Poor Richard’s Books Recommends Du Mez’s Live Laugh Love

$31.99. That is the price tag on Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s new book, Live Laugh Love, which the Colorado Springs shop just highlighted as part of the Colorado Sun’s weekly literature series. This week, the staff from Poor Richard’s Books recommends a look at a Christian subculture, a venture into the boglands and Ken Salazar’s memoir.

For most people, that phrase is just a thing you see on a coffee mug or an opaque glass stone sitting on a kitchen windowsill. Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager at Poor Richard’s Books, had one of those stones for years without giving the words much thought. Then he read Du Mez’s book and stopped thinking of it as a cliché.

Payne wrote for the Colorado Sun that he “lost count” of how many times he stopped mid-page to exclaim while reading. He describes tumbling “arse over elbow” as the book reveals how white conservative Christian women, shut out of male-dominated denominations, built their own social world. That world helped them survive and find influence, quietly shaping the political norms we live with today. Payne’s verdict is blunt: you’ll never look at a piece of Tupperware the same way again.

The book traces this cultural shift back to the late nineteenth century and the emergence of New Thought, a movement that championed the power of the mind to shape reality. It drew together disparate traditions like Mormonism and holiness evangelicalism, giving rise to prosperity theologies and the gospel of positive thinking. Du Mez argues that this vision of womanhood has shaped lives, families, and politics for more than a century.

The Colorado Sun’s staff also recommended two other titles from Poor Richard’s Books this week. One is Bogland by Merritt R. Turetsky, published by W. W. Norton & Company for $29.99 in October 2026. The publisher describes boglands as landscapes long dismissed as wastelands — too sodden to farm, too perilous to cross. Turetsky invites readers to come closer and see that these wild, eerie places stretch our minds.

The third recommendation is a memoir by Ken Salazar. The Colorado Sun did not provide the title, price, or publisher details for this specific entry in the excerpt provided, only noting it as part of the trio of diverse and informative titles selected by the bookstore staff.

Let’s do the math on the cost if you want to read all three recommendations from Poor Richard’s Books. You are looking at $31.99 for Live Laugh Love and $29.99 for Bogland. That is $61.98 before you even factor in the price of Salazar’s memoir, which isn’t listed in the available data. For context, that is a significant chunk of change for casual readers, but it’s the price of entry into a specific cultural critique that Payne found so viscerally engaging.

In practice, these recommendations matter because they move beyond standard literary fiction into cultural history and environmental writing. Du Mez’s work connects consumer culture — Hallmark movies, multilevel marketing companies, to deep theological roots. It explains how a seemingly trivial lifestyle brand actually has an unlikely and revealing history that stretches back over 100 years. It’s not just about what people buy; it’s about how those purchases reflect a specific, powerful vision of womanhood that has driven reactionary politics.

For folks around here who might dismiss "Live Laugh Love" as cheap kitsch, the recommendation suggests looking closer. The book argues that positivity had a dark side and that religious innovators taught positive thinking as the secret to material success. That history is still active in our current political moment.

The practical bottom line for locals: if you are interested in understanding the cultural forces shaping modern American politics and consumer behavior, Live Laugh Love is a $31.99 investment that promises to change how you view everyday objects and religious history. If you prefer nature writing, Bogland is $29.99 and offers a look at landscapes usually written off as useless. Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs is stocking both, and the Colorado Sun’s staff says they are worth your time.