Locally published books

NO PLACE TO CALL HOME: THE 1807-1857 LIFE WRITINGS OF CAROLINE BARNES CROSBY, ed. by Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne and S. George Ellsworth, Utah State University Press, 592 pages, $29.95, hardcover (photos and maps). In 1834, Caroline Barnes married Jonathan Crosby, and soon after, they converted to the LDS Church. As they moved from Canada to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Indiana, Nauvoo and Utah, Caroline kept a copious journal. After only two years in Utah, they were called to do missionary work in French Polynesia and afterward settled in San Bernardino, Calif., before returning to Utah. This is probably the greatest journal contribution by a woman of her time; it is candid and detailed about everyday life.

OPENING THE HEAVENS: ACCOUNTS OF DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS, 1820-1844, ed. by John W. Welch, BYU Press and Deseret Book, 500 pages, $32.95. A collection of historical documents about key events in the organization of the LDS Church, i.e., the First Vision, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the priesthood, the delivery of priesthood keys in the Kirtland, Ohio, Temple and the passing of the mantle of leadership from Joseph Smith to Brigham Young.

GOD AND COUNTRY: POLITICS IN UTAH, ed. by Jeffery Sells, Signature Books, 356 pages, $34.95. This is an interesting collection of 17 articles about church and state written by such intriguing people as Peer Appleby, Jan Shipps, Gov. Calvin Rampton, D. Michael Quinn, John J. Flynn, L. Jackson Newell and Edwin Firmage.

JUNIUS & JOSEPH: PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND THE ASSASSINATION OF THE FIRST MORMON PROPHET, by Robert Wicks and Fred Foister, Utah State University Press, 328 pages, $45.95 hardcover ($24.95 softbound). This book takes a revisionist view of the history of Joseph Smith's presidential bid in 1844 and his assassination, suggesting a role for Illinois political leaders. The thesis of the book is that rather than a mob uprising, the assassination was "a carefully planned military-style execution."

LOSING A LOST TRIBE: NATIVE AMERICANS, DNA AND THE MORMON CHURCH, by Simon Southerton, Signature Books, 270 pages, $24.95, softbound. The author is an Australian molecular biologist, who argues that the standard line of anthropologists that Native Americans are originally from Siberia and Polynesians from Southeast Asia is correct based on DNA evidence. Southerton ties theology to science in this volume.

THE SECRET JOURNAL OF BRETT COLTON, by Kay Lynn Mangum, Deseret Book, 334 pages, $15.95, softbound. This is a first novel for LDS readers by Mangum, who studied English literature at Southern Utah University. The story centers on Kathy Colton and her brother Brett, whom Kathy knows was not perfect even though he died of leukemia at 17. She discovers his hidden journal, which was intended just for her.