Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Nov 16, 2010 Linnea rated it it was ok

Not sure if I'm going to finish this...the subject is really interesting, but it is moving pretty slowly and I'm not really getting into it. Not my favorite Krakauer book.

ETA
Interesting as a history of Mormonism, but overall pretty dry and I had a hard time getting through all of it. ...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Jaime rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, read-2005, philosophy-and-religion, mormons

I read this book as a matter of curiosity. It was actually recommended to us by my husband's brother, who is married to an ex-Mormon. And really, I’ve learned more about Mormonism in the last 5 years that I’ve known my whole live. And not just from my sister-in-law — my sister also married a Mormon. So, I feel like I came into the book with a little bit of information.

When my husband read the book, he thought it was about how Mormonism as a whole is a bad faith. That wasn’t the impression I got ...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Ann rated it really liked it

A woman and her baby are viciously murdered by a couple of Mormon fundamentalists who assert that God instructed them to carry out blood atonement. Krakauer gives an in-depth history of the Mormon church and the development of fundamentalist polygamist sects in order to shed light on the theological background and psychology of the killers.

Really fascinating, but at times I thought maybe it's not fair to god-fearing law-abiding monogamous Latter Day Saints to put their history into this context ...more

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