Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Read: 18, May, 2011

In 1984, Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, were murdered in their home in American Fork, Utah. Eighteen years later, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. In both cases, the crimes were committed by Mormon fundamentalists who believed in the doctrine of Celestial (plural) Marriage.

In Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Krakauer investigates these two crimes, splicing in the Mormon story and the events that lead to the schism between the Fundamentalist church with the more mainstream LDS church. He also takes a hard look at some of the Mormon scriptures that the Lafferty brothers and Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, used to justify their actions.

In particular, Krakauer condemns the idea of continuing revelation, saying that it makes it possible for individuals to justify any action as revealed commandment from God. With this idea firmly entrenched in Mormonism, it is almost impossible for the more mainstream leaders to rein in the crazies. In the background, throughout all the narratives, patriarchal polygamy looms.

The book is very strong in its narrative, but doesn't set out to make a point or place blame. As a result, Under the Banner of Heaven couldn't legitimately be called an anti-Mormon book. It also meant that there wasn't a good sense of scale - How many women are currently in polygamous relationships? How many children are being raised in these families and, potentially, being forced into marriages themselves? How often are crimes relating to Mormon polygamy committed?

Overall, I found it to be a very good read. Krakauer is a great storyteller and the stories themselves are interesting (albeit difficult to stomach). And, while Under the Banner of Heaven does give a fairly clear picture of the specific individuals and events covered, it's hard to extrapolate that into any kind of knowledge about Mormonism or patriarchal polygamy.

Most quotable line: "If you want to know the truth, I think people within the religion, people who live here in Colorado City, they're probably happier on the whole than people on the outside. But some things in life are more important than being happy - like being free to think for yourself."

Godless by Dan Barker

Read: 5 March, 2011

Godless has been on my reading list for a very long time, but I somehow never got around to it. Finally, bored with a long string of novels and wanting to read something a bit different, I took it out of the library.

I got about a quarter of the way through before I realized that I had to own a copy - a copy I could mark up and keep forever and ever and ever (and possibly hug, pet, and name George). Yes, the book is that good. So I ordered a copy and then started back at page one, highlighter in hand.

The book is part autobiography and part argument in favour of Atheism (or, mostly, against Christianity), written by a former Evangelical preacher. It's divided into four parts: part one describes Barker's life as a Christian and part four describes his life as an Atheist, with the two middle chunks giving his arguments for transitioning from one to the other. It's at once a deeply personal novel, the story of one man's deconversion and his experiences, while at the same time serving the same general anti-theist and pro-atheist purpose as other Gnu Atheist books.

Richard Dawkins wrote the forward to the book, which was something of a shame. As much as I loved The God Delusion, Dawkins was never really a Christian - at least not in the same way that Barker was - and his perspective is just too different. As a result, he came at religion hard in his four allotted pages. He did this in his general anger towards the "tyrant," filled with justified indignity, but lacking the personal experience and scriptural knowledge that Barker would follow with. I found that it didn't strike the right chord for the book, and it really didn't contribute anything.

As I said earlier, Part One describes life as an Evangelical (and the deconversion experience that follows). In this section, Barker describes his beliefs as a Christian, trying to recapture and convey the feelings and ideas from the awkward position of now finding them ridiculous. This awkwardness actually made the section an even more enjoyable read, as Barker peppers his descriptions of his Christian life with hilarious (although at times rather sad) commentary.

Part Two was a weak point in the book for me. Barker tackled some of the more common arguments for God put forward by theologians (the ontological argument, Pascal's Wager, etc). Unfortunately, this has the effect of taking these arguments seriously - something that no one over the age of about four should be doing (I mean, really: "We can imagine a god, therefore God exists"? "Everything requires a cause, therefore there must be an uncaused first cause"? Good grief!). I also found that some of Barker's counter-arguments didn't make much sense to me, lacking in some logical steps. That being said, I fully admit to the possibility that the arguments on both sides might simply be over my head.

