On novel-writing and obedience. Recent Reads Feb 20, 2025 Over the past month, I’ve worked on the line edits for my novel, The Bicycle Messenger, which releases in August. The book’s action spans more than seventy years, and parts of it were written in different seasons of my life, so I’m especially thankful that God inContinue reading “Is it Nostalgia?”
Author Archives: bauerjandp
Recent Reads -January 2025
In which I take Holly Ordway’s Advice Last November, at the Well-Read Mom annual conference here in Milwaukee, Tolkien scholar and Word on Fire author Holly Ordway spoke to us on “How to be Adventurous, Wise, and Charitable as a Reader.” Among Dr. Ordway’s suggestions was to sample various genres beyond the ones we usuallyContinue reading “Recent Reads -January 2025”
Recent Reads – December 2024
Shop Local Fire Conditions by Thomas C. Malin (WWA Press, 2024) I love to celebrate the work of small presses. This fall, the Wisconsin Writers Association has released Fire Conditions, a coming-of-age novel by Thomas C. Malin. One of the things I admire most about this book is its strong sense of place. Set inContinue reading “Recent Reads – December 2024”
Recent Reads – September 2024
A Look Back at Summer Child of my Heart by Alice McDermott (2002, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (1980, reissued by New York Review of Books in 2000) Word on Fire’s Women of the Catholic Imagination: Twelve Inspired Novelists You Should Know is the gift that keepsContinue reading “Recent Reads – September 2024”
Recent Reads – July 2024
In Search of Community Haley Stewart, Ed. Women of the Catholic Imagination: Twelve Inspired Novelists You Should Know (Word on Fire, 2024) An as-yet unpublished novel of mine once found its way into the hands of a literary agent for consideration. It’s about a young woman in a high-powered job who is unfaithful to herContinue reading “Recent Reads – July 2024”
Recent Reads – May 2024
Revisiting Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy I have a distinct image of myself newly graduated from college, lying in the top bunk in a friend’s house in Sweden and finishing Jude the Obscure in the long, otherworldly June daylight. Thirty-six years have passed since then; my husband and I have raised three children toContinue reading “Recent Reads – May 2024”
Recent Reads – April 2024
On (mis)reading Brideshead Revisited Note: This post contains spoilers. I’ve belonged to various book clubs over the years, but I’ve generally fallen away after being asked to read a few things I didn’t enjoy. Well Read Moms is refreshingly different. There’s a yearly theme and a guide, and I love the idea that spiritual bookContinue reading “Recent Reads – April 2024”
Recent Reads – March 2024
Poems and Vignettes Memory’s Abacus by Anna Lewis (Wiseblood Books, 2024) The title poem of Anna Lewis’s debut collection waxes and wanes on the page. A grandmother with “swollen knuckles” recites the names of her cousins, some of whom are long dead; and as she speaks, she taps on the Christmas tablecloth as if thereContinue reading “Recent Reads – March 2024”
Recent Reads – February 2024
Showcasing Catholic writers with ties to Milwaukee, Part Three: Letting in Air and Light by Teresa Tumminello Brader Belle Point Press, 2023 Teresa Tumminello Brader lives and writes in New Orleans. But she attended Marquette University, so I hereby claim her for the city of Milwaukee as well. Letting in Air and Light, Brader’s lovelyContinue reading “Recent Reads – February 2024”
Recent Reads – January 2024
Literary Historical Fiction The Dead of Winter, by Paul David Bauer Vol. 4 in The Coldest Winter in a Century One of the great privileges of my life is to serve as the first reader for my husband Paul, who has just published The Dead of Winter, the fourth of seven planned volumes in hisContinue reading “Recent Reads – January 2024”
Joan Elizabeth Bauer 