Bloggin' 'bout Books: 03/28/17

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

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Sweet Is the Work Offers Inspiring Lessons from Early Sister Missionaries (With a Giveaway!)

1:00 AM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is well known for sending missionaries to all corners of the globe to teach people the Gospel. The majority of these missionaries have—historically—been young men. However, many "senior" couples also serve as do thousands of young women. When did the Church start extending official mission calls to women? Although many women served as unofficial missionaries (most as companions to their husbands) before then, the first female called to be a full-time proselyting missionary was set apart all the way back in 1898. I had never heard of Amanda "Inez" Knight, who earned a place in LDS history by accepting this historical call.

When Breanna Olaveson heard about Knight and other early sister missionaries, she knew she wanted to write about these courageous and faithful women. Her new book, Sweet Is the Work: Lessons From the First Sister Missionaries, tells the stories of twelve women who left their homes to serve the Lord in the mission field. They endured sickness, mob violence, anxiety, the deaths of children, and many other afflictions in order to bring the Gospel to far-flung nations. Their tales are fascinating as well as inspiring. Sweet Is the Work is a slim volume, so Olaveson doesn't go into a lot of depth on any of the women, which is unfortunate. While I always appreciate a nice, quick read, I did want a little more substance out of this book. Still, it provides an interesting peek into a piece of Church history that I knew little about. Anyone with an interest in LDS missionary work will find it a worthwhile read. I know I did.

(Readalikes: Reminded me a little of At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women by Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, eds.)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of Sweet Is the Work from the generous folks at Covenant Communications. Thank you!

Interested in more opinions about Sweet Is the Work? Follow along on the book's blog tour:

Schedule:

*March 27th: http://heidi-reads.blogspot.com/

*March 28th: http://mybookaday.blogspot.com/, http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/

*March 29th: http://ldswritermom.blogspot.com/, http://sweetlymadejustforyou.com/

*March 30th: http://lisaisabookworm.blogspot.com/, http://ldsandlovinit.blogspot.com/, http://thethingsilovemost.com/, http://fireandicereads.com/

*March 31st: http://www.singinglibrarianbooks.com/

For a chance to win your own copy of Sweet Is the Work, plus a $25 Amazon gift card, fill out the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books Read in 2025 (asterisks denote favorites)