This section did include a chapter, entitled "Dear Theologian" which was written as a first-person letter from God to theologians. While it suffered from the same defects as the rest of Part Two, I did find the approach to be rather unique and interesting in its playfulness. It was certainly a novel way to present some of the common Atheist complaints!

Part Three focused on Christianity, and this is where Barker really shines as a contribution to the Atheist movement! This whole section was incredibly quote-heavy, as Barker drew from his in-depth knowledge of the Bible to offer up contradictions, moral issues, etc. It was so much more grounded and scripture-based than what I've read from other Atheists and I managed to run straight through two highlighters.

And finally, Part Four returns to Barker's personal experiences as he describes life as an Atheist. This section was quite a bit less interesting than Part One, lacking the same self-deprecating humour. Much of it read like a laundry list of the Freedom From Religion Foundation's accomplishments, which I I found rather tiresome. The chapter "Life and Death Matters" returned to some much more interesting philosophizing, although I have to say that, being pregnant, I could have done without his story about Annie Laurie Gaylor suffering from eclampsia.

I've been pretty hard on Godless, and there were certainly large portions that I ended up skimming, but the book as a whole is well worth the read! I've said this a couple times now, but I found it so much more targeted than other Atheist books I've read - Barker is writing from a position of insider knowledge of Christianity, and he's coming in armed with quotes. It felt as though he already knew all the objections, and he could address them preemptively. Authors like Dawkins and Harris have been great from a high-level, general criticism of religion perspective, but Barker is far more of an authority on Christianity. I found this incredibly valuable and interesting.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

Read: 4 March, 2011

I'm not a Jenny McCarthy fan. Most of my exposure to her has been through her anti-vaccination efforts, and I'm not really disposed to think favourably of someone who puts kids in danger like that - no matter how well-meaning they may be. But I had heard good things about her book, Belly Laughs. So when I saw it on the shelf at my midwife's office, I decided to purge myself of all negative feelings towards McCarthy and give her book a fair shake.

The first thing I want to say is that I only had about an hour to read it. I read pretty fast and it's a short book, but I definitely skimmed it - flipping ahead through chapters that interested me, etc. So anything I say is definitely going to be very "first impressions-y." This is not supposed to be a well-thought-out critique!

The point of the book is to reveal the gross and ugly side of pregnancy, the weird changes that are often glossed over. As I've said before, I think there's a lot of value to having this sort of discussion. Certainly for me, I found a lot of comfort in hearing about the really bad stuff because I felt like if I could wrap my head around that, nothing else will seem quite as bad.

As some Amazon reviews commented, Belly Laughs can get pretty crass. Again, this doesn't really bother me. I actually appreciate the "girl talk" tone McCarthy adopts. That being said, it was perhaps a little too much like a "girl talk" conversation, sometimes feeling as though she had written the whole thing in an afternoon. I think the book would have had a lot more value if, for example, each chapter had started with her personal experiences, and then followed up with some information (why it's happening, how to alleviate it, etc.). As it was, it might make pregnant women feel like they aren't so alone, but it won't do much more than that.

So I generally enjoyed the book. It was funny, it was rather interesting, but it had no real value. I would pity anyone who spent money on it, although a library check-out may be appropriate (actually, don't bother. Just sit down and read it right in the library. It's so short that you'll probably get through it and won't have to deal with the obligation of returning it on time!).

But there was one detail in the book that really bothered me - Jenny McCarthy apparently has a very negative body image. Worse, she seems to think that this is normal, or accurate. I suppose some of this may be due to where she lives and the type of career she's in, or perhaps to the fact that I live under a rock and have very little exposure to mass media, but I found it rather disturbing.

In one chapter, she's describing having sex with her then-husband, and how he couldn't possibly be turned on by her disgusting body! Personally, I don't think I've ever felt quite so sexy as I have while pregnant (and D certainly seems to enjoy the "beach ball," saying it's like I have an extra butt on the front - try scrubbing that image of marital bliss from your brain!). McCarthy describes with horror the discovery that she can no longer wear thongs (although she does discover how wonderfully comfortable regular underwear can be), and she berates herself for not "giving" her husband blow-jobs while she wasn't feeling up to having sex, as though sexual gratification were some kind of duty rather than a shared experience.

