http://www.amazon.com/Godforsaken-Idaho-Shawn-Vestal/dp/0544027760

So I ran across this book of short fiction on Amazon. It was pretty cheap so I downloaded it on my kindle. The author, Shawn Vestal, was raised in Mormonism so these stories contain some of those elements. I just started it but it's pretty entertaining. I thought I'd share.

I was raised in Mormonism and I feel like there's this chunk of me that will always be infected with it. I think about it like the chicken pox. When I was a kid I got the chicken pox along with several of my siblings and I got over it and I thought it was said and done. Well when I was 18 I end up at the doctor's office with this really painful rash and they tell me I have shingles. Then they explain to me that chicken pox never really goes away. It just kind of hangs in there, dormant until something triggers it and then it manifests itself as shingles.

I like to think my Mormon upbringing doesn't affect me today, but every once in a while it manifests itself. Sometimes I take a Mormon stance on something without having really made that decision for myself. Sometimes I tell people I'm sure the Bible says something when really it came from the book of mormon. Some of my heroes have taken their Mormon pox and written it all down so the rest of us can learn from them and feel less lonely.

This author used his mormon pox to write fiction in a Mormon setting so I'm kind of excited to see where it goes.

Also, I was relieved when I came across the F word shortly into the first chapter. Maybe it's just me. Maybe some of you will understand that relief.

Happy reading!

My sister and her family live around Gooding (Jerome, Wendell) and teach school in the area. My sister and her husband are still TBM. Their children are VERY MUCH not.

Joseph Smith Jr. in all his glory as a money-digger -- from the point of view of Emma's father.


I also here there's a tad bit of mormon theology (that never gets any press time) in another story ... namely that everyone is resurrected just as they died ... i.e. little babies on thrones of eternal glory.

I'm glad there's enough fodder in this book that may inspire some TBM into actual historical research ... even though this book is clearly a work of fiction.

This book is my test to see if I've recovered enough NOT to be interested.

Can anyone else guess who the TBMs are that comment on this book? (I know, I know, way too easy).

I'm still on the first story, which is the one where all the people end up in heaven exactly as they died. They also only get to eat food from their lifetimes.

... that was his favorite dish btw.

That's pretty disgusting.

OMG...his mother was my gym teacher in high school...I knew the family very well....his father, Reed, was quite the con man in Gooding. He moved there in the early 60's to manage the local dept store. He joined the mormon church, married this cute teacher, and pretty soon he was the darling of Gooding. Then, the department store caught fire one night after all the employees had gone home. Later it was determined that Reed had started the fire to cover up his embezzling for years from the store....he spent time in prison in northern Idaho, they got divorced, and I moved away from Gooding and lost touch with the family. So, Shawn is now an exmo...well, I'll be darned.

WOW..... well how about that!