LDS (Mormon) Reading List
Recommended Reading List
I have read too many books on Mormonism to list them all. I have, therefore, opted to mention only twenty of them here. All of the following books are written in a scholarly manner. I promise you and each of you, that if you randomnly pick and read five of the following, it will greatly enhance your knowledge and alter your view of Mormonism. If you want my advice, I’ve selected five for you, which are shown in bold.
Biographical:
Rodger I. Anderson, Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Reexamined (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1990)
Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith rev. ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945, 1971)
John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bisphop, John D. Lee (1877; reprint ed., Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, n.d.)
Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith. Prophet’s Wife, “Elect Lady,” Polygamy’s Foe (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1984)
Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1994)
Doctrinal:
Gary James Bergera, Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1989)
Culley K. Christensen, M.D., The Adam-God Maze (Scottsdale, AZ: Independent Publishers, 1981)
Margaret & Paul Toscano, Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1990)
Historical:
Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis, Brigham Young University: A House of Faith (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1985)
Stephen C. LeSueur, The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987)
H. Michael Marquardt & Wesley P. Walters, Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1994)
Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1989)
D. Michael Quinn, The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1992)
D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1994)
Mormon Scriptures:
Charles M. Larson, …by his own hand upon papyrus: a New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 1992)
Brent Lee Metcalfe, ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1993)
B.H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon (University of Illinois Press, 1985)
David Persuitte, Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1985)
Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1986)
Dan Vogel, The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1990)