Out of the Best Books

For Latter-day Saints, few promises run deeper than the hope of being sealed to those we love. It's a covenant that stretches beyond the grave, carrying the assurance that families can be bound together forever. And yet, Anthony and Cindy Sweat write that the temple sealing is also one of the most daunting, mysterious, and misunderstood ordinances of the Church. So what makes a temple sealing different from a worldly wedding? Beyond clothing or ceremony, it's a covenant designed for eternity. While modern marriage often centers on romantic love, eternal marriage is anchored in the charity of Christ — a love that endures forever. Today's words come from Anthony and Cindy Sweat's newest book, The Holy Sealing. The third volume in a best-selling series, it explains what sealing accomplishes, why it matters, and the blessings it brings. Whatever your circumstances, it offers clarity, comfort, and confidence in the Lord's plan to unite His eternal family. Find The Holy Sealing: Uniting the Eternal Family of God on Deseret Bookshelf + or at any Deseret Book store.

The world's suffering can feel overwhelming: wars, natural disasters, and cities stricken with poverty. And in the face of it all, it's easy to wonder how we can possibly chip away at such enormous problems. That's the question Sharon Eubank takes on in her book, Doing Small Things With Great Love. Her message is powerful and hopeful for the average person who wants to make a difference. Sharon makes the case that true humanitarian service doesn't require a passport or a plane ticket. More often, it begins with what's right in front of you. Find Doing Small Things With Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians Are Changing the World on Deseret Bookshelf + or at any Deseret Book store.

The Latter-day temple experience may seem abstract and hard to grasp, but author and professor Anthony Sweat offers a different way in—making the temple endowment more vivid and tangible. In his book, The Holy Invitation, Professor Sweat tells a fictional story that frames the temple endowment as a 'sacred rehearsal,' an intentional preparation for the very real day when we will stand before God Himself.  Find The Holy Invitation: Understanding Your Sacred Temple Endowment on Deseret Bookshelf + or at any Deseret Book store.

In a church that teaches us to "always abound in good works," it might feel a little unusual to also have a commandment to "be still."  We're a people who love to do! And yet, woven deeply into our faith is a divine invitation to stillness. In the chapter you're about to hear, the authors of The Power of Stillness —Carrie Skarda, Jacob Hess, Kyle Anderson and Ty Mansfield—explore how slowing down, helps us connect with God.  In fact, they invite us to experiment with a state of 'non-doing' to find our higher selves. Find The Power of Stillness on Deseret Bookshelf + or at any Deseret Book store.

For many of us, peace is something we imagine as a life void of opposition and tension. A calm home. A quiet heart. A life where nothing rubs, nothing breaks, nothing hurts. And while this is certainly aspirational, we know that life has inevitable conflicts. So as followers of Christ, we want to learn not to avoid conflict but instead transform ourselves into people who can navigate disagree, tension, hurt, and disappointment in the way that the Savior would.  Chad Ford has spent his life in the middle of some of the world's most painful conflicts—from war zones to family disputes—and he's learned that real peace requires work and mediation. And today, he's going to help us see that the call to be a disciple is, at its heart, a call to be a reconciler.  His new book is titled 70 x 7: Jesus's Path to Conflict Transformation and you can read it for yourself on Deseret Bookshelf + or at any Deseret Book store.

In his brand-new book, Learning to Listen, Elder Dale G. Renlund compares hearing the Holy Ghost to the delicate art of listening through a stethoscope. We are diving into Chapter 12: Feeling the Savior's Love.   In this chapter Elder Renlund draws from his career in cardiology and offers a prescription for the Latter-Day Saint who longs to better feel God's love. A patient's heart beats whether the cardiologist is listening or not— just as the Savior's love is constant--whether or not we feel it. But if the stethoscope is placed in the wrong spot, or the settings are off, the heartbeat is easy to miss.  So when we can't seem to feel God's love, it may be time to 'figuratively rotate the stethoscope,' to adjust the way we're listening until His love comes through loud and clear.   For more from Elder Renlund you can download Deseret Bookshelf+. Or find Learning to Listen at a Deseret Book store near you.