It made me sad to read - not just for McCarthy herself, but for the (perhaps correct) assumption that most of her readership will accept these sorts of things as perfectly normal.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Read: 6 February, 2011

Jordan Scott is a Lost Boy. As a teen, he was expelled from his polygamous community after being caught holding hands with one of his step-sisters. Now, he's just received news that his mother has been arrested for his father's murder. Thus starts an exposé of polygamy in Mormonism, both in the 19th century and today.

I found the historical fiction portions of this book very interesting. Ebershoff mingled the present-day mystery with "historical documents" to compare a modern day 19th wife to Brigham Young's famous 19th, Ann Eliza Young. What makes this technique so interesting is that the author will frequently re-write actual documents - for example, he writes several fictional chapters of Ann Eliza's real Wife No. 19. It's a weird approach that both adds a great deal of verisimilitude and makes it difficult to separate those parts of the novel that are fact from those that are fiction.

The modern portions of the novel were appropriately gritty - lending realism without being gratuitous. I particularly liked the choice of making the main character gay (and pursuing a relationship) without it being necessary for the plot. I hope to see more novels with gay main characters without the novel itself being about a gay main character.

When I had finished reading the novel, I was curious as to how Mormons have reacted to the less-than-flattering portrayal of the early LDS church, not to mention the sensitivity of mentioning Mormonism in the same context as polygamy. So I took myself to the chat feature on Mormon.org.

Unfortunately, the missionary I was assigned (a lovely young man named Tim) was not aware of the novel (and doesn't "really discuss books very often with friends either"). I would like to pursue the question a bit further and perhaps try my luck at another time, but so far my sample of one seems to indicate that the Mormon boat hasn't been rocked too deeply by The 19th Wife.

EDIT 1: Attempt #2 got me Nicole, who assured me that Ebershoff's book is "not accurate at all unfortunately," but not to worry because "the Book of Mormon is 100% accurate!" Hoorah!

Unfortunately, she didn't acknowledge my follow-up questions about whether she had, personally, read The 19th Wife or if her impression was just from what had been discussed in her community. Rather, she wanted to know if I had heard of the Book of Mormon, if I knew what it was, if I was planning to read it, yadda yadda. And so my search continues...

EDIT 2: Attempts #3-4 got me Sloane and Emily, neither of whom had heard of the novel. I officially give up...

Meeting David Sedaris

I saw a sign a while ago advertising that David Sedaris would be speaking at my local Chapters branch. I read Me Talk Pretty One Day several years ago while vacationing in Switzerland and scrounging through my father's large collection of pass-around books. I really enjoyed it and always intended to read more, but I just never got around to it. In any case, I was fairly interested to attend the event.

And then promptly forgot all about it.

That is, until a friend who also writes a book review blog just happened to review Sedaris's new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. Hoping I hadn't missed it, I looked it up online and found that it was going to be on the next day! I do love coincidences!

My husband picked me up from work and we went out to dinner and did a little New Year shopping. The event wasn't until 7pm and I finish work at 4pm, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. Of course, it was freezing and so at about 5:30, we decided just to go to Chapters and hang around until the event began. Good thing we did because the place was already pretty packed.

We bought a copy of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and then my husband left (due to his work schedule, he has to get to sleep early). So I was standing in line until my back started hurting too much and I sat on the floor.

More and more people were showing up, and someone asked the woman behind me if she could move up to give more people room. "There's a pregnant girl here," she said, perhaps a little indignantly. Then she leans down to me: "Honey, you just sit right there, okay? You can come up in front of me when we get close, but you don't have to move, okay?" I thanked her and the line moved on without me.

A minute or two later, another older woman leans down to me and says "they're getting a chair for you." I was rather surprised, and I asked her if she was the one who had told the staff to do so. "A pregnant woman shouldn't have to sit on the floor," she responded. Then I see it - the chair was floating above the crowd, slowly making its way in my direction. A short woman in staff uniform was carrying it raised above her head and trying to make it through the press of people. She put it down when she got to me and motioned to a young man also in uniform. "He's organizing the event. He's going to take care of you, okay?"

