08 October 2013

Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven

I've started taking advantage of reserving books at the library. I can't believe it's taken me six years to finally stop buying books and start utilizing the library. I know all about the e-readers and how great they are, but I can't make the shift from books. I love the feeling of pages on my fingers. I love consuming pages and visibly seeing the number of pages get smaller and smaller.

I've been meaning to read Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer for several years (since 2002, to be exact). I loved his other book, Into Thin Air, and I'm a sucker for a book about religion.

Krakauer tells the story of the rise of Mormonism and fundamentalist Mormonism through the story of the Lafferty brothers. The brothers murdered their sister-in-law and niece in cold blood because they claimed God told them to. Krakauer doesn't openly judge the fundamentalist string of this religion, but the details he includes make it clear that he doesn't agree with polygamy and other fundamentalist aspects of Mormonism. There is no gender analysis or analysis in general. But the book is quite alarming in terms of how men treat women who follow this fundamentalist sect.

It's a good book and an interesting read.

3 comments:

emily -- a denver home companion said...

i could not put this book down!

also, you're just now using the library?! bravo! i hope it opens many doors for you and helps you save a lot of moola. libraries are the best.

life's a bear said...

Emily, I use the library for kids books, but our local library doesn't have the best selection for adults. I was too lazy to put stuff on reserve - until now. I'm a big fan of libraries. It's just pure laziness that kept me from using them more :).

life's a bear said...

Emily, I use the library for kids books, but our local library doesn't have the best selection for adults. I was too lazy to put stuff on reserve - until now. I'm a big fan of libraries. It's just pure laziness that kept me from using them more :).