Richard A. Van Wagoner's "Mormon Polygamy: A History," is very good (more detailed than Evans), as is "Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith," by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery. A good summary of the evolving'manipulated doctrinal history and narrative of the Mormon Church is "The Changing World of Mormonism," by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. In addition, Grant Palmer's "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" is simply devastating.
Assuming your TBM sib is a babe-in-the-woods believer, my choice, in order of building-block reading, would be:
1) "Keystone"
2) "Changing World"
3) "Mormon Enigma"
4) "Mormon Polygamy"
5) "Insider's View"
Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2013 01:44AM by steve benson.
Insider's View really opened my eyes. I was already well on my way out thoug and the book confirmed much of what I was already thjnking and gave understanding and validation to other doubts I didn't previously understand.
Keystone I say too........ but have they actually read the BoM without the blinders on? That did it for me a long time ago and learning about JS himself. But as far as modern works go, Arza says it well and it is well researched which should impress your sibs.
Insider's View gets my vote for first book. Very friendly reading and well referenced. Also he worked in CES for 34 years and was a member in good standing when he wrote it so that adds to credibility.
Definitely Insider's View. In 1 week it made my husband go from, "I will go to my grave never denying that the book of mormon is true!" to "Holy shit, that guy made the whole thing up!"
I would say that the greatest book for revealing the church as a fraud is the Book of Mormon, but for some reason people keep reading it, and thinking that they are okay with wooden submarines, steel bows, pre-Columbian American horses, and all the other nonsense in that book.
If a Mormon is willing to read ANY book, then it HAS to be Mormonism-Shadow or Reality by Jerald & Sandra Tanner. I read several "anti" books but that one is the one that finally did me in. It covers ALL problem areas of Mormonism (polygamy, blood atonement, adam-god, BofA, BoM, temple changes,masonry,First Vision, etc). The Changing World of Mormonism by the same authors is a more condensed version, which should work too.
Don't go with a book that only focuses on one topic, if they will read ANY book.
Another vote for Grant Palmer's book. I have more than 20 of these books now, and I still think Palmer's is the best I've ever read on the subject. It's easy to read, lots of pictures, covers all the basic issues, and you can get through it in a weekend.
No one has mentioned "Wife No. 19." I read that a few weeks after watching "Sons of Perdition." It was immediately clear to me that modern polygamy as practiced by the FLDS is the same as the way it was practiced 150 years ago (with some unimportant differences). It was further clear to me that it was an evil practice if ever there was one.
Sometimes a soft sell approach works best. Two books that started me thinking were Salamander and Under the Banner of Heaven. If you just give them a straightforward nonfiction work they may lose interest. Salamander and Under the Banner tell stories that are engaging and draw you in. Under the Banner of Heaven especially gave me a thirst to know more. I had a bitter taste in my mouth toward mormonism and fundamentalism in any religion after reading it.
One that hasn't been mentioned that I thought was fantastic was the book by the Ausie former bishop and biologist that discussed DNA and the Book of Mormon. I read that and could not believe anything that the brethren said again, nor could i believe in the BoM.
And I'm not just recommending it because I knew Brad many years ago when we both lived in Utah Valley in the early exmo gathering days. But I wish everyone knew him because he is so sincere.
This book tells the story of two brothers from a very large Utah Mormon extremely TBM family. They sort of independently discovered the truth about Mormonism and then found out each other had doubts and discussed it a lot. They both left the church. But it is such a great personal story that I know TBMs can relate to, because I've lent this book to people. It's about how they were the same people, but overnight they became different people to their family and friends.
But in the course of the story, they bring up the issues that they started discovering that made them question. Since it's not just an in-your-face list of the issues, but is worked into the human story, any TBM reading it finds out what the issues are and I think can put themselves in the place of these two brothers and what it must feel like to find that out. I've ordered several copies of this book because I've given it to other people and always like to have one on hand. I'm pretty sure it's still available on Amazon. And it's still the FIRST one I'd give someone because it might get them thinking about how they treat their apostate family members, whether or not they want to face the issues. But then they're hit in the face with the issues whether they like it or not.