The young man took up the chair and told me that they were going to put me at the front, asking if that was all right. Who am I to say no? So we went through the crowd (something of a walk of shame, I felt like some VIP who doesn't have to obey all the rules for 'commoners'), and he set the chair down all the way at the front, extending the front row of seats so that I was sitting next to a security guard and a speaker. "Is it okay for the speaker to be here? Is this going to be okay?" asked the staffer. Are you kidding me? Like I'm going to fuss at this point!

It was still very early, with perhaps another hour to go before the official start of the event, when David Sedaris showed up. To keep things moving, he started signing books right away. An announcement was made that he would be staying until everyone had their books signed, no matter how long it took, but that there were two conditions: 1) No photography of any kind (close-up or from far), and 2) That to get a book signed, David Sedaris was requesting that we tell him a joke in exchange. I don't know if the first rule was David's or Chapters's, but I think it might be the latter since my book doesn't have an author portrait in it.

In any case, I was now in the first line, so I got to move up for the signing pretty quickly. I overheard him trying to guess people's Zodiac signs, which was rather funny because people sounded impressed when he got them right even though he was mostly getting them wrong. "I don't believe in astrology," he said. "But it's fun to try guessing."

The girl two spots ahead of me told her joke and David howled with laughter. When the next one came up, he asked her if she'd heard the joke. When she replied that she hadn't, he told it to her:

What did the pedophile say when he was released from jail? I feel like a kid again!

The person in front of my wanted a book-on-tape signed, so David pulled out his trousse and got a silver pen. He came prepared!

As I stepped up, he was talking about how he prefers listening to books on tape rather than reading them because it means he can get his ironing done at the same time. "You can read and iron at the same time, it just takes a bit of practice," I said - being an expert at doing chores one-handed since my university days offered me the choice between learning to do both or skipping out on one (sleep was already being minimized as far as it would go). "You can do that because you're a Sagittarius," he replied. I'm not.

"How many of these have you actually gotten right?" I asked.

"I'm not doing to well tonight, but..." He motioned to the Chapters events rep standing behind him, "she can back me up on this, I was getting them all right last night!"

"Oh yes," chimed in the woman. "I don't think you missed any!"

Then he asked me for my joke. I'd been thinking ever since the announcement was made, but I couldn't think of anything to say. In a panic, I said that I only know the ones about the two tomatoes crossing the road.

"Ketchup?" he asked. Yes. "Yeah... Listen, why don't I tell you a joke instead?" I failed. Here's the joke he told me:

Why does it suck having sex with Jesus? Because he's always trying to come into your heart.

So there you have it!

I went back to my seat and read Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk until 7pm.

He read the title story of the book, as well as a story about a fly eating vomit that was apparently excluded from the print version of the book (but is on the audio version) because his editors told him it was too gross. He played with two little sound-effects toys, then he recommended that we all buy a book called Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (saying that we ought to buy this book before any of his own) and read a few passages from it. To finish off, he read out some passages from his diary.

While I was listening to him speak, I kept hearing this snorting noise coming from the right. The only person there was a dour security guard. It was truly a mystery. So I decided to keep an eye on that guard (clandestinely, of course, because security guards don't generally like it when you stare...).

Sure enough, I soon caught him snorting, face all scrunched up, trying to keep control of himself. The poor man had an image to protect, and here was this author, this comedian, ruining everything!

It was a great night and I really enjoyed the experience. David Sedaris seems like a really nice guy - or, at least, a really good actor. I was also very impressed with the staff and customers who worked together to provide assistance to a complete stranger!

Pregnancy Books

Inspired by the joyous news that our friends are now expecting, I had a look at the "baby stuff" section of my library and discovered a couple pregnancy books that I had just completely forgotten about. I read them all cover-to-cover while we were trying to conceive and then they just went on the shelf. But before I re-gift them to the next happy couple, I thought I'd share a few impressions...

