November 3 @ 7 pm at the Grand County Public Library: Author and Historian Barbara Jones Brown in conversation about her new book Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and its Aftermath

 

The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity.

Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders’ attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed.

The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee’s two trials, the second ending in Lee’s conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in the cover-up. And they trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed “Blood! Blood! Blood!” in his delirium as he was dying, more than sixty years after the massacre.

Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre’s few survivors: seventeen children who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated.

Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion.

Richard E. Turley Jr. was a long-time historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a co-author of Massacre at Mountain Meadows. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award and the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Turley also represented relatives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre victims in their successful petition of the federal government to grant National Historic Landmark status for the atrocity site.

Barbara Jones Brown is the director of Signature Books Publishing and former executive director of the Mormon History Association. She also provided content editing for Massacre at Mountain Meadows. She holds an M.A. in American history from the University of Utah and a B.A. in journalism and English from Brigham Young University. While researching her genealogy after beginning work on Vengeance Is Mine, Brown discovered that, like the earlier Mountain Meadows Massacre historian, Juanita Brooks, she is a direct descendant of one of its perpetrators.

 

✨Have you dreamed of being encapsulated by the sounds 🎼 of bliss in a cozy little bookstore 📙 in the middle of nowhere🏜? 

Celebrate with us TOMORROW NIGHT @ 7PM 🥳 LIVE MUSIC 🎤 in the back of BACK OF BEYOND BOOKS 📕 with D Jean-Baptiste 🙌

👇Take a gander at whats upcoming throughout the lusty month of May here👇
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My Friends by beloved author Fredrik Backman is a new work of fiction about 4 teenagers on a pier.  One day, one of the boys will paint a picture of them on this pier that will be called "The One of the Sea", and it will hang in a museum, but the majority of the story is about their lives at that particular bittersweet time. Loneliness, loss, and physical and emotional abuse are all central themes, which is why their hardscrabble gang holds so close to one another, laughing and fitting into each other's lives like missing pieces in the puzzle of Home.  Children and adults can parent and nurture one another through life at any stage, and we see that back and forth happening as well in a parallel story experienced by a young homeless foster child who collides in the present day with one of the teenagers now grown up.  Her chaos melts some of his adult anguish, and an unexpected friendship forms. Backman is known for drawing upon such themes, creating characters whose lives intersect so that life becomes more bearable, more joyful, and more hopeful amid dark days, garnering him a huge following of loyal readers internationally.  Who better to write about humanity right now?  It is certainly one of the most beautiful books I've ever read; I always say you will cry harder and laugh louder and longer while reading a Backman book than any other out there. My Friends will remind you of your oldest bonds and oldest wounds, and the force of friendship when you need it most!

✨Review by Julia Buckwalter✨

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✨Join us on an exploration of wildness, wilderness, darkness and light✨

As we move from inner and outer exploration to a deeper dive into wilderness and what it means to still be wild, we will be highlighting books and authors that have spent their lives witnessing wildness. 

✨First up Craig Childs’ literal and figurative journey from the light to the dark✨

"The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light"

"At a time when most people on Earth live in regions of acute light pollution, Craig Childs takes us on a journey to rediscover the awesome power of night itself.

Seeking not the absence of light, but the presence of the universe, master storyteller Craig Childs sets out to bike from the blinding lights of the Las Vegas Strip to one of the darkest spots in North America. A fearless explorer of both the natural world and the human imagination, Childs guides us on a quest to rediscover the heavens and to ask: "What does it do to us to not see the night sky?" The Wild Dark is at once an adventure story, a field guide, and a celebration of the awesome power of night itself, inviting us to look up and to look inward, eyes wide and sparkling with stars." 
~Source from Torrey House Press

Pre-order your copy directly from us here 👇
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And...

See what's happening Friday, May 30th at Star Hall with Craig Childs, Mark Sundeen and Amy Irvine here 👇
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