It's common for many of us to unconsciously subscribe to a prosperity gospel. That if we follow with exactness God's commands, we'll receive a life void of strife. One where there is no unpleasantness or unmet expectations. Yet this is not taught anywhere in the gospel, and it's actually an incorrect interpretation of what God's love and mercy looks like.  This episode helps reframe what we might have misinterpreted or misunderstood about gospel doctrines. Camille Fronk Olson joins the interview and makes the claim that if we uncover these unfounded interpretations of the Gospel and learn truly what the Savior's grace and love looks like, we'll better come to see that disappointments and unwanted detours will lead us to a life better than what we could've ever imagined.  Camille is a professor emeritus of ancient scripture and former department chair at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. She is the author of But if Not: Finding God in Unmet Expectations and Unwanted Detours. You can download the audiobook now by heading to Deseret Bookshelf+

Many of us go through life with certain expectations—about relationships, about blessings, about what it means to live a faithful life. But life often doesn't play out the way we planned. People we love make choices we wouldn't choose. Pain enters in ways we didn't anticipate. And we may start to wonder: If God loves us, why does such opposition exist?  In her new book, But If Not: Finding God in Unmet Expectations and Unwanted Detours, Camille Fronk Olson explores this tension between agency and expectation. This episode features chapter 5, "Agency vs. Expectations," where she offers a deeply compassionate look at how respecting others' agency doesn't mean surrendering our own—and how God's respect for our agency is a sign of His love, not His absence.  Listen to the entire audiobook by downloading Deseret Bookshelf+ in the app store today!

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we care deeply about agency. It's part of our purpose. We believe we came to earth to choose—to grow, to become, and ultimately to return to God because that's where we want to be. But what happens when our choices bring suffering? Or when suffering finds us through no choice of our own? And what do we make of grace—not just as a backup plan for when we fall short, but as something more foundational?  In Original Grace, Adam Miller invites us to rethink the way we see grace—not as a response to sin, but as the starting point of our relationship with God. Rather than working within the traditional Christian framework of original sin, Miller asks: What if the Restoration is actually calling us to root everything in original grace?  This is Chapter 2 of Original Grace by Adam Miller. If you want to hear the entirety of his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can find the audiobook and ebook. You can also find it at your local Deseret Book store or deseretbook.com.

As believers but also as people with natural man tendencies, we sometimes struggle to really know what God's love feels like. We often wrestle with the question, does God love me? Am I loved? That's a question we want to approach in this episode. It's core to the human experience to want—and need—love. God promises us His love. So why does it sometimes feel like we don't have it?   Wendy Ulrich joins the podcast to share her research on how we may not feel God's love at times because we, perhaps unknowingly, have built in some misconceptions about how God's love works based on our own human relationships and experiences. Wendy Ulrich is a psychologist whose book Let God Love You: Why We Don't, How We Can has prompted this discussion. Read Wendy's book on Deseret Bookshelf+ or head to your local Deseret Book store for your copy today.

Theosis, or becoming like God, is the kind of weighty topic that may not come up every week in Sunday School, but has more to do with our daily devotion than you might think. Author Daniel Belnap gives biblical precedent for this belief and in the chapter we are opening to today, he connects that belief with the most basic gospel principles.  Professor Dan Belnap is an educator and author of many books including the new entry in the Let's Talk About… series about the topic we are addressing today. If you want to download his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can listen to Let's Talk About Becoming Like God and the rest of the Let's Talk About... series. Or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book store.

When President Nelson calls on us to stay on the covenant path, it is easy to think about a few steps along that journey, baptism, temple ordinances, marriage. But what is the end point of that lifelong path? Our celestial destination is one of the less understood points of LDS theology, and in this episode, a professor of ancient scripture helps put it into plain words that every member and curious believer can better understand the doctrine of becoming like God. Professor Daniel Belnap is an educator and author of many books including the new entry in the Let's Talk About… series about the topic we are addressing today. If you want to download his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can listen to Let's Talk About Becoming Like God and the rest of the Let's Talk About... series. Or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book store.

Perhaps as curious believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we may have all had this question: what is truth? It's a wrestle that many of us have felt, and it's one that is soul-deep as we're seeking to grow closer to Jesus Christ. How do we navigate the quiet and simple truth that comes from God against the noisy onslaught of "untruth" that comes from the world?  It's something that this episode faces head-on. Dr. Aaron Franklin joins the podcast. He is a scientist, professor, and author of a new book What is Truth? Navigating a World of Faith, Science, and Noise. Dr. Franklin promises strategies for discovering, holding on to, and cherishing the most powerful and sacred truth. Listen to or read Aaron's ebook on Deseret Bookshelf+ or head to your local Deseret Book store to pick up your own copy today!

