The Uncorrelated Essentials?

So, my wife left the Deseret Book catalogue sitting out, and I felt like maybe I ought to pick it up and take a look. I saw most of what I usually see: yet another J.F. McConkie / Robert Millet collaboration (yawn), new cover designs for old classics (the new Miracle of Forgiveness is spiffy!), and plenty of artwork (none of which is of my stripe). It’s no SBL catalogue, but it seems like a pretty good one for its intended audience.

Now, on page 41, something caught my eye. It’s called “Essential Gospel Library.” Here they featured 3 books and refer the reader to the website (click here) for more. So I went there to see what the essentials were, according to the DB marketing machine (and Correlation?). I was pleasantly surprised and also mystified. Surprises: Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, vols. I & II. I didn’t even know these existed. Very cool. I won’t tell you what books left me mystified, but the list got me thinking. I’m sure there are other posts similar to this in the ‘nacle, so let’s start a new one — nice ‘n fresh!

What are your favorite UNcorrelated essentials for Mormon studies?

3 Rules:

1. You can name as many as you like, but let’s keep the reasons why we like them brief (but not non-existent) but informative. No more than a couple of sentences for each recommendation.

2. Explain why you like such-and-such uncorrelated material in an informative, intelligent way. Saying “this is good” doesn’t help other readers much.

3. No rule here. I just wanted the rules to have the magic number of three (“Trilogy! Trilogy!”). 😉

Let’s have fun.