Dr. Spock's Pregnancy Guide, by Marjorie Greenfield: Very medicine-centred, although midwives and alternate caregivers are also mentioned. This book breaks the pregnancy down into week ranges, covering the changes you can expect in the baby, the changes in you, what you might be feeling/experiencing and what you can do to mitigate unpleasant experiences, and what your caregiver might do (tests, recommendations, etc.). It does cover many of the emotional aspects of pregnancy - such as mom's concerns, or dad's feelings - and tends to take a very 'medical'/OB approach. It does include little "parent to parent" boxes where people who are pregnant or have recently been share some of their experiences. It's a good way of humanising the material, I found. One thing that concerned me a bit - and this may be an issue of editions - is that some of the advice given in the book is dismissed in the materials I receive from my midwife. For example, the Dr. Spock's says that one benefit of getting an episiotomy is that it's much easier to stitch up than a tear, while the materials my midwife gave me say that episiotomies "start" a tear and actually make it more likely that force-tearing will occur. (Ladies, be ready for tons and tons of contradictory information. This seems to be endemic to the whole pregnancy discourse.)

The Mother Of All Pregnancy Books, by Ann Douglas: The great thing about this book is that it's written specifically for Canadian moms-to-be. One of the big frustrations about being Canadian is that it's so hard to find information that isn't coming out of the US. For many topics, this isn't such a big deal, but anything relating to health is so different between the two countries that very little practical advice from the US is applicable to us. So while there are certainly variations from province to province, this book at least gets it in the right ballpark.

I would say that, out of all the books, this was the most useful. It covers everything from "are you ready to conceive?" to "baby's home... now what?" I found the table of contents to be much more useful than the Dr. Spocks because it didn't just list the chapters, but listed the actual content as well. This made finding the parts I wanted to re-read much easier. I also found that there was a lot more emphasis on dealing with the emotional side of pregnancy. For example, a whole section is devoted to answering specific concerns (organized by trimester). I've also noticed that the advice given in this book tends to be closer to the advice I get from my midwife.

What To Expect When You're Expecting, by Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, and Sandee Hathaway (I have an older edition): A staple of every pregnant family's library, we bought What to Expect because doing so is as much a part of being pregnant as getting really really big. Much like Dr. Spock's, this book does break its advice down by stage (months, in this case). Each month gets an overview of the baby's changes, your changes, possible symptoms, what you can expect at your prenatal visits, etc. It also covers other topics in detail, such as diet, choosing a practitioner. I liked that it was more detailed than Dr. Spock's and broke its table of contents down in the same way that The Mother Of All Pregnancy Books does. The only thing I don't like about the month-by-month format is that there isn't really a "normal" pregnancy, and I can see areas where I experienced symptoms in the "wrong" month. If you're going to read this, don't just read the month you are on - rather, give the whole book a read-through at least once right at the beginning.

The Pregnancy Bible: I won't be getting rid of this one quite yet as I'm still making use of it. This book is much better illustrated than the other three (in that it's actually illustrated), with lots of glossy, full-colour photographs and artists' renditions. The downside, of course, is that the content isn't nearly as detailed. Other than a skim, I haven't actually bothered reading the whole book, since I simply wasn't finding anything new that wasn't covered far better in the other three books.

What I like about this book is the section on fetal development. Each week gets its own photograph (or drawn representation), along with approximate weight and size of the baby, and a little description of what changes the baby is going through ("Your baby is beginning to look almost human now, and her tail has nearly vanished," for example). It's been something of a tradition since we dated our pregnancy to sit together at the start of each week and read the relevant blurb.

If you are someone who learns through books, this should not be your primary resource. This is a fun book, not one you want to be getting most of your information from.

My Thoughts On Pregnancy Books

A co-worker complained to me that she couldn't read any pregnancy books because they made her worry too much. Any good resource is going to cover all the things that can go wrong, and if you have the kind of personality that will then imagine that everything is going wrong, you probably don't want to spend too much time with these books.

I'm the complete opposite. For me, reading about all the horrible things that can go wrong make me feel powerful, like I'll be ready if any of these things happen. If you're more like me, you'll probably want to read as much as you possibly can! Just make sure you know yourself and, if you find that you are getting overwhelmed, stop reading.

