Please suggest books that will open my husbands eyes. I have actually gotten him to agree to read one so it needs to "have him at hello". His main claim is that Joseph Smith is a prophet and I'm stuck in the past and just look how great Mormons are, etc.

Mormon America is a very good read for seeing the modern church as it really is.

Ed Bliss, A Friendly Discussion: Mormonism Pro and Con

Sharon Banister, For Any Latter-day Saint: One Investigator's Unanswered Questions
(see my review at http://packham.n4m.org/banister.htm )

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. What it did was make me comfortable that there was no Adam and Eve, no Garden of Eden, and therefore all the temple stuff was crap. Also, I don't believe in God now, anyway, but that's another discussion.

(And when I was posted to Africa, we used to have movie night with the local senior LDS missionaries. We showed the Guns, Germs and Steel DVD to them, which is much more watered-down than the book, and a couple of them protested because it portrayed the beginning of civilization so differently--no Adam and Eve, and it did not give the necessary nod to Lamanites and Nephites during the part featuring South America. So these LDS people really scooted up in their chairs and noticed.)

I get your point and this would be a good book for someone who was unwilling to read "anti-Mormon" books, but her husband actually said she would read ANY book that she gives him. I wouldn't blow it by giving him a book that isn't even about Mormonism.

More than 25 years ago I read -

Origins, The Emergence and Evolution of Our Species and Its Possible Future, 1977 by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin

I was active LDS but always interested in science. That book set the stage for me losing my belief in Adam and Eve, the Book of Mormon, etc. If Guns, Germs and Steel had been published back then I would have read it.

"You could also tell him that there are two so good you can't decide between them. It may help peak his interest to read choice number two as well."

I like this suggestion! Buy two books, tell him you have a hard time deciding which one to suggest for you, only commit him to read one and have the other one lying around but maybe he'll end up reading the other one too.

I meant to post this under blueorchid's comment...

We own that book and I have read it. He is able to divorce religion from common sense and still believe.

If he will ACTUALLY read it, then hands down its Mormonism-Shadow or Reality by Jerald & Sandra Tanner. It would be a MIRACLE if he had a testimony after reading that book. Its one of the most HEAVILY DOCUMENTED exposes hitting on all the main problems of Mormonism. (Book of Mormon archaeolgy, Book of Abraham, temple changes, masonry, blood atonement, doctrinal changes, adam-god, first vision, plural marriage, etc).

I was a hard core TBM till I read that book. One month later I had to admit to myself, "I don't think the church is true."

No Man Knows My History totally nails Joseph Smith and it is completely footnoted with sources, including court records, newspaper clippings, diaries, and on and on. Actual facts.

I have always heard Mormon-Shadow is amazing, but haven't read it.

My advice is, read a few of these book suggestions yourself first. You have a better chance than anyone to pick the right one for your husband. If he sees you mesmerized with your reading, that could make him want to see for himself.

You could also tell him that there are two so good you can't decide between them. It may help peak his interest to read choice number two as well.

All the best.

I would go with Insider's View of Mormon Origins. It was written by a mormon who was active at the time, but it's super hard hitting on all the major issues, one chapter for each, with copious references.

Make sure you've read the book first.

I take a different position.
Treat people the way I want to be treated.
Leave other people's beliefs alone.
It's not my job to try to change other people's beliefs.

Explain why your beliefs are different, only......if asked, otherwise, drop it.

I didn't start out with this position. I got there by trying all kinds of things, all of which didn't work and only caused friction in the relationship.

So now, I respect other people's RIGHTS to believe anything they want as they have the same RIGHTS I do.

I make it work with a believing husband. It's not necessary for us to agree.

I've written a long post on how I do it, if interested, I'll post it again.)

I know. I think you are the one with the Mormon husband who found peace with it. I would too but mine attacks me for leaving my Mormon faith and I get tired of him thinking I don't know what I'm talking about. At the same time I don't really want to take away his belief. It's tough but I know why you feel this way. I feel the same on some levels. I don't want to hurt him.

Start out "light"
Samual W Taylor: Heaven Knows Why....supper funny,
Night Fall At Nauvoo
Kingdom or Nothing (the last prophet)
and others. He wrote The absent minded professor for Walt Disney

Then go to, No Man Knows my History
Then some great stuff like
The age of reason. Thomas Paine
Carl Sagan,
Jarrod Diamond
and many more

"As a Mormon intellectual I would indeed be ungrateful if I didn't stand on my feet this day and bear my testimony in the original Greek". Ok now that's funny. I'm going to start out light and read that first. I will read ALL these stated here by you all.

Thanks everyone! I knew I could count on you.

Yep, "No Man Knows My History" by Fawn Brodie. It may be information overload for him though. Good luck!! From my personal experience, it was all in God's precious timing! No book or anything would have changed my mind if I hadn't been ready for it, whether I knew it or not. Best of luck!!

I'd recommend "Rough Stone Rolling" by Richard Lyman Bushman.

First of all it's written by a recommend holding TBM so your husband is probably more likely to read it.

Second, Bushman doesn't shy away from controversial issues like the seer stones in the hat, polygamy, borrowing ordinances from the masons etc.

Then you can stear him towards other books that at his current stage he may label as anti-moromon.