BiV's Blog of the Month

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! The winner of my Blog of the Month for April is:









Times and Seasons is probably the blog I visit the most in the Bloggernacle. (And according to Ziff, I comment there the most, too!) But April has been an exceptional month at T&S. Ardis Parshall started the month out with a quirky April Fool's Day post that wasn't a joke -- And Yet Another Joseph Smith Photograph -- a post I thoroughly enjoyed. It was classic Ardis: a discussion of historical problems associated with locating early images, along with a bit of her delicious sarcasm. Part of the fun at Times and Seasons is the vigorous commentary that invariably follows. In the comments on this post, I encountered Raymond Takashi Swenson, who wrote a series of interesting guest posts this month. I was especially intrigued by his Sorting Out the Virtuous and Praiseworthy using the Japanese culture as an example of the issues that arise when determining which aspects of a culture are compatible with the gospel.

Noteworthy this month were the open Conference threads, always a big draw; feminist discussions, (thanks, Kaimi); great Gospel topics; and even a bit of apologetics (see Jonathan Green's Prophets and Textual Criticism, special appearance by Blake Ostler) I always read T&S's active, fun and informative sidebar.

But there were two things that really put T&S over the top this month. The first was Ardis' continuing posts on obscure Mormon historical figures. I love reading about her investigations to find these people that surface once or twice in the historical record, then disappear. She has a knack of bringing these stories alive for us. In April, she wrote about
James Kalapsza and
James Tillman and the disappearance of Alma P. Richards

Last of all, a must-read for all Bloggernacle participants, are Patricia Karamesines' posts centered around her daughter's 16th birthday. They are tender, wrenching, and thought-provoking. If you haven't read these posts yet, do yourself a favor and follow the links.
Bittersweet Sixteen: Part One
Bittersweet Sixteen: Part Two
Bittersweet Sixteen: Part Three