Under the Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer

I’ll admit, I picked this up for the salacious details of the true crime story. That portion of the book delivered, to be sure, but that quickly became the less interesting part. I never expected this book to be more about the history of the Mormon church than a single, horrific event. I’d considered myself curious about Mormonism in American popular culture for a few years now, and this book gave me a much-appreciated historical background. This book was just as much about the foundation of the religion as it is the modern murder. Or maybe it really is that the latter can’t be told without the background of the former. In any case, the way the two narratives are interspersed was fascinating. It’s worth noting the author acknowledges—and then refutes—criticisms of his research in the afterword in a way that was satisfactory to me.