What fell miraculously into Bob Lewis's lap, or rather his backyard, was a heap of tin that turned out to be the long-lost diaries of that old Book of Mormon malcontent Laman, the oldest and most misunderstood of Nephi's brothers. After all these years (2,541 to be exact), Laman finally gets to tell his side of the story. The Lost Plates of Laman will amuse and delight anyone who has a nagging desire to know more about their spiritual heritage.

Mette Harrison is one of the best-known Mormon authors currently writing about Mormonism for a national audience. Her Linda Wallheim mystery series (The Bishop's Wife, His Right Hand, For Time and All Eternities, and, one hopes, many more to come) marks the first time ever that a strong and intelligent Mormon woman (or any other kind of Mormon woman for that matter) has had a starring role in a nationally marketed mystery series. In The Book of Laman, Harrison takes a concept that others have used for a quick joke-the idea of narrating the first part of the Book of Mormon from Laman's perspective-and turns it into a serious and profoundly moving story of redemption that has the ability to make us all better readers, and, more importantly, better people. From the Forward The central conceit of The Book of Laman-telling the story of 1 Nephi from Laman's perspective-seems like a perfect device for a funny book. Indeed, Bob Lewis used it precisely this way in his satirical 1997 novel, The Lost Plates of Laman. Here we see all of the jokes implied the first time we hear that Laman is the narrating the Book of Mormon: the villain becomes the hero, and the hero becomes an insufferable know-it-all, the archaic language is peppered with anachronisms and modern values, and the devotional content of the original text is sacrificed on the twin altars of mocking Mormon weirdness and having a grand time. But Mette Harrison's Book of Laman is not funny. It does not try to be funny. It doesn't use intentional archaisms to make fun of the Book of Mormon's language; rather, it tells its story in a non-distracting modern style. The characters are not simply reversed. Nephi is sometimes an annoying brat, but he is also a real prophet who sees and speaks for the Lord. Laman is neither a comic book villain nor a long-suffering ironist. He is a flawed human being struggling to live well and usually coming up short. And in some of the book's very best scenes, he is touched unexpectedly by grace and God. Harrison's characters are the sorts of people who might actually have existed in history. She does not naturalize the miracles in the Book of Mormon-there really are angels and visions and smiting and all the rest-but she humanizes the actors. And this is important, as it corrects for a reading bias that plagues Latter-day Saints. Simply put: we want the Book of Mormon to be history, not fiction, but we expect the people in it to act like characters in a (not very good) novel and not as the kinds of people who have actually ever existed.

It was a gruesome crime scene. His beloved father was beheaded, and the prime suspect is his best friend, Nephi. Will justice be served? Will he avenge the murder of his father? Join Laban the younger on an epic journey from Jerusalem to the American continent in search of Nephi the murderer. The Book of Zelph is the world's most true book. It is the real-life story of the founding of America from the perspective of the Lamanites, the principal ancestors of the Native Americans.

The Sealed Portion-Another Testament of Jesus Christ is the second part of the Book of Mormon, which millions of people throughout the world accept as the word of God along with the Bible. Joseph Smith, Jr. (1830), the founder of the Mormon faith, claimed to have received gold plates from an angel of God named Moroni. When he received the plates, Smith relates that 2/3 of them were sealed. The angel Moroni commanded him not to break the seals, but to translate only the portion of the plates that was unsealed. It was prophesied that the sealed portion of the plates would one day be given to the people of the world. Using two stones called the Urim and Thummim, Joseph Smith translated the unsealed portion. Before returning the plates to the angel Moroni, Joseph showed them to several others. These men gave their personal testimony as witnesses to the existence of the plates and to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Claiming to have received the same instructions to translate the sealed portion of the gold plates, an obscure man, once an active member of the LDS faith, who goes only by the name of Christopher, has published the remaining sealed portion. Though others have made similar claims before him, none has ever testified that he received the Urim and Thummim that was prepared by God to translate the plates, and none has made claim that he has received the exact same gold plates that were in Joseph Smith's possession-except for Christopher. This book is a result of that translation. The Sealed Portion-The Final Testament of Jesus Christ, written by Moroni, relates the vision seen by the Brother of Jared. Within the pages, the entire history of mankind is covered. It begins with the kingdom where the spirits of the children of men were first created, and continues through until the end of the millennium, when the earth will be restored to a state similar to the garden of Eden, and the planets will be prepared as the degrees of glory in the kingdom of God. The most accurate and precise account ever given of the life of Christ is contained within the pages, including his early years with his family, his youth, baptism, marriages, mission, and death. Moroni explains the atonement, the LDS temple endowment, and some of the hidden symbolism of the book of Revelation. He recounts the prophets Ubaid, Zarathustra, Antioch, Socrates, Sythipian, Mohammad, and Joseph Smith, Jr., among others. The histories of the Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Romans, and Americans are also covered. Also given is the in-depth and beautiful description of Jesus' intercessory prayer among the Nephites and the Lamanites on the American continent. Along with the translation of the sealed portion, the first part of the gold plates that was translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. and subsequently lost by his scribe, Martin Harris, is also included in this extraordinary work. This part is known as the Book of Lehi (the lost 116-page manuscript). The full text of Joseph Smith's reported First Vision, in which he claims to have been visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ, is also included in the book. The reader is lead from blindness into the light as he or she discovers the truths written within these pages.