If you do read more than one book, you will find that there are many contradictions - often on matters that should be simply "is there or is there not?" questions. Do episiotomies prevent tearing or cause tearing? How complicated could that question possibly be? Very, apparently. So be prepared. My advice would be never to stick with a single source - read as many books/websites and talk to as many healthcare professionals as you can and make your own decision based on what seems the most plausible to you. That being said, be prepared to change your mind as you receive new information or experiences. The most dangerous thing, I would say, is to decide that one side has the "right" answer and to follow that even when it's clearly not working for you and your body.

The other thing you will likely notice is that these books can make you feel very guilty. Pregnant women sometimes have cravings and we just really really want that cheeseburger. We also have social obligations and find ourselves in our favourite restaurants knowing that we're not supposed to eat the things we like any more. My philosophy is this: Avoid the really bad stuff, eat healthy overall, and forgive yourself when you occasionally eat something that isn't so healthy. After all, if you're going to break your dietary ideals, you should at least be able to enjoy the experience! Thankfully, most pregnancy books nowadays will take this more flexible approach, but you will find some pretty crazy sticklers out there. Pregnancy comes with all sorts of symptoms and discomfort - guilt shouldn't be one of them. If a book is making you feel uncomfortable or excessively guilty, put it down.

The last thing I want to say is that you should avoid buying pregnancy books before reading them. We bought all of ours (except The Mother Of All Pregnancy Books, which was a gift) and I really regret it. As I said above, I read them all early on and then didn't touch them again. Whenever I have specific questions, I tend to turn to either my midwife or the internet, so I really haven't been using these as on-going resources. If I could do it over again, I would have borrowed the books from the library to read them, and then only bought those that I could see myself using more than once.

The End of Faith by Sam Harris

Read: 4 April, 2010

After years of being told that I absolutely had to read The End of Faith and seeing Harris's TED presentation on universal morality, I finally took the plunge and bought a copy.

The book is divided into two distinct parts: the first is what doesn't work, and the second is what Harris believes will work. What doesn't work is, of course, religion. This part reads like must other Atheist books that have come out in recent years. Harris devotes a portion to each major religion, a little different than some books, perhaps, in that he addresses the Eastern religions as well. Of course, his focus is on the two major troublemakers of recent year, Christianity and Islam. The chapter on Islam includes four pages of Quranic quotes that are racist, anti-tolerance, anti-apostate, xenophobic, etc. That alone makes this book a valuable addition to a debater's bookshelf!

The second portion deals with spirituality, and a way to integrate spirituality with Atheism. Harris is a proponent of meditation. Unfortunately, many of his assumptions regarding the workings of the brain run contrary to what I've learned, some making rather strange leaps of logic and some being downright silly. Harris seems to lose his credulity in his search for "something more." That being said, I can appreciate what he's trying to do even if I don't agree with him (or think he's gone loony).

He also has the nasty habit of dropping bombs without any explanation. He's presumably writing for a sceptical audience, so it seems strange that he wouldn't devote a bit more time to explaining the concepts that would set off sceptical alarm bells. For example, he says that "there also seems to be a body of data attesting to the reality of psychic phenomena, much of which has been ignored by mainstream science" (p. 41). This particular bomb is dropped without examples or explanation, just a list of book titles in the end notes (obscure books that neither my library nor my university has ever heard of).

There were some historical inaccuracies that bugged me. For example, he refers to Isis as "the goddess of fertility, [who] sports an impressive pair of cow horns." Well, I've never seen Isis with cow horns. Her symbol was a throne with an egg on top. The cow horns belonged to Hathor. These sorts of little details really pulled me out of the book and made me wonder how much else he may have gotten wrong.

Despite some carelessness and strange choices, it's a worthwhile read. I do appreciate that he attempts to 'fill the gap' after dismantling religion, and I would like to see more of this in the mainstream Atheist discourse. I simply don't see his replacement as being any more rational than that which he seeks to replace.