Under the Banner of Heaven / Jon Krakauer / 372 pgs.

I picked this book because I needed a book on religion for Book Riot's #ReadHarder challenge. After reading The Bishop's Wife around Christmas, I was curious to read more about Mormonism. Granted, Krakauer's book is a bit one-sided in his commentary, but I have since researched and found a lot of the historical facts he presented were correct. I've liked a few of his other books, like Into Thin Air and Into the Wild and consider his writing to be pretty trustworthy. However, although Krakauer does present a history of the beginnings of the Mormon church, a lot of the current information he presents is on a breakaway sect of the Mormon church known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose leader was in the news a few years ago and is currently in prison. Most mainstream Mormons would disavow that polygamous sect. My chief complaints are that although the book was informative, it was difficult to finish. It was plodding and Krakauer's penchant for going back and forth from present day to the 19th century and back again was a bit too much this time around.