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Katie’s Year In Books

Katie’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Katie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

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Katie Schuermann’s Followers (204)

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Davis Smith

1,261 books | 189 friends

Sheryl Eby

496 books | 104 friends

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1,352 books | 35 friends

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492 books | 22 friends

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802 books | 107 friends

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Katie Schuermann

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.katieschuermann.com/

Twitter

katieschuermann

Genre

Christian, Fiction, Nonfiction

Influences

Bo Giertz, L. M. Montgomery, George Eliot, Wendell Berry, George MacDo ...more

Member Since

April 2016

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/katieschuermann

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Katie Schuermann is "a first-class storyteller” (Cameron MacKenzie, 2023) whose “earthy and joyful” (Mark A. Miller, 2014) voice is as refreshing and invigorating as the Midwestern sunshine in which she was raised. Writing in vignettes which so perfectly suit the charm of small-town life, Schuermann's stories call to mind the warmth and realism of Montgomery's Avonlea as well as the grounded sense of place and community of Berry’s Port William.

When not writing, Schuermann can be found singing, gardening, cooking, holding babies, or trying to climb the nearest tree. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

I can't help but wonder how our dear Bradburians are holding up under the stay-at-home orders. Have the ladies discovered the Zoom app yet?

Katie Schuermann Mrs. Scheinberg is rocking the shelter-in-place mandate as it is her preferred mode of existence, period. She and Max do take one walk together a day,…moreMrs. Scheinberg is rocking the shelter-in-place mandate as it is her preferred mode of existence, period. She and Max do take one walk together a day, but they make certain never actually to meet. They both turn west out of their doors at the same time while talking on their mobile devices (Max now owns a pair of AirPods thanks to Blaine and Mrs. S. last Christmas) and make certain to turn east back toward home once Mrs. Scheinberg's Apple watch alerts her that they have completed one mile.

Blaine successfully talked Mrs. Scheinberg through how to install and use the Zoom app on her computer, but she was unsuccessful in talking Bev through how to install it on the Davis PC. She ended up driving over to the Davis house, standing outside their open living room window, and shouting Irv through the process. Bev thoughtfully left a bag of hand-sewn face masks on the front step for Mrs. Scheinberg to keep and wear whenever she needs to shop at Walmart.

Mrs. Scheinberg then drove straight to Walmart, and upon discovering a faded Fruit of the Loom logo on the inside of the one of the masks, proceeded to vomit a bit in her mouth before tossing the entire bag of masks in a store trash can. She would rather contract COVID-19 than breathe through a pair of Irv's old underwear.

While Pastor Fletcher is busy at the church during the day communing individual families by appointment, the Fletcher twins have been keeping busy in the parsonage writing and recording songs on their mother's iPhone and then texting their masterpieces to their grandparents, godmothers, and 82 other contacts they delighted in finding on said phone. George is most proud of his solo composition titled "For Lent I Spent Too Much on a Tent."

No one has heard from Mr. and Mrs. Ben Schmidt for days. They seem quite content sheltering in place all by themselves.

Candice Bradbury, a local personality in her own esteem, has taken to writing a weekly editorial for the local paper. No one has the heart to tell her that the paper closed shop during the pandemic.

Nettie Schmidt, recently widowed, is probably Bradbury's citizen most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but she keeps leaving her house to place used cereal boxes full of homemade cookies on the front steps of everyone she loves. Her handwritten notes read, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

Please, pray for the Jones family. Both boys are home from college for the rest of the semester, and they are sharing their old room. (less)

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What were your inspirations and sources for your book, The Saints of Whistle Grove? It felt like the history of my community, and it resonated very deeply with me.

Katie Schuermann Grace, thank you for this question!

I grew up within one mile of a grove such as the one featured in The Saints of Whistle Grove. Lower Ash Grove Cemet…moreGrace, thank you for this question!

I grew up within one mile of a grove such as the one featured in The Saints of Whistle Grove. Lower Ash Grove Cemetery sits just a bit south of my maternal grandpa’s cousin’s family’s acreage, and I saw the grove in passing every weekday through the dusty window of my school bus. Though I never set foot in the grove as a child. It was not until I was an adult, when my husband and I were home visiting my parents about 10 years back that the two of us drove the family mule (motored, not mammal) to the grove and poked around the abandoned church and cemetery tucked behind the trees.

