A Plain English Reference To The Book Of Mormon

This book reads on a 8th to 9th grade level, making it a useful tool for students of all ages. It was created to bridge the gap between the text of The Book of Mormon and the reading and/or word comprehension and/or signing skills of many people.

Not a "simplified" version of the Book of Mormon, but a completely rewritten paraphrase, with a contemporary voice hovering somewhere in the realm of J. D. Salinger, Hunter Thompson, and some generic humanist academic/poet, i.e., me. An affectionate, meditational dramatization and commentary. From the Introduction: "Why 'street-legal'? That's a term we use for souped-up cars—streamlined and powerfully efficient but also decorative, with decals, pinstriping, and tricked-out doodads—that still can be ridden in normal lanes of traffic. They're not cars meant for everyday errands, to be sure. Offroad is their normal habitat. But the only thing they usually lack to be 'normal' is a better muffler. This paraphrase of the Book of Mormon is like that. I've streamlined a lot of passages, put them in terse, up-to-date vernacular, thinking that's what one would have done if one were scratching the book out on metal plates. I've tried to muscle up the prose. But I've also added lots of linguistic decals: digressions, snippets of commentary, queries, and even humor, which the original editor, Mormon, apparently cut."

Retells the Book of Mormon in simple modern English.

In Having Visions, the author presents an objective, respectful, and faithful translation of its content, accompanied with an historical and scientific context for understanding its insertion into the body of human affairs. In The Book of Mormon, the ancient American prophet Mormon presents the history of his people, the Nephites. The intent of the present book is to present "his story as told," and its relationship to "history as known," without altering its essence. It should be noted that exhaustive archeological, genetic, and linguistic research has been undertaken by both proponents for, and detractors of, the existence of the Nephites. So far, no evidence supporting the claim has ever been found for any place, person, or event mentioned in The Book of Mormon, while abundant contradictory evidence has been discovered and independently verified.

Traces the tragedy-marked 1856 journey of three thousand Mormons from Iowa to Utah, explaining how leader Brigham Young disregarded warnings and then convinced his followers that hardships and deaths were part of a higher plan.