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‘The Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy’ by Barker is ### pages long. Whereas most scholarship has concentrated on the synagogue, Margaret Barker’s work on the Jerusalem temple contributes significantly to our understanding of the meaning and importance of many elements of Christian litergy. |
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‘The Mother of the Lord: Volume 1: The Lady in the Temple’ by Barker is ### pages long. Old Testament roots of the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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‘Servants of the Map’ by Barrett is 320 pages long. A collection of short stories ranging across 2 centuries from western Himalaya to an Adirondack village. |
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‘Ship Fever: Stories’ by Barrett is 256 pages long. A 1996 National Book Award-winning collection of short stories about the love of science and the science of love in the 19th century. |
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‘Confessions of a Mormon Historian: The Diaries of Leonard Arrington, 1971-1999’ by Bergera is ### pages long. An account of the first LDS Church Historian’s ten-year stormy tenure, full of controversy. |
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‘Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women’ by Bessey is 256 pages long. Through a thoughtful review of biblical teachings and church practices, one woman shares how following Jesus made a feminist out of her. |
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‘The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine’ by Bly is 264 pages long. A Jungian interpretation of a primordial folktale about the reunion of masculine and feminine. The Maiden King is a tale of an absent father, a possessive stepmother, a false tutor, and a young man overwhelmed by a beautiful maiden. |
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‘Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis-Deuteronomy’ by Bokovoy is ### pages long. A Mormon and Bible scholar dives into the Pentateuch, showing how and why textual criticism has led biblical scholars to understand the first five books of the Bible as an amalgamtion of multiple texts into a single, complicated narrative |
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‘Mormon Women Speak: Collection of Essays’ by Bradford is 237 pages long. A collection of essays by Mormon women, in the style of the essay “Lusterware” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. |
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‘No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith’ by Brodie is 576 pages long. A classic biography of Joseph Smith, written by David O. McKay’s niece, who was later excommunicated. The book eventually became a source for the church-sanctioned biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman. |
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‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bryson is 544 pages long. The author seeks to understand how we got from nothing to us. To that end, he has attached himself to the world’s most advanced (and obsessed) archaelologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, traveling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. This book is a profound, funny, and entertaining adventure into the realm of human knowledge. |
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‘Dead White Guys: A Father, His Daughter and the Great Books of the Western World’ by Burriesci is 266 pages long. A father’s and daughter’s experience with reading 26 great books, from Plato to Karl Marx. |
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‘The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work’ by Campbell is 288 pages long. Campbell describes his monomyth, or “the one great story of mankind,” which he posits is the backbone of every story. |
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‘The Power of Myth’ by Campbell is 320 pages long. Campbell describes the mythology of heroes and applies it to recent history, such as the murder and funeral of John F Kennedy. |
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‘The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains’ by Carr is 280 pages long. A compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences. Inferences from what’s known about how human thought has been shaped through the centuries and recent discoveries in neuroscience, Carr explains how the internet is remaking us in its own image. |
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‘The Awakening’ by Chopin is 195 pages long. One of the first feminist novels ever written, in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. |
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‘In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith’ by Compton is ### pages long. A historical volume about the lives of 33 of Joseph Smith’s wives. |
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‘Vivian Apple at the End of the World’ by Coyle is ### pages long. A seventeen-year-old girl returns home after the Rapture to find all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. |
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‘Why I am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto’ by Crispin is 151 pages long. A critique of modern feminism. |
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‘The Origin of Species’ by Darwin is 703 pages long. The classic volume in which Darwin explains his theory of natural selection and challenges orthodox thought and belief about creationism. |
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‘The Second Sex’ by de Beauvoir is 746 pages long. This classic volume is de Beauvoir’s groundbreaking observationsa about the inequality and otherness of women. |
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‘The Red Tent’ by Diamant is 336 pages long. A novel about the biblical figure Dinah. Told in Dinah’s voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood. |
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‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Doerr is 531 pages long. A blind French girl and a German boy struggle to survive the devastation of the war in occupied France. |
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‘Notes From the Underground’ by Dostoyevsky is 136 pages long. (To be added) |
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‘The Story of Philosophy’ by Durant is 704 pages long. An account of the lives and ideas of the great philosophers, from Plato to Dewey. |
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‘Forged: Writing in the Name of God — Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are’ by Ehrman is ### pages long. A controversial work of historical reporting that explains why the Bible was not written by Jesus’ disciples. |
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‘Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible and Why We Don’t Know About Them’ by Ehrman is 304 pages long. A compelling account of the central challenges faced when attempting to reconstruct Jesus’ life and message This book addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches, and it’s not what you think. |