1. Coram House by Bailey Seybolt (Jan)
2. She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke (Jan)
3. My Salty Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows* [audio] (Jan)
4. The Echoes by Jess Montgomery (Jan)
5. The Highgate Cemetery Murder by Irina Shapiro (Jan)
6. Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal by Raquel V. Reyes (Jan)
7. Murder at Chateau sur Mer by Alyssa Maxwell (Jan)
8. Away by Megan E. Freeman (Jan)
9. Unsinkable by Jenni L. Walsh [audio] (Jan)
10. A Golden Grave by Erin Lindsey* (Jan)
11. All Over the Map by Lanie Jacobs (Jan)
12. Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith (Jan)
13. Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany [audio] (Jan)
14. The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright (Jan)
15. How to Book a Murder by Cynthia Kuhn (Jan)
16. A Dream of Death by Connie Berry (Jan)
17. The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos, RN* (Jan)
18. Red River Road by Anna Downes [audio] (Jan)
19. Janitors School of Garbage by Tyler Whitesides (Feb)
20. Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce (Feb)
21. Janitors School of Garbage: Trials of the Trash by Tyler Whitesides (Feb)
22. The Brightwood Code by Monica Hesse [audio] (Feb)
23. A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry (Feb)
24. The Crash by Freida McFadden (Feb)
25. To Catch a Storm by Mindy Mejia (Feb)
26. Murder in Miniature by Katie Tietjen (Feb)
27. A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia (Feb)
28. If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell (Feb)
29. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano [audio] (Feb)
30. Wool by Hugh Howey (Feb)
31. Shift by Hugh Howey (Feb)
32. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns [audio] (Mar)
33. The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan (Mar)
34. Last Light Over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright (Mar)
35. Murder on the Page by Daryl Wood Gerber (Mar)
36. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (Mar)
37. The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden (Mar)
38. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor [audio] (Mar)
39. You Belong Here by Megan Miranda (Mar)
40. Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell (Mar)
41. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth* [audio] (Mar)
42. Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks With Monks and Amish Farmers helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human by Carlos Whittaker (Mar)
43. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (Mar)
44. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto* (Apr)
45. Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams (Apr)
46. The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez (Apr)
47. What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan (Apr)
48. The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth [audio] (Apr)
49. That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White (Apr)
50. A Pie to Die For by Gretchen Rue (Apr)
51. The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian (Apr)
52. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes (Apr)
53. Cold As Hell by Kelley Armstrong* [audio] (Apr)
54. Murder Runs in the Family by Tamara Berry (Apr)
55. The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden (Apr)
56. Petals and Poison by Jess Dylan [audio] (Apr)
57. It Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson (Apr)
58. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah* [re-read] (May)
59. Outside by Jennifer L. Holm (May)
60. You Are Here: Connecting Flights by various authors, edited by Ellen Oh (May)
61. The Silver Shooter by Erin Lindsey* (May)
62. The Art of Betrayal by Connie Berry* (May)
63. The Secret Room by Jane Casey* (May)
64. The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson (May)
65. The Sasquatch of Harriman Lake by K.B. Jackson (May)
66. Girl Forgotten by April Henry (May)
67. One Sharp Stitch by Allie Pleiter (May)
68. On Her Own Grounds: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles (May)
69. #FollowMe for Murder by Sarah E. Burr (May)
70. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware [re-read] (May)
71. Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman (May)
72. Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (May)
73. The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller [audio] (May)
74. The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware (May)
75. I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang (May)
76. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1 by Beth Brower (May)
77. The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (Jun)
78. The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (Jun)
79. Find Her by Ginger Reno (Jun)
80. Same Page by Elly Swartz (Jun)
81. Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman (Jun)
82. A Death at Seascape House by Emma Jameson (Jun)
83. Something Wilder by Christina Lauren (Jun)
84. Hummus and Homicide by Tina Kashian (Jun)
85. The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict* (Jun)
86. The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore [audio] (Jun)
87. The Town With No Mirrors by Christina Collins (Jun)
88. Clammed Up by Barbara Ross (Jun)
89. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness* [re-read] (Jun)
90. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (Jun)
91. With a Vengeance by Riley Sager (Jun)
92. Murder Past Due by Miranda James (Jun)
93. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (Jun)
94. This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber [audio] (Jun)
95. The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia (Jun)
96. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin (Jun)
97. The Experiment by Rebecca Stead (Jun)
98. The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry (Jun)
99. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa (Jun)
100. Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler (Jul)
101. The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (Jul)
102. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness* [re-read] (Jul)
103. The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day (Jul)
104. You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego (Jul)
105. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (Jul)
106. A Berry Deadly Welcome by A.R. Winters (Jul)
107. The Beat I Drum by Dusti Bowling (Jul)
108. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton* (Jul)
109. The Women by Kristin Hannah [audio] (Jul)
110. The Ivory City by Emily Bain Murphy (Jul)
111. A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow (Jul)
112. No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding by Catherine Mack (Jul)
113. A Murder Most Fowl by Carmela Dutra (Jul)
114. Loon Cove Summer by Donna Galanti (Jul)
115. Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong* (Jul)
116. The Ripple Effect by Rebecca Caprara (Jul)
117. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Jul)
118. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Aug)
119. Death on Eat Street by J.J. Cook (Aug)
120. The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand* [audio] (Aug)
121. Heist Society by Ally Carter (Aug)
122. Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs* (Aug)
123. Six Weeks in Reno by Lucy H. Hedrick (Aug)
124. The Tontine Caper by Dianne K. Salerni (Aug)
125. I.R.L. by Jenny Goebel (Aug)
126. The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris [audio] (Aug)
127. Gluten for Punishment by Nancy J. Parra (Aug)
128. Curses, Boiled Again! by Shari Randall (Aug)
129. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Aug)
130. The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows [audio] (Aug)
131. The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez (Aug)
132. The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly (Aug)
133. Betrayal in the Badlands by Dana Mentink (Aug)
134. Canter With a Killer by Amber Camp (Aug)
135. Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar (Aug)
136. Dominoes, Danzon, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes (Aug)
137. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths* (Aug)
138. The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor (Aug)
139. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman [audio] (Aug)
140. Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman (Sep)
141. The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth [audio] (Sep)
142. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman* [re-read] (Sep)
143. The Librarians by Sherry Thomas (Sep)
144. Radiant by Vaund Micheaux Nelson (Sep)
145. The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner (Sep)
146. The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko [audio] (Sep)
147. The Block Party by Jamie Day [audio] (Sep)
148. Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins by Barbara Demick (Sep)
149. The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner (Sep)
150. Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite (Sep)
151. The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate [audio] (Sep)
152. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Sep)
153. A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen by Kathryn Lasky (Sep)
154. Famous Last Words by Katie Alender [audio] (Sep)
155. Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza (Sep)
156. Haunting and Homicide by Ava Burke (Sep)
157. West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge* (Sep)
158. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple [audio] (Sep)
159. Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (Sep)
160. Heartwood by Amity Gaige (Sep)

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Sweet Is the Work Offers Inspiring Lessons from Early Sister Missionaries (With a Giveaway!)

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