JCW: A Book Club for Writers

Many renowned writers stress how essential reading is to becoming a better writer. Joan Didion, for example, typed out Hemingway’s work to truly feel the rhythm of his sentences. Stephen King is clear: without reading, you can’t write well, urging us to “read a lot, and write a lot.” Francine Prose adds that reading should be done with intention and close attention to technique, not just for inspiration.

Inspired by this, we’ve chosen books that invite a writer’s perspective.
Join the JCW Book Club for Writers, meeting every 3rd Monday to discuss books under 300 pages. If you can’t finish all the selections, feel free to join the conversation on whichever you read.

This month’s theme is Moral Choice in Quiet Lives, featuring:

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (128 pages)
• The Dead by James Joyce (70 pages)
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (optional, 100 pages)

Each story explores moments of moral or emotional awakening within everyday life.

Joshua Tedeschi is a native Jersey City visual artist and writer working on his first novel. He writes literary fiction and urban-themed short poetry that probe everyday relationships and tensions for broader meaning. His writing appears on Substack and Instagram under his pseudonym Julius Germans (@juliusgermans).

John Schneider is a teacher and writer from New Jersey. He reviews small and independent press fiction on Substack (@johnwschneider)