Historical Novels
 

Purchase on Amazon	The Travels of Increase Joseph: A Historical Novel About a Pioneer Preacher (Paperback Edition, University of Wisconsin Press, July, 2010). Purchase on Amazon Inspired by actual events that took place in upstate New York and Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century, The Travels of Increase Joseph is the first in Jerry Apps’s series set in fictional Ames County, Wisconsin. The four novels in the series—which also includes In a Pickle, Blue Shadows Farm, and the forthcoming Cranberry Red—all take place around Link Lake at different points in history. They convey Apps’s deep knowledge of rural life and his own concern for land stewardship. Reviews: It only seems as if Jerry Apps has written a couple hundred books, but it has to be at least a dozen by now, on subjects including beer and barns, circus and one-room schools. He’s even written a couple of fine children’s books. It took him a long time to get around to writing a novel, but it was worth the wait. The Travels of Increase Joseph depicts a make-believe rural preacher in the real world of Wisconsin from pre-Civil War days to the turn of the Century, and it grabs and holds your interest all the way. Like all of Jerry’s books, Travels is steeped in meticulous research, but this time Jerry has let his imagination have at the facts. We follow the career of Increase Joseph Link from the time he gets drummed out of theology school until his death. His calling to preach comes in the form of a literal lightning bolt and leads him to form the church of the Standalone Fellowship, based on teachings contained in a mysterious red book the preacher keeps with him at all times and never lets anyone else read.  When not preaching a gospel of God, man, and the land, pastor Link peddles a cure-all tonic (the recipe also remains his secret, but I'm betting on a high alcohol content) that sells for "50 cents, or two for a dollar."  It's a wonderful read and an education in Wisconsin history and the formation of America. I highly recommend it. Marshal Cook The Travels Of Increase Joseph by Jerry Apps is a superbly crafted historical novel of a pioneer preacher who came to the wildlands of Wisconsin in 1852 with his small gathering of followers, the Standalone Fellowship. Supporting the Fellowship by selling his special curative tonic, and delivering oratory and with powerful messages that are nothing short of spellbinding, Joseph Link dared to speak out as he journeyed and his words and ideas made an impression that stayed. The Travels Of Increase Joseph is a most thoughtful and wonderfully entertaining read. Jerry Apps writes with vibrant character and has a penchant for making Wisconsin history come alive. Midwest Book Review. Other Reviews: Fitchburg Star
Purchase on Amazon	In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story (September, 2007) Jerry Apps in his latest novel, In a Pickle, is a many-layered pleasure delivered by a master craftsman who is also, like his contemporaries Studs Terkel and Howard Zinn, a passionate student of the people’s history.  As Apps engages us in the coming-of-age saga of the pickle factory manager Andy Meyer, his In a Pickle is at once a lesson in rural Wisconsin sociology, a quietly scathing indictment of factory farming, and a great read.”—John Galligan.  Click here for Reviews of "In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story" Purchase on Amazon
Purchase on Amazon	Blue Shadows Farm (September, 2009) "Jerry Apps unravels a family secret that arcs across three generations and delivers a surprising answer for one descendant." —Philip Hasheider, contributing author to Seasons on the Farm Fans of Jerry Apps will delight in his latest novel, Blue Shadows Farm, which follows the intriguing family story of three generations on a Wisconsin farm. Silas Starkweather, a Civil War veteran, is drawn to Wisconsin and homesteads 160 acres in Ames County, where he is known as the mysterious farmer forever digging holes. After years of hardship and toil, however, Silas develops a commitment to farming his land and respect for his new community. When Silas’s son Abe inherits Blue Shadows Farm he chooses to keep