Deseret Book's Strong Season Makes Publishers Weekly

The strong Fall season at Deseret Book, the book publisher and retail bookstore chain owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, caught the attention of Publishers Weekly, a book publishing trade magazine. In a story published in its weekly Religion Bookline update, reporter Jana Riess interviewed Sheri Dew, executive vice-president of publishing for Deseret Book's Shadow Mountain imprint, about the publisher's four best selling titles for the Fall, including President Hinckley's "Stand a Little Taller," which has sold about 360,000 copies. The same issue of Religion Bookline also gave short reviews of four titles published by mainstream and religious publishers on Mormonism.

LDS Filmmaker's Newest Effort Released

A BYU film student is putting his own effort into the mix with the recent run of films featuring Mormon stories. John Lyde's film, "The Field is White," tells the story of a returned LDS missionary who struggles with his testimony. Lyde, who has been making short films since age 12, ultimately wants to have his own company that produces films. His next project is a full-length action film.

'The Singles Ward' Debuts, 'Ocean's Eleven' Drops from Top 10

With four major new releases in the top 10, "Ocean's Eleven" was finally bumped out of the top 10 movies nationwide this week: After 7 weeks it was in 11th place, down from 6th place last week. This marks the first time in months that a movie with Latter-day Saint characters or made by Latter-day Saint filmmakers was not among the nation's top at the box office. "Ocean's" has now passed the $175 million mark, which makes it the 10th top-grossing film of the year.

New Book Explores Church's Power in America's Fastest-Growing City

Mormons took a big gamble when they settled Las Vegas 150 years ago. That bet paid off as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helped plot the growth of America's gambling mecca. Now, for the first time, the deep and symbiotic relationship between America's fastest growing religion and the country's fastest growing city is exposed in a book, "Saints in Babylon: Mormons and Las Vegas'' (1st Books Library, Bloomington, Ind.). Through never-told-before accounts and exclusive interviews, veteran journalist Kenric F. Ward traces the guiding influences of a conservative church in a city that deals in the wages of sin.

Olympic Commemorative CD Artists Shawn King and Peter Breinholt at Dillard's Saturday

Singer Shawn Southwick King, along with her husband, CNN's Larry King, will be appearing this Saturday, February 2nd, at Dillard's Sandy location from 11am until noon, and then at the Dillard's Provo location at 1pm. The Kings will be mingling with the public and signing autographs in support of "Light Up the Land, A Commemorative CD of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games," on which Shawn performs. Her song, "Smile," is the classic Charlie Chaplin composition, and was produced and arranged by the legendary David Foster. It has been featured on her husband's CNN program, "Larry King Live."

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