I delighted to discover some of my own people buried in that grove. It was then, while gazing upon forgotten tombstones and the vandalized shell of a church that once housed the prayers of an entire community, that my sympathies were stirred and a story was born. It would be many years before I ever wrote the words “Whistle Grove” on any page, but I spent those years steeping in the stories of my own family and ancestors, imagining what it would be like to witness the birth and death of such a church.

When the time finally came to attempt designing and writing The Saints of Whistle Grove, I knew that I wanted to tell the story anachronistically. The chapters jump around in time, spanning 150 years total. I did this intentionally, because I am trying, for the reader’s sake, to recreate that nostalgia-charged experience we all have when coming across an old family photo in a dusty box hidden in a great-grandparent’s attic. The photo is usually one we’ve never seen before, yet it fully captures our attention and affection. We may not know everyone in the picture, but deep down inside we know that the people and places in that photo link us to a time and place and history that informs, maybe even defines, our own life’s story.

That is the experience I am trying for in my book. I want the reader to feel curious about and connected to the people buried in Whistle Grove just as they are to the faces in those faded photos and to the bodies buried beneath tombstones sharing their own family surnames.

I must confess: Writing an anachronistic story is the most technically difficult form of writing I’ve yet encountered as an author. Much of the struggle for me—beyond the obvious organizational feat of managing a cast of characters that spans 150 years—was endurance. For since the chapters jump around in time, starting each new chapter was much like starting an entirely different book. It became difficult to maintain any momentum in the storytelling, and I struggled to find motivation to keep restarting over and over again.

That is when I decided to plant personal artifacts in various chapters, little details that were interesting to me, that warmed me, that stirred my affections, and consequently, helped me to build a bond with an entirely new set of characters in an entirely new time period—over and over again. These details served as anchors I could hold on to in the somewhat stormy, dizzying process of creatively starting afresh chapter after chapter.

For example, as I jumped from time period to time period in Whistle Grove, I built some of the fictional plots around the tragedies, joys, and vocations pulled from my own family’s history: babies born with the rickets, children contracting polio, family members suffering tractor accidents, twins born in the family, ancestors growing up in a castle, other ancestors losing the family farm, and young suitors scaling the stone exterior of a house for a loved one’s kiss. Perhaps your own people, like mine, also worked as crop farmers, cemetery sextons, military personnel, and pastors. You may find yourself identifying and resonating with Whistle Grove’s singular experiences of emigrating and settling a new land, building a church, calling a pastor, and casting bells, for our singular experiences are often shared on this earth, and therefore, are not so singular in the end.

But to be clear, Whistle Grove and its people do not really exist. They are fictional creations of my imagination, created for the purpose of blessing and encouraging the reader—of blessing you. And I pray that every saint you encounter buried in Whistle Grove delights you in reading as much as they delighted me in writing. (less)

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Katie Schuermann’s books

Average rating: 4.53 · 1,848 ratings · 430 reviews · 10 distinct works • Similar authors

	House of Living Stones (Anthems of Zion, #1) 4.35 avg rating — 581 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Choir Immortal (Anthems of Zion, #2) 4.59 avg rating — 391 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Harvest Raise (Anthems of Zion, #3) 4.62 avg rating — 307 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Saints of Whistle Grove 4.77 avg rating — 208 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pew Sisters: A Women's Small-group Bible Study 3.99 avg rating — 118 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	He Restores My Soul: Writings on Cross and Comfort 4.84 avg rating — 91 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	He Remembers the Barren by Katie Schuermann (Goodreads Author), Melissa A. DeGroot (Collects) 4.61 avg rating — 77 ratings — published 2011 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Big Father and His Little Boy (The Creed, #1) 4.89 avg rating — 46 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Beloved Son and His Brother (The Creed, #2) 4.86 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2025	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Anthems of Zion series, Books 1-3: House of Living Stones, The Choir Immortal, The Harvest Raise it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Katie Schuermann's Blog

Registration is OPEN!

Registration is now open for my fiction writing class "Learn to Write from the Literary Greats" offered online through the Institute for Classical Lutheran Education. Register here:

https://www.ccle.org/product/learn-to...

This 15-week course will meet on Thursdays from 7-8 PM starting the Thursday after Labor Day 2025.

The course caps at 20 registrants. Adults only, please.

