Bookends

Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy by David Roberts

   

Devil's Gate is a non-fiction companion to a novel by Sandra Dallas called True Sisters about the same topic.  It explains how the worst disaster in the history of the western migrations became a symbol of the indomitable Mormon spirit.

Devil's Gate is an informative accounting of the push-cart companies along with a history of Mormonism. There were several migrations of Mormon pioneers who pushed handcarts containing all their worldly possessions from the mid-west to Salt Lake City. Many converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were from the British Isles and Scandinavia who had to pay their way. A traditional ox drawn covered wagon outfit cost about$300. Brigham Young designed handcarts, essentially large wheelbarrows, were a low cost alternative costing about $30.  Many companies were successful while a few faced tremendous difficulties resulting in starvation and even death. The title refers to Devil's Gate, a natural rock formation gorge on the Sweetwater River a few miles southwest of Independence Rock in Wyoming. It was where surviving Saints waited for rescue from volunteers out of Salt Lake City.

The novel, True Sisters, focuses on one company making the 1,300 mile journey while the other is a historical account of several migration companies along with background on Mormonism and its early leaders.  Many events and characters of the novel are taken from excerpts Roberts also uses from primary sources of memoirs and journals. The novel adds the feelings and emotions lacking in journals and dairies.  It's a great balance to read both.

 

Devils' Gate; TIGER Link: F593 .R54 2009 
True Sisters by Sandra Dallas; TIGER Link: PS3554.A434 T78 2012 

Living Buddhism by Andrew Powell

This is a good introduction to Buddhism as it is in the late 1980s in several countries: Tibet, China, Sri Lanka, South-East Asia, Japan, and India. Various schools of Buddhism are explained via their historical backgrounds and the underlaying fundamental philosophical concepts.  Additional focus on the contemporary situtations in each nation is discussed which, unfortunately, often includes the perilous position of practing Buddhism in those places. It is more an overview of the variations in each nation resulting in a sense of the religious expression rather than a deep exploration of the Buddhist traditions.

That said, following the foreword by His Holiness the Dali Lama, the first chapters provide an clearly understandable introduction to the basic tenets and life of the Buddha. Color photos, often full page and double page layouts, futher convey the richness of Buddhism's heritage. 

This large format, (meaning location in Oversized collection on the 3rd floor) is more than a pretty coffee table picture book; the photos are interesting to look at and the complementary accompany text  while providing Buddhist thought and practice manages to stay readable. There is  glossary to aid understaning of specific termonology and a bibliography pointing to other basic work on the subject. 

While it provides an excellent introduction for general readers, other readers already familiar with Buddhism will appreciate the pictures and clearity of destinctions between Buddhist practices.

TIGER link: BQ4022.P68 1995  Oversized

 

The God of the witches by Margaret A. Murray

First off, understand that this study of witchcraft in Europe is highly controvercial. While a best seller in its day, it has since been discredited by some more modern historians. Nevertheless, it is a classic sample of anthropology. Plus, it is written in a clear, accessible style = making it access and interesting read for all. 

Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthroplogist. In this book, she therorized that the trials against a witch-cult in the early modern period of Christianized Europe and North America were "an attempt to extinguish a surviving pre-Christian, pagan religion devoted to a horned God." She traces the worship of this Horned God from paleolithic times to the medieval period. Thus re-defining "witchcraft" as a surviving religion nearly as old as humankind now met up in a power struggle with the (new) Christian religion.  And makes a case in the last section of the book that the deaths of spiritual leaders such as Thomas a Becket, Joan of Arc, and Gilles de Rais were ritual in nature.

What I enjoyed is that is got me thinking about about an ancient and vital religion renamed "witchcraft." And how a newer religon might try to supplant an older one.

TIGER link: BF1566.M8 1970