Part I of this book gives an abridgment of the record of the prophet Lehi, which was the first book engraved upon the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. The original Book of Lehi, which was translated by Joseph Smith in 1828, was stolen and became lost from the Book of Mormon. Since that time they have simply been referred to as the lost 116 manuscript pages. This plain abridgment of the record of Lehi answers several questions about the origin of the Book of Mormon. For instance, it explains the connection with Egypt, revealing that Lehi was a Jew, or rather an Israelite, from the land of Egypt. It reveals that Labans plates of brass were actually Lehis plates of brass that were made by his people in the land of Egypt. As well, it reveals that the land of their inheritance is simply their house and farm, which was near Hebron in the land of Judea. Since this is from the personal account of the record of Lehi, he describes the nature and function of the Liahona, the making and composition of the metal plates, and their building the ship of Nephi at Bountiful. Lehi further explains something about the characters of their language which were inscribed upon the metal plates. The characters had been developed by his forefathers who were Israelites living in the land of Egypt, which were unique to them, and they cannot be proved to the world. Part II of this book describes a simple and realistic model for the unknown geography of the Book of Mormon. After all these years the actual geographic setting for the locations found in the Book of Mormon has not been understood. If the account in the book is true, then there is a real geography to be found, as well. The author believes that he has discovered a simple and realistic answer to the question of the Book of Mormon geography. The author has a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and believes that those were real lands, and cities, and events that were so faithfully recorded therein. He wishes to make those places and events more realistic to people when they read and study the Book of Mormon.

Mark Twain once derided the Book of Mormon as "chloroform in print." Long and complicated, written in the language of the King James version of the Bible, it boggles the minds of many. Yet it is unquestionably one of the most influential books ever written. With over 140 million copies in print, it is a central text of one of the largest and fastest-growing faiths in the world. And, Grant Hardy shows, it's far from the coma-inducing doorstop caricatured by Twain. In Understanding the Book of Mormon, Hardy offers the first comprehensive analysis of the work's narrative structure in its 180 year history. Unlike virtually all other recent world scriptures, the Book of Mormon presents itself as an integrated narrative rather than a series of doctrinal expositions, moral injunctions, or devotional hymns. Hardy takes readers through its characters, events, and ideas, as he explores the story and its messages. He identifies the book's literary techniques, such as characterization, embedded documents, allusions, and parallel narratives. Whether Joseph Smith is regarded as author or translator, it's noteworthy that he never speaks in his own voice; rather, he mediates nearly everything through the narrators Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. Hardy shows how each has a distinctive voice, and all are woven into an integral whole. As with any scripture, the contending views of the Book of Mormon can seem irreconcilable. For believers, it is an actual historical document, transmitted from ancient America. For nonbelievers, it is the work of a nineteenth-century farmer from upstate New York. Hardy transcends this intractable conflict by offering a literary approach, one appropriate to both history and fiction. Regardless of whether readers are interested in American history, literature, comparative religion, or even salvation, he writes, the book can best be read if we examine the text on its own terms.

Renowned historian Richard Lyman Bushman presents a vibrant history of the objects that gave birth to a new religion. According to Joseph Smith, in September of 1823 an angel appeared to him and directed him to a hill near his home. Buried there Smith found a box containing a stack of thin metal sheets, gold in color, about six inches wide, eight inches long, piled six or so inches high, bound together by large rings, and covered with what appeared to be ancient engravings. Exactly four years later, the angel allowed Smith to take the plates and instructed him to translate them into English. When the text was published, a new religion was born. The plates have had a long and active life, and the question of their reality has hovered over them from the beginning. Months before the Book of Mormon was published, newspapers began reporting on the discovery of a "Golden Bible." Within a few years over a hundred articles had appeared. Critics denounced Smith as a charlatan for claiming to have a wondrous object that he refused to show, while believers countered by pointing to witnesses who said they saw the plates. Two hundred years later the mystery of the gold plates remains. In this book renowned historian of Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman offers a cultural history of the gold plates. Bushman examines how the plates have been imagined by both believers and critics--and by treasure-seekers, novelists, artists, scholars, and others--from Smith's first encounter with them to the present. Why have they been remembered, and how have they been used? And why do they remain objects of fascination to this day? By examining these questions, Bushman sheds new light on Mormon history and on the role of enchantment in the modern world.