Course Description: Join a Read more of this blog post »

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Series by Katie Schuermann

Anthems of Zion (3 books)
by

Katie Schuermann (Goodreads Author)

4.49 avg rating — 1,279 ratings

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Katie’s Recent Updates

Katie Schuermann liked Amanda Winkelman's review of The Beloved Son and His Brother (The Creed, #2):
16 hours, 37 min ago · see review
Katie Schuermann liked Vicki Adams's review of The Saints of Whistle Grove: "It’s interesting how the cast of characters could describe almost any LCMS congregation. In my almost 70 years one can reflect and see how so many issues were of little importance. I throughly enjoyed this book!! "
18 hours, 41 min ago · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Saints of Whistle Grove by Katie Schuermann. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Saints of Whistle Grove by Katie Schuermann <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Katie Schuermann liked Jennifer's review of House of Living Stones (Anthems of Zion, #1):
Apr 14, 2026 02:54PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Katie Schuermann liked Debbie Frickey's review of House of Living Stones (Anthems of Zion, #1):
Apr 14, 2026 02:53PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Katie Schuermann has read The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain, #5) by Lloyd Alexander	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I have come to think of this series as Little Lord of the Rings, and I adore it for the younger sibling that it is.
Mar 23, 2026 09:17AM · 8 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The High King by Lloyd Alexander. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The High King by Lloyd Alexander <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Katie Schuermann made a comment on Lenora’s review of The Saints of Whistle Grove " Lenora, it was a delight meeting you at the CPL's author fair. Thank you for your gracious encouragement! +SDG+ ...more "
Mar 09, 2026 01:06PM · see review
Katie Schuermann made a comment on Corinne Johnson’s review of The Beloved Son and His Brother (The Creed, #2) " Thank you, Corinne! +SDG+ "
Mar 02, 2026 03:40PM · see review
Katie Schuermann has read A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage by Mark Twain	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 26, 2026 06:49PM · like
Katie Schuermann has read The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain, #5) by Lloyd Alexander	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 26, 2026 06:48PM · 3 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The High King by Lloyd Alexander. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The High King by Lloyd Alexander <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Katie Schuermann made a comment on Hannah Johnson’s review of The Saints of Whistle Grove " Thank you for wandering through Whistle Grove with me, Hannah! +SDG+ "
Jan 29, 2026 12:16PM · see review

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Quotes by Katie Schuermann (?)

“Give me a plumber who reads Virgil, a carpenter who plays pipe organ, and a pastor who recognises a strong trochaic foot. Give me a world full of thinking men and women educated in the liberal arts who confess Christ in their vocations, debate the sanctity of life in the public square, and discuss Tocqueville over dinner. Give me a neighborhood full of graduates from Luther Classical College, and I will look forward to tomorrow.”
― Katie Schuermann

tags: luther-classical-college

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“...And she’s had a hard life.” “But so has everyone.” “But not everyone believes the Gospel, Emily.” He probably had said too much, but his wife’s rose-colored glasses sometimes kept her from seeing true colors. “I’m not saying that Yvonne doesn’t believe. I’m just saying that not everyone is comforted by Christ’s message of forgiveness and love like you are.”
― Katie Schuermann, The Harvest Raise

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“She marveled at the music that is so often born from misery. A strange paradox, to be sure, but one every Christian understands: victory is born from great sacrifice, salvation from a cross, Easter joy from Good Friday woe...”
― Katie Schuermann, House of Living Stones

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Katie’s Quotes

“Not that she was normally secretive or uncommunicative in any way. She simply didn't make a habit of volunteering her thoughts and feelings to others at every turn.”
― Katie Schuermann, The Choir Immortal

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“He confessed sins that were too dark to be published, and he asked for the strength to serve the people who, out of their own pain and confusion, hurt him and his family. “ ‘Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.”
― Katie Schuermann, The Harvest Raise

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“The sinner’s justification cannot be demonstrated psychologically.”
― Herman Sasse, Letters to Lutheran Pastors: Volume 1

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“And did she talk to him after that as usual?" asked Sara Ray. "Oh, yes, she was just the same as she used to be," said the Story Girl wearily. "But that doesn't belong to the story. It stops when she spoke at last. You're never satisfied to leave a story where it should stop, Sara Ray.”
― L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl

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