The Women's Book of Mormon

by Mette Ivie Harrison

The central conceit of this book is that it is an oral history that women passed down from generation to generation, based on inspiration by God instead of genetic relationships or priesthood authority designations. The book is given to Christ at the end of the two volumes, when he appears to righteous Lamanites and Nephites waiting for him. I suppose at some point I might be interested in writing a third part that includes the stories of the end of The Book of Mormon, but I felt as I wrote it that this was complete in itself, because it was looking forward to Christ, and the story of the fall of these two peoples would have a very different tone

Genres: Religion, Fiction, Mormonism, Lds

206 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2020

About the author

My name is pronounced "Metty" like my mother's "Betty." It is Danish, and we were all named after ancestors. I guess by the time they got to number nine (out of eleven), it was getting tricky. So I got the funny Danish name no one knew how to prounounce. In Denmark, it should be "meta" like "metaphysical." It's from the Greek for "pearl." And no, it's not short for anything. Not even Mediterannean.

My first book, THE MONSTER IN ME was accepted for publication in 1999 and was published in 2002. My second book, MIRA, MIRROR was published in 2004. The latest book, THE PRINCESS AND THE HOUND , was published in 2007. A sequel, THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR, came out in April of 2009.

I now live in Utah with my husband and 5 children, ages 5 to 14. I write during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning. Whenever I get a chance. I love to write the kind of books that I love to read. And I love to discover what is going to happen next, just like a reader would. I also do some racing in triathlon.

from http://www.metteivieharrison.com/myli...

Reviews

[Genet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the premise of this book and I loved thinking about the women on the Book of Mormon in this way. I really enjoyed the first few chapters. There was a tenderness and love in the author’s storytelling that I found compelling.

However, the rest of the book was sadly underdeveloped and felt unfinished. It seemed as if they decided to publish the book even though it was not yet ready. There were lots of grammatical errors, stories where the author confused the names of characters as if she wasn’t sure about whom she was referring, and complete phrases completely missing from the middle of sentences. Some of the stories were confusing and hard to follow. And though I understand why the author tried to include stories about all kinds of women, it also meant that she imposed our current values and thinking on people of the past which made it feel much less realistic and compelling.

Even with all its challenges, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in women’s spirituality, if only because it will stir your imagination as you ponder the spiritual journeys of women whose stories have not yet been told.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Harrison's take on what the Book of Mormon record would say of it were to contain the words and stories of the women in addition to the men. This book gave me a lot to think about and helped me to ponder what it means to live a life directed by God. I would love a continuation of this book, as it does not cover the entire timeframe which is presented in the Book of Mormon.

[Liz Busby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what to make of this book

On the one hand, it falls into the genre of extending scripture stories into realism, expanding minor characters, making up new ones, questioning existing assumptions. This is one of my favorite genres. (Well, I guess I'm mostly thinking of Card's Women of Genesis and Stone Tables...)

I loved her idea that Abinadi was an illegitimate son of King Noah. In fact, I think the whole section of the people of Limhi is easily the strongest part of the book.

Her portrayal of Nephi really humanizes the god-like image we have of him. I was worried she was going overboard into making Nephi a fallen prophet, but I think she just skirts the line.

However, it also definitely felt like this book was an checklist of types of marginalized characters to include. I'm fine with including trans and gay characters, but they didn't really seem to have any purpose except to check a list. Then Heavenly Mother parts likewise felt forced to me and could have used more depth (except Sariah's vision, which is perfect). Maybe I'm wrong and it all just went over my head.

The other thing I struggled with was the pervasive negative tone. Maybe it's inevitable in telling a story about a patriarchal society constantly at war, but there were very very few stories of husbands and wives who get along and love each other, and many many stories of abusive, harsh, dismissive relationships. I can't say whether this is realistic to the time or not, but it definitely cast a very hopeless pallor across the whole book

The Women's Book of Mormon is an interesting experimental text. Just make sure you know what you're going in for!

[Kaylee Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow start but it continues to grow strong. The story follows along the Book of Mormon well with a few details and then "behind thr stories" sections. It highlights a lot of important points today regarding domestic abuse, gender, womens value, and more. I never thought of something like this being important growing up but now I am so glad to have read this. It was well written with some fun pieces and great insights. I connected with a few sections and disagreed with a few. Definitely made me think.

I love content from BBC Press but I will say that I ran into repeated errors regarding extra words, letters, and spaces. Mostly prevalent in The Book of Miri. Plus a few name mix ups when it came to Mosiah. (Just a warning because this used to drive me mad when I was younger)

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone familiar with the Book of Mormon is undoubtedly aware of how half the story is missing. The Book of Mormon mentions six named women (3 biblical characters and 3 original characters, two of which have speaking roles), one unnamed queen, and a few minor unnamed characters mentioned in passing. Harrison's The Women's Book of Mormon poignantly and painfully illustrates just how much Mormon scripture needs narratives that depict faithful, empowered women enacting their Christian discipleship. I don't know if that will come by a revelation regarding ancient Christian women or by canonizing the narratives of modern LDS women, but it can't come soon enough.

As for Harrison's work itself, the opening stories of Sariah and her daughter Miri and the concluding stories of queen Hesha and her people are the most compelling to me personally: Sariah's vision of the Fountain of Life, Miri's suicide attempt after struggling with singleness and the miracle that brought her back to life, Miri's gift of prophecy, the networks Hesha creates to care for the widows in her city, the stories of Hesha's people who were abandoned by the priests of Noah or who married Lamanite guards.

While the prose was quite rough in places, this stories were so compelling this book took me a year to get through. I found myself needing time to reflect on each woman's life before I was ready to move on to the next.

[Josh Higham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book. I was surprised by how it felt simultaneously subversive and totally natural to read stories of Mother God and uniquely female prophecy and ministry. My deep familiarity with the shape of the Book of Mormon narrative is beautifully complemented by this alternate imagining of the story.

The author states in the introduction that she believes the BoM to be inspired fiction, and in that spirit, her extension of the story is natural and prophetic. The narrative of the Women's Book of Mormon may be harder to engage with from a more orthodox, literal history understanding of the BoM, but I still strongly recommend it. I'm agnostic and fairly unconcerned with the literal historicity of the Book of Mormon, and am very comfortable with heterodoxy, so I'm not sure what a more traditional ready might find. The abundance of 3 star ratings may be the best available indicator.

I will note that BCC Press would have done well to provide more copyediting prior to publication. There are a lot of typos and other minor textual errors, which do not meaningfully detract from the meaning of the book, but they did jolt me out of the story--I think this book has the most unforced textual errors that I've seen.

[conor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the premise of this book and Mette's work to think about how a different record would have developed and what it would emphasize, filling in gaps in the story and narrative that the Book of Mormon tells. Provocative and inspiring for me to think about my own thoughts on alternative scripture that fleshes out, complicates, contradicts, confirms, etc. the various stories in the Book of Mormon (and other books I consider scripture).

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an empowering exercise think not just of the experiences of all those unnamed women in the Book of Mormon—but to think how our understanding of God and our relationships with each other would be different if our scriptures reflected women’s experiences and voices.

[Zachary Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was refreshing to read and I want it to be true.