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‘Identity and the Life Cycle’ by Erikson is 192 pages long. Erikson’s insights into the relationship of life history and history, beginning with observations on a central stage of life: identity development in adolescence. |
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‘The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook’ by Ferguson is 592 pages long. A brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we’re living through, as a collision between old power hierarchies and new social networks. |
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‘Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation’ by Fiorenza is 256 pages long. This book explores the ways in which women can read the Christian Bible with full understanding of both its oppressive and its liberating functions. |
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‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Frankl is 184 pages long. Frankl’s memoir of his experience in Nazi death camps and lessons for spiritual survival, such as that we cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. |
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‘Grendel’ by Gardner is 174 pages long. Beowulf’s most terrifying monster tells his side of the story. |
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‘The Literary Message of Isaiah’ by Gileadi is 624 pages long. Gileadi suggests that the ancient writings of Isaiah bridge the gap between the Old and New Testaments. |
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‘The Language of the Goddess’ by Gimbutas is 388 pages long. The goddess is the most potent and persistent feature in the archaeological records of the ancient world. In this volume the author resurrects the world of goddess-worshipping, earth-centered cultures, bringing ancient matriarchal society to life. |
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‘Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity’ by Givens is 424 pages long. An account of the Mormon fath’s foundations in 19th-century restorationist thought and the subsequent influence of that foundation on the modern church. |
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‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ by Gladwell is 309 pages long. What makes high-achievers different? Gladwell says we can’t know by paying attention to what successful people are like; we have to pay attention to where they are from: Their cultures, families, generation, and idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringings. |
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‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference’ by Gladwell is 301 pages long. The tipping point is the magic moment when an idea, trend, or social bheavior crosses a threshold and spreads like wildfire. |
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‘The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom’ by Haidt is 297 pages long. An award-winning psychologist examines the world’s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims (such as the golden rule) can enrich and transform our lives. |
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‘Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin’ by Hardy is 304 pages long. In her memoir, Hardy describes the crossroads she encountered when she aged out of LDS YSA wards and came face-to-face with the discordance between the life she’d envisioned and the one she was living. |
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‘The Mormon Church & Blacks: A Documentary History’ by Harris and Bringhurst is 232 pages long. Thirty official or authoritative Church statements on the status of African Americans in the Mormon Church and an analysis of how they reflect uniquely on Mormon characteristics in the context of history, race, and religion. |
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‘One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly: The Art of Seeking God’ by Hoiland is 212 pages long. An exploration of the complexities of faith in everyday life, with a particular focus on the Mormon faith. |
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‘The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife’ by Hollis is 127 pages long. A book that uses Jungian analysis to show us how we may travel the Middle Passage consciously, thereby rendering our lives more meaningful and the second half of life immeasurably richer. |
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‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ by Hothschild is 402 pages long. A true story of the man who enslaved a nation and of those who fought him: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. |
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‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ by James is ### pages long. William James’ classic text on religion, which he defines as “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.” |
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‘From Housewife to Heretic: One Woman’s Spiritual Awakening and her Exommunication from the Mormon Church’ by Johnson is ### pages long. Awakening feminism brought Johnson into conflict with church leaders, who excommunicated her for promoting false doctrine. Her husband wanted to divorcer her because he was “tired of working on our marriage.” An account of Johnson’s progression from self-denial to activism. |
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‘The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric’ by Joseph is 292 pages long. An American nun explains the rules, definitions, and guidelines of language and the pathway to becoming a liberal artist. |
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‘Man and His Symbols’ by Jung is 432 pages long. The first and only work in which the world-famous Swiss psycholotist explains to the layperson his enormously influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams |
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‘French Lessons’ by Kaplan is 256 pages long. Three Americans set off to explore Paris with a French tutor. As they traverse Paris’ grand boulevards and intimate, winding streets, they uncover surprising secrets about one another and come to understand long-buried truths about themselves. |
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‘The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology’ by Kornfield is ### pages long. An accessible, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to Buddhist psychology. |
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‘In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin’ by Larson is 448 pages long. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago brings his family to Germany in 1933. At first they are enamored of the New Germany. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, they become alarmed. The novel ends in a climax of violence and murder, revealing Hitler’s true character. |
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‘Why Won’t You Apologize?: Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurts’ by Lerner is ### pages long. Renowned psychologist sheds new light on the two most important words in the English language — I’m sorry — and offers a unique perspective on the challenge of healing broken connections and restoring trust. |
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‘The Great Divorce’ by Lewis is 146 pages long. An allegorical bus ride through heaven and hell that producees insights about the nature of good and evil. |
