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A review by bethgiven
To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson by Heidi S. Swinton
5.0
Wonderful man; wonderful book.
I spent a whole year reading this book (I finally got wise last January and started reading just a chapter each Sunday; it's just too dense to read it the way I usually read books, and I really did want to finish!). That gave me a lot of time to really savor the stories, and I loved having some special "Sunday reading" so I think I'll keep up the habit.
In some ways, this reads almost as a history of the Church in the past fifty years. My favorite parts of this book were the chapters on in East Germany. I was in tears reading about the temple in Freiburg -- what a miracle! It made me hopeful for the future, as the Church goes into other lands.
I loved reading about the prophet, especially the stories about him loving the individual. There are countless anecdotes of him remembering names of people he's met only once more, years and years before -- I loved that. And then there were stories of him following revelation to reach out to "the one," someone who is known to God, even if President Monson didn't -- I loved those stories, too.
One quote I especially liked was from Spencer J. Condie:
“The bottom line is that when [Thomas S. Monson] leaves a meeting, conference, or gathering, everybody feels edified. They feel loved and validated. They do not feel like unprofitable servants of the Lord. They believe President Monson feels they are okay, so maybe Heavenly Father thinks they are okay. They know they have got to do a lot better than they are doing, but they are going to do better because he has shown them great love and respect.”
Of course, going into this book you know the content will be wonderful -- but I'm also impressed with how the author put this book together. Heidi Swinton managed to tell the story of his life in the traditional chronological order, but would occasionally let "theme" trump all, keeping the decade-spanning stories together. I think it was a very effective, inspired, even necessary way to put together such a complex biography. I'm grateful for Swinton for taking on the challenge so we could get to know the prophet better.
I spent a whole year reading this book (I finally got wise last January and started reading just a chapter each Sunday; it's just too dense to read it the way I usually read books, and I really did want to finish!). That gave me a lot of time to really savor the stories, and I loved having some special "Sunday reading" so I think I'll keep up the habit.
In some ways, this reads almost as a history of the Church in the past fifty years. My favorite parts of this book were the chapters on in East Germany. I was in tears reading about the temple in Freiburg -- what a miracle! It made me hopeful for the future, as the Church goes into other lands.
I loved reading about the prophet, especially the stories about him loving the individual. There are countless anecdotes of him remembering names of people he's met only once more, years and years before -- I loved that. And then there were stories of him following revelation to reach out to "the one," someone who is known to God, even if President Monson didn't -- I loved those stories, too.
One quote I especially liked was from Spencer J. Condie:
“The bottom line is that when [Thomas S. Monson] leaves a meeting, conference, or gathering, everybody feels edified. They feel loved and validated. They do not feel like unprofitable servants of the Lord. They believe President Monson feels they are okay, so maybe Heavenly Father thinks they are okay. They know they have got to do a lot better than they are doing, but they are going to do better because he has shown them great love and respect.”
Of course, going into this book you know the content will be wonderful -- but I'm also impressed with how the author put this book together. Heidi Swinton managed to tell the story of his life in the traditional chronological order, but would occasionally let "theme" trump all, keeping the decade-spanning stories together. I think it was a very effective, inspired, even necessary way to put together such a complex biography. I'm grateful for Swinton for taking on the challenge so we could get to know the prophet better.