Out of the Best Books (and Movies) #CopingWithCOVID19

Since my public libraries have been closed for our Shelter in Place for almost 3 weeks ago, I’ve not been able to get physical books to read, but I have been looking at the digital offerings my library has. My local library gives us access to Hoopla and Kanopy for free. Hoopla has free ebooks, audiobooks, music, movies, and an especially large collection of graphic novels. Kanopy is a collection of movies, many independent and documentary films. As I was perusing the offerings on Hoopla one day, I ran into a book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. I was surprised to see her work there! So I looked into what other LDS/Mormon/feministy books and movies there were and I thought I’d share them here in case your library also gives you access to these books and movies. Enjoy for shelter-in-place or as a part of your uplifting Conference weekend.

Hoopla

Non-Fiction

• A House Full of Females (audiobook), by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Here’s a little bit about this book on our blog.
• The Politics Of American Religious Identity: The Seating Of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (ebook) by Kathleen Flake. Here’s a review of this book in BYU Studies.
• A Book of Mormons (ebook) by  Emily W. Jensen, Tracy McKay-Lamb, Janan Graham-Russell
• The Next Mormons (audiobook) by Jana Riess. This one was mentioned in our 2019 book list.
• Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That’s When My Nightmare Began (ebook) by Alex Cooper and Joanna Brooks. This was adapted into a Lifetime movie last year.
• Race and the Making of the Mormon People (ebook) by Max Perry Mueller. Mueller was interviewed on our Religious Feminism podcast a couple of years ago.
• From Mormon to Mystic: Journey Through Religious Ideology into Awakened Liberation (ebook) by Erin Jensen. I don’t know much about this one, but I think reading women’s stories is very important.
• Faithfully Feminist (ebook) by Gina Messina-Dysert, Jennifer Zobair, Amy Levin. Here’s the review on our blog.

Fiction

• The Bishop’s Wife (audiobook) by Mette Harrison (our review here). She hosted a virtual book club about it this week and shared it on YouTube. Hoopla also has part 2, His Right Hand (audiobook), but not the 3rd book of the series. However, it does have the fourth (ebook), Not of This Fold.
• The Scholar of Moab (ebook) by Steven L. Peck. By Common Consent has a review here.

Music

If you’d like something to complement Conference Weekend, there is a lot of Mormon Tabernacle Choir. If you’d like to listen to something more sacrilegious, The Book of Mormon original Broadway Cast Recording is available, too.

Kanopy

• Once I was a Beehive, a fictional film about girl’s camp. Jess R mentions it here.
• 10 Towns that Changed America. This is a PBS film about urban planning that highlights the planning of Salt Lake City.
• I Had An Abortion. This film is a documentary of 10 women sharing their lives and abortion stories, including Mormon-raised Jenny Egan.
• Who Does She Think She Is? This documentary follows female artists, including LDS sculptor, Janis Wunderlich.
• In the Turn. Another documentary! This one is of a 10 year old trans girl who gets into roller derby and learns of the Vagine Regime, an international queer roller derby collective. One of the member of Vagine Regime, Summer Crush, is a former Mormon.
• Chaplains. Although this is not particularly Mormon, chaplaincy is a calling multiple Exponent bloggers and former bloggers have served in. I thought this documentary might be a soothing option for your shelter-in-place.

Hoopla and Kanopy are what I am most familiar with- but if you have other free media sites that your public libraries offer to you, feel free to share your Mormon and feminist-y findings!