My Favorite Links

• The Work and the Glory is a nine-part novel series by Gerald Lund chronicling the birth and early growth of Mormonism through the lives of the fictional Steed family. The Steeds, throughout the series, meet and come to know well many of the prominent early Church members. The series covers a twenty year period, opening in 1827 when the Steeds move from Vermont to western New York state, and ending in 1847 when they settle in the Salt Lake Valley. The storyline also includes both fictional and actual events.
• The main characters of this series include both fictional and non-fictional people. The Steed family includes the father, Benjamin, his wife, Mary Ann, and their children. From eldest to youngest, these children include Joshua, Nathan, Melissa, Rebecca, and Matthew. Benjamin and Mary Ann had 5 additional children, but four died soon after birth or were stillborn, and one lived only to the age of four.
• Joshua marries Jessica Roundy and has a daughter, Rachel, with her. They are eventually divorced, and Joshua then marries Caroline Mendenhall whom he meets in Savannah Georgia. She brings two children to the marriage, Will and Olivia, and together, she and Joshua have three more children, Savannah, Charles and Livvy. Their youngest Livvy is named for her older sister Olivia after she is killed. Livvy was Olivia's nickname. Joshua eventually is baptized into the Mormon religion, although it takes more than 19 years after the Church first came into his life for that to happen.
• Nathan marries Lydia McBride, the only daughter of a store keeper in Palmyra, and they have several children, including one named after Nathan's older brother Joshua. They also have a daughter named Emily, who becomes best friends with Jessica's oldest daughter Rachel. The other children do not figure prominently in the novels.
• Melissa marries Carl Rogers, and they also have several children, who do not appear frequently in the books. Carl is the only member of the family that never joins the church. Their oldest son young Carl saves his mother in Volume 9 from a group of evil men.
• Rebecca marries Derek Ingalls from England, they have three children.
• Matthew marries Jennifer Jo McIntre from Ireland and they have two children, although Jennifer Jo informs Matthew in Volume 9 that she is pregnant again.
• Jennifer's sister Kathryn and Derek's brother Peter marry each other as well. They have a daughter named Nicole that was born at Fort Pueblo. Peter was a fictional member of the ill fated Donner Party but survived.
• Caroline's son Will marries Alice Samuelson, and by the end of the series, they have a young boy named Jared Will. Will and Alice came to the west via a ship bound for California.
• Jessica Roundy, Joushua Steed's divorced wife, later marries John Griffith. They have one son together, who is added to her daughter and his two sons. John is soon after killed at the Haun's Mill Massacre. Several years later, she marries Solomon Garrett, and they have a daughter and a son together.

• For more than twenty years, readers have been charmed by this lively, heart-wrenching, and unforgettable romance between two seemingly mismatched people. Now a whole new generation is falling in love with Charly, the sparkling young woman who steps into Sam's life and turns it upside down. Now a major motion picture, based on the original novel, Charly is a classic love story -- as fresh, entertaining, and emotionally packed as it was when originally published.
  

Sam by Jack Weyland

• Whatever happened to Sam, Charly's husband. Will he ever get over losing her? How does a guy get back into the single life -- enduring blind dates, struggling with his memories, and coping with the pressures of family and Church? And what about finding a suitable mother for his young son, Adam?
• When Lara Whyte comes along, Sam is attracted by her good looks, but put off by almost everything else about her. It's not exactly the match made in heaven that Sam is searching for.
• If you loved Charly, you won't want to miss the sequel.
  

Adam's Story by Jack Weyland

• Elder Roberts has only a few months left on his mission in New Jersey, and there's one door he just has to knock on. His mom's parents, who haven't seen him since he was a baby, live there. maybe, just maybe, he can get them to accept the gospel like their daughter, Charly, did more than twenty years ago.
• And maybe he can find out something about the mother who died when he was a baby, and discover a little more about himself in the process.
• In this humorous and tender sequel to the novels Charly and Sam, bestselling author Jack Weyland finally reveals what happened to Adam, their only son.
  

• They've never been out on a date. They can barely speak a civil word to each other when they find themselves in the same room. But Aunt Bertie, who is not crazy, just -eccentric- knows that John and Ellie belong together, and she's doing all she can to further their cause. When Ellie comes to Colton Idaho, to spend the summer with Aunt Bertie and prove to her parents that her aunt doesn't belong in an assisted-care facility, the confusion begins. Bertie's determination to marry Ellie off to Dr. John Flynn leads to a hilarious string of miscommunications in this delightful romantic comedy.

• Twelve-year old Brandon is sure his summer vacation has been ruined when his parents drag him to the Midwestern farm of his mother's eccentric aunt. What the unhappy seventh grader hasn't counted on is Aunt Ella's ability to bring alive their daily reading of the Book of Mormon. From its pages she spins an intriguing game, turning her house, dairy farm and daily routines into a puzzle--a labyrinth that can be solved only by using clues taken from the scriptures.
• Brandon's reward for solving the puzzle is to be a rare copy of the original edition of the Book of Mormon. But when a mysterious Dr. Anthony shows up and attempts to steal the valuable book, Brandon must use his newfound knowledge of the Book of Mormon to confront real dangers.

• Moving slowly over the top of a small hill came ten or twelve men. They stopped at the top, standing in a single line facing us. They looked like warriors from another time, several of them holding spears in an upright position. Many of them had bushy beards. Their faces were hard and stern.
• "Are they going to hurt us?" Meg asked.
• "I don't know," Dad answered. "But we've apparently made them very angry."
• When Jeff's dad wins an all-expense-paid trip to Alaska, it seems like the perfect family summer vacation. But after their jetliner veers off-course and has to make an emergency landing, Jeff and his family suddenly find themselves among a strange people in a forgotten land.
• Who are these hostile looking tribesmen, and what is the meaning of the peculiar religion they practice? More important, who among them, if any, can be trusted? Is escape even possible.
• Using the scriptures as his guide, Jeff discovers that the Lord is forever mindful of His children, even those lost to the modern world.

• Actually, the last thing the Andrews children are looking for is another adventure, but they find themselves smack in the middle of one when they sneak aboard a yacht to investigate some suspicious circumstances. Why are these strangers so anxious to make contact with the tribe Brandon and Jeff and their family met last summer? No one believes for a minute that their motives are charitable -- particularly when one of the boat's principal passengers turns out to be the children's old nemesis, Dr. Anthony! Can the kids save their friends from his evil purposes? And will they ever get home again? This exciting story will keep the whole family on the edge of their seats!

• We all turned to see Chloe standing at the top of the stairs with a man right beside her. He had a scraggly beard and was dressed in a suit that looked like he had slept in it for the past several nights.
• "Agent Smith?" Rudy said.
• "That's Dr. Anthony," Brandon corrected him with disgust in his voice.
• "He has a gun," Chloe said quietly.
• Following clues left well over a century ago by an ancestor in Kirtland, Ohio, the Andrews family is off on another adventure. With danger, excitement, and a good dose of scriptural intrigue thrown in, The Forgotten Treasure will be a favorite for the whole family.

• Why did a first-edition Book of Mormon wind up in an old Catholic mission in San Diego? What clues does it contain to a mysterious past? And why is Dr. Anthony interested?
• The Andrews family is off on another exciting quest, and once again, clues in the scriptures lead to mystery and adventure. Watch your kids run for their copies of the Book of Mormon to follow along!