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Title: Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theolog
I watched Groundhog Day the other night. I’ve owned the DVD for years but never tore the plastic wrapping until Adam Miller put a bug in my ear via one of his theological essays. (It was just as good as I remembered it!) Miller, the theological film critic. I laughed when Phil, Bill Murray’s character, punched Ned Ryerson in the face at a busy intersection and I teared up as he fruitlessly pummeled the chest of a dying homeless man in a freezing alleyway. “Come on, pops, come on pops, don’t die on me.” Watching Phil struggle through incomprehension, laugh at absurdity, and find joy in relationships, reminded me a lot of reading Miller’s book. I’d already read great reviews of it, I couldn’t wait to get a copy. But I hit many more brick walls than I anticipated. This deceptively thin volume will take much more of your time than you might think. It felt at times like the alarm clock kept hitting 6:00 AM, February 2, and I was in for another round of difficulty. Not that all the essays were the same, but that they were each difficult in their own way. It’s way above my level to feel confident in doing this, but my review is an attempt to help readers like me have a better chance at making it through the book.

Book Review: A Book of Contradictions: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani.
Reviewed by Melissa McShane Valyenne E. Maetani.
Ink and Ashes. Tu Books, 2015.
Valynne E. Maetani’s debut young adult novel is a tightly-plotted thriller, with plenty of misdirection and tension. It’s also a story about identity, family, and love. This ought to make it weak, neither one thing nor the other. What gives this novel strength is the interconnection between the two stories. Claire, in tracking down the mystery of who her yakuza father was, grows to better understand who she is—sister, friend, daughter, and woman.
Claire is a strong, compelling character, intelligent, athletic, and dogged in pursuing a mystery. When, on the anniversary of her father’s death, she discovers a mysterious message that points to contradictions in the story she was always told about him, she sets out to uncover the truth about her father, her stepfather, and a mystery over a decade old. Claire is believable as someone who might go to any lengths to solve a puzzle, and her skills (including martial arts and lock picking), while unusual, are sufficiently justified to keep from being over the top.

The Latter Days: A Memoir. By Judith Freeman. Pantheon, 2016. 336 pages.
Reviewed by Darin Stewart
Judith Freeman’s The Latter Days is a remarkable memoir of an unremarkable life. The American novelist ticks all of the standard boxes when recounting her childhood – abusive father, distant mother, disowned sibling, youthful indiscretion – none falling outside a common coming of age narrative. She accomplishes nothing particularly noteworthy and does nothing particularly dreadful. What makes the memoir fascinating is the context in which these non-events occur. Freeman grew up in a small, uniformly Mormon town in 1950s Utah. That backdrop elevates her beautifully written narrative from mildly diverting memoir to insightful social and religious commentary.