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‘Her Body and Other Parties: Stories’ by Machado is ### pages long. The author blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism, giving literal shape to women’s memories, hunger, and desire. |
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‘Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny’ by Manne is 368 pages long. An exploration of misogyny in public life and poltics by a moral philosopher. |
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‘The Road’ by McCarthy is 241 pages long. A post apocalyptic novel about a father and son who walk alone through burned America observing the ravaged landscape and fighting to preserve the light they cherish. |
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‘Love Warrior: A Memoir’ by Melton is ### pages long. A memoir of betrayal and self-discovery that chronicals a beatufiul, brilliant journey to find deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life |
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‘Sweet Lamb of Heaven’ by Millet is ### pages long. A young mother escapes her cold and unfaithful husband, who chases her from Alaska to Maine as they go into hiding. |
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‘Sexual Politics’ by Millett is 424 pages long. An expository view of patriarchy as a socially conditioned belief system masquerading as nature. |
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‘The Sociological Imagination’ by Mills is 256 pages long. Mills calls for a way of looking at the world that can see links between the apparently private problems of the individual and important social issues. |
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‘King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine’ by Moore is 192 pages long. A book of four Jungian archetypes about manhood, masculine energies from myth and literature |
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‘To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism’ by Morozov is 415 pages long. This book urges us to abandom monolithic ideas of “the Internet” and to show how to design more humane and democratic technological solutions. |
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‘Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History’ by Prince is 432 pages long. A biography of the first and only professional historian to lead the Mormon church in its history division. |
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‘Becoming Human: A Servant of the Map’ by Randall is 256 pages long. Essays about author’s journey to discover how to reshape his existence as a “servant of the map.” |
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‘At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women’ by Reeder and Holbrook is 452 pages long. Hand-picked by Reeder and Holbrook, 54 speeches given by LDS women from 1831 to 2016. |
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‘Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness’ by Reeve is 352 pages long. The 19th century Protestants’ view that Mormonism represented a racial departure from the mainstream, and the 200-year church response to fight that view. |
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‘The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)’ by Ruiz is 168 pages long. Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the agreements are “Be impeccable with your word,” “don’t take anything personally,” “don’t make assumptions,” and “always do your best.” |
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‘Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons’ by Scharffs is 211 pages long. Why did Joseph Smith become a Freemason? Who introduced Freemasonry into Nauvoo, Illinois, in the early 1840’s? Do the Masons really descend from the stonemasons who built King Solomon’s temple? Is there a relationship between the Masonic lodge rites and Mormon temple ordinances? |
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‘Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error’ by Schulz is 405 pages long. The editor of Grist magazine explores what it means to be wrong and why humans tend to assume and insist that they are right about almost everything. This book covers the history and psychology of error, from Socrates to Alan Greenspan. |
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‘The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods’ by Sertillanges is 266 pages long. This classic by the 17th-18th century French Catholic philospher Sertillanges recommends habits of the mind for aspiring scholars. |
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‘The Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters’ by Sillito and Staker is 388 pages long. Biographical essays from Mormon dissenters who were troubled by some aspects of church history, doctrine, policies, or politics. Some left and some stayed. |
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‘The Big Disconnect: The Story of Technology and Loneliness’ by Slade is 306 pages long. Using technology to replace face-to-face interactions is not a new phenomenon. The history of the phenomenon explains why we use technology to mediate our connections with other humans. |
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‘Mormon Midwife’ by Smart is 480 pages long. A 1997 Evans Handcart Prize-winner, the compliete diaries of Patty Sessions, details the early life of early Mormons from Illinois to Utah. |
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‘Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief’ by Smith is 304 pages long. The human spirit is being suffocated by the dominant materialistic worldview of our times. |
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‘Religion as Metaphor: Beyond Literal Belief’ by Tacey is 286 pages long. Despite what tradition tells us, if we “believe” religious language, we miss religion’s spiritual meaning. Religious language was not designed to be historical reporting, but rather to resonate in the soul and direct us toward transcendent realities. |
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‘Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder’ by Taleb is 521 pages long. One of the foremost philosophers of our time, Taleb’s book tells us about systems that benefit from disorder. A blueprint for how to behave — and thrive in — a world we don’t undersand and which is too uncertain for us to even try to understand. |
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‘Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History’ by Ulrich is 320 pages long. A volume about women in history who achieved power and influence. |
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‘Bonds that Make Us Free’ by Warner is 368 pages long. Why do we get trapped in negative emotions when it’s clear that life is so much fuller and richer when we are free of them? |
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‘The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?’ by Warren is 336 pages long. A non-Mormon Christian view of life’s meaning. |
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‘Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion’ by Winell is 462 pages long. Psychologist Winell outlines what people can do to reclaim a healthy human spirit after beginning to question literal belief. |
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