Review
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Title: We’re Thankful for the Moisture
Author: Eli McCann
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Memoir, Humor Essays
Year Published: 2026
Number of Pages: 155
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 978-1-56085-532-3
Price: 19.95
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters
In 2022, Peggy Fletcher Stack did the world a favor and invited Eli McCann to write a humor column for the Salt Lake Tribune. For those of us not lucky enough to live in Utah, have a subscription to the Tribune, or have collected all of the back issues, the good folks at Signature Books did us an even huger favor and collected his first forty-two columns into this precious little volume.
We’re Thankful is short. Including the playful glossary (written for the benefit of never-Mormon readers but should be enjoyed by all), it is only 155 pages long. The columns/chapters are rarely longer than three to four pages. The whole book can easily be enjoyed in a couple of hours. If I’m honest, I have read it half a dozen times already. And NOT because I was reviewing it, but because I was enjoying it that much. If you can, get the audiobook. McCann reads it and it is amazing.
I’m going to come right out and say it: I absolutely LOVED We’re Thankful for the Moisture (did the “I read it six times” comment give that away?). And if I’m honest, I have been a huge fan of McCann for a LONG time (my daughter and I once drove three hours to attend a pride event in Salt Lake City purely because McCann and Jonathan T. Bailey were speaking). If you are not already a fan, this book will make you one. McCann comments over the course of the articles on his time as a Mormon, growing up as a Homosexual Mormon, his mission, his family, his life in Utah, and more in a very funny, endearing, and touching way. WHEN you read this book (PLEASE read it), you will become a fan too.
I do not want to spoil the experience, but I want to highlight some of my favorites. “Oh South Jordan” recounts McCann’s experience during a ward roadshow and his more recent reminiscing and contemplation of it. Roadshows are sadly a part of our “peculiar people” past and are no more. But they were a very quirky piece of Mormonism at one time. McCann states that he was viewing that part of the past through cynical eyes and writes that he was sure that “these productions typically hoisted on the backs of what have been exhausted neighborhood parents,” and he wondered why they were willing to spend so much time on something “cheap and cheesy.” Then a seventy-plus-year-old neighbor interrupted his musings and said:
“You know what I was thinking about the other day?” she interrupted me at one point. Her face lit up, and she smiled. “Do you remember when you kids did that roadshow about South Jordan? Wasn’t that a riot?”
Her words made him realize that the experience, however “saccharine,” was “Something that would manage to become part of the fabric of us — the fabric that meant we were all from the same place, however peculiar” (pp. 26-29). That line helps to summarize why I love this book so much. However complicated my relationship becomes with Mormonism, Utah, or my past, I was in many such roadshows, and even if you were not, you have likely had similar experiences. And that observation that we have all had such experiences that unite us into a common fabric despite our differences and travels since is just so important and so human.
A similar observation occurs in the final chapter, “The Simple Hum of a People Gathered.” The article is about how his neighborhood used to gather for Independence Day celebrations. After discussing nineteen-dollar firework packages set off by the dads, tooth-breaking popcorn balls, homemade potato salad in giant metal bowls, and more that most, if not all, of us who survived the 80s and 90s can relate to, McCann makes a deep observation:
I still think that there’s no better sound than the general background noise of neighbors being neighbors-the simple hum of a people gathered…satisfied by company and the shared community that company builds. Some…voices would have us believe that these scenes are no more-that division and exclusion are the norm.
But I think most people are the type to sit on beach chairs and laugh together…The type to gather without invitation, almost instinctively, before packing it all up…looking forward to next year when they get to do it all again. (p. 148)
Some other fun articles and experiences include a variety of silly, insightful, and touching observations. These include recalling speculating about whether famous people were Mormons and getting a sort of apology from Mitt Romeny, father and son bonding over priesthood sessions and ice cream, Mormons on reality TV, his raised an atheist husband learning about How Mormons celebrate Christmas and other religious holidays, the importance of telling our history even when we do not agree on how it should be told, learning how to eat on a mission when neither he or his companions could cook, and many, many more.
McCann discusses and reminisces about many topics. His time in the LDS Church, his journey out, and his time since. I loved that Thankful is unashamedly Gay, unashamedly Mormon, and unashamedly ex-Mormon all at the same time. McCann does not shy away from critical commentary on Mormonism or Utah, but he is never mean or cruel. He always credits the good done by the Church and its members. You can easily feel his fondness and love for his good experiences with the Church and its members.
In my first paragraph, I called this book “precious”. That may seem like an odd or over-the-top description for a thin, paperback book that collects humor columns from a mid-size market newspaper. But it is the perfect description. McCann has done an AMAZING job of distilling experiences and observations about what it means to be human. About what it is like to grow up different but the same. About love, family, acceptance, and overcoming. He captures all of the peculiar, weird, quirky, odd bits of Mormonism in particular and humanity in general and, in a very poignant way, helps you fall in love with those things and shows how they do indeed weave us into a fabric that allows us to overcome our differences and find common ground. PLEASE add We’re Thankful for the Moisture to your “Must read” pile.