A longer book review

Post by Nicole Hardy.

This is the Australian Cover that I think is so fun I wanted to include it here.

Book Review

Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin  Author Nicole Hardy

            Living in Salt Lake City Utah, is an experience when you are not LDS.  You are in the minority in everything that you do.  I have found juxtaposition however.  I grew up in a town in another State where there was a fair amount of Mormons and it should be said I liked to hang out with them.  I liked their ideals their way of doing things and the lack of pressure to have sex, do drugs, or drink alcohol. I did still have to worry about if I had the right clothes, watched the right shows said the right thing. I knew when I hung out with those kids I could be myself. But what I felt would hurt me I didn’t need to worry about.

            When you are a Mormon in high school in Redmond Washington you go to Seminary at 6 am Monday through Friday.  Then you continue and go to class like the entire rest of the school.  When you go to Seminary in Utah it is a regular class, during the regular school day it is just in the Seminary building that is on the school grounds.  I understand the reasoning for this but I also am aware there is more than one way to skin a cat.

            One of the friends that I had in Junior High and High School has written a book and I have been very aware of the procedure via Facebook.  She was one of my Mormon friends, and I also thought her brother was very cute and I enjoyed both of their companies.  The book that she wrote is called Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin. It is a memoir of her life and how being a latter day saint molded her life and some of the decisions that she needed to make.  It explains how these decisions did not come quickly they took many years.  There were many people involved (whether they were aware of it or not) in the decisions that she made and she explains this, the positives and negatives of it all.  I need to clarify she does not place blame she explains the details and why things are the way that they are. 

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

            I admit I started reading it hoping to get gossip, read a name that I knew but it ended up being so much more than that.  I could put myself in the situations learn from her experiences.  I was able to see that not everyone NEEDS to get married.  They can be happy living, they don’t need to have a partner and not all families consist of 2.5 children and a dog and a mortgage.  This book taught me that not all decisions have to be made in my model.  People have their reasons for doing things I don’t need to feel sorry for them, berate why they are doing something, and assume that what they are doing is wrong.  My way may not be the best way.  I am also able to realize it is not polite to ask so when are you going to have kids who have you been dating.  I should ask people about themselves, have interests in them and not whom they are with.

            I am really hoping that the Latter Day Saints will be able to read this book and see that their way may not be the best way.  Like Nicole’s mother sees.  The system is faulted and may not need to go so black and white.  There is a gray area and many fall into that.  I do believe that the LDS church has many positives.  I also see many negatives I can hope that this book will open peoples eyes so they are aware their way isn’t the only highway there are many roads and they are not all wrong.

Excellent job Nicole Hardy I am proud to say I know you.