The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith

My family is discussing this book for our quasi family book club for the next week, as we are trying to read more about the Restoration before General Conference (as President Nelson advised). I had never read this one before, and enjoyed reading Lucy Mack Smith's account of the Restoration. It really wasn't super focused on Joseph himself--it was more of a memoir of Lucy's memories and experiences, and I kind of liked that it wasn't intending to be a full treatment of church history. It mentioned some things and not others, and it was thorough in some places and then jumped whole years without talking about other things. I liked some of the stories, like when Lucy was traveling with the Saints on a boat to get to Kirtland, and she had the faith the say they would be able to get through the ice. Most of it was not new, though... there was very little I hadn't learned before in Church History class at BYU or through reading The Work and the Glory books back in the day (which I also want to re-read!). I thought it was just overwhelming to think about all that Lucy went through in her life--their family struggled so much and she lost five of her six grown sons by 1844, not to mention who knows how many grandkids, and they never had enough money and had so many reversals of fortune. It really helped to humanize her and make her seem real, and to see how hard it would have been for her and the rest of the family. She was a pretty awesome lady, and I am proud my daughter is named Lucy too.