We have been given the gift of curiosity and discovery, and something all of us as Latter-day Saints share is the desire to know truth. It started with Joseph Smith asking that very question, and perhaps we've all had our sacred grove moments. If you've found yourself asking, "what is truth? How do we cut through the noise of the world and the many "untruths" that are out there and find the true peace and rest that comes from placing Christ at the center of all our seeking?" You're not alone. That's the question that Dr. Aaron Franklin set out to break open in his book What is Truth? Navigating a World of Faith, Science, and Noise. He's a scientist, so in his book, he approaches and offers strategies on discovering, holding on to, and cherishing the most powerful and sacred truths—all that come from keeping Christ at the center of his pursuit.  In this chapters episode, you'll hear chapter 6, "Discerning Truth amid the Noise." Dr. Franklin shares strategies for developing discernment, trusting in ourselves, having patience with the Lord, and a few other strategies to help us find peace and calm in today's world.  Download Bookshelf+ now to listen to the entirety of this book, or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book store!

Finding a reliable source to learn about the temple can be difficult. We know the temple is meant to bring us closer to God, but how do we study what we learn there? Anthony Sweat's book The Holy Covenants explains the motivations of Covenants in a matter of fact way. For anyone preparing to go to the temple for the first time, or finally looking to analyze what we learn about God in those walls, it is a great companion. Today we are playing an excerpt from Chapter 3: The Why of Covenants. You can pick up your copy of The Holy Covenants at your local Deseret Book store or listen along with Professor Sweat as he reads the audiobook on Deseret Bookshelf Plus. And watch out for a follow up to this book in the fall co-authored by Anthony and Cindy Sweat titled The Holy Sealing: Uniting the Eternal Family of God.

Since it's founding more than 150 years ago, the Young Women organization of the Church has influenced millions of women across the globe. And at the center of their mission is to draw from and contribute to the good things of the world.  Carry On provides an incredible history of the creation and development of the Church's Young Women's program. Lisa Olsen Tait is a co-author on this history and she is the managing historian for women's history at the Church history department. She was also the general editor and historical advisor on the Saints series. You can find more information about this project by visiting the Church Historian's Press website at https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/young-women?lang=eng.  And pick up your copy of Carry On: The Latter-Day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870–2024 at your local Deseret Book store. Or check it out on the new Deseret Bookshelf Plus App.

When the scriptures tell us that "men are that they might have joy", do we believe it? Learning and growing from trials are a part of life and today we are focusing on the intersection between joy and the hard things. Sunny Mahe has seen her fair share of tough moments and has kept her sunny disposition throughout it all. She shared some of her experiences in a message captured in Made for This. It's a compilation of talks for women by women including words from Sheri Dew, Patricia Holland, Melissa Inouye and more.  You can pick up your own copy of Made for This: Inspiring Messages for Women now! Or download the Deseret Bookshelf Plus app for more podcasts, audiobooks, and ebooks from these authors and more.

The house of the Lord is just that, His house. In her new book An Endowment of Love, author Mindy Brown talks about the temple, our attitudes toward it, and the sacred covenants we make there, with that mindset. Reminding us all that we have Heavenly Parents that will welcome us lovingly back home.  We introduce that idea with Chapter 1: Feeling at Home in the House of the Lord. You can find An Endowment of Love at your local Deseret Book store or on the Deseret Bookshelf Plus App!

We often look at the temple as sort of a finish line, but can we reframe our temple experience so that it feels like a starting point? In this episode, you'll hear a fresh approach to the temple experience. Melinda Brown, author of An Endowment of Love joins and shares this revolutionary message: "if the temple is making your life better now, then the concerns for the eternities will figure themself out." Melinda is an author, teacher, speaker, mother, friend, and recently got her Masters degree from Duke Divinity School in Christian education. She wrote this book because she saw a need for young people to better understand the temple when she started teaching a class called Temple Plus when she was called to serve in a YSA down in Provo. You can pick up your own copy of An Endowment of Love today! Also head to LDS Living's YouTube to hear more from Melinda and deepen your understanding of the temple!

In the whole of the Doctrine and Covenants there are only two women mentioned by name. The first being Emma Smith, whose story most of us are familiar with. But the second is a woman provides an insight into what life was like as a saint in the early Church. Today's conversation is all about Vienna Jaques. And her story will help illuminate our study of the Doctrine and Covenants this year. Joining in this episoe is Brent Rogers, a historian and the author of The Lord Spoke Her Name: The Remarkable Story of Vienna Jaques in the Restoration. Brent shares how Vienna's story has helped his testimony of the restoration, and why it matters to learn of the everyday saint. Order your copy of The Lord Spoke Her Name today or head to Deseret Bookshelf+ to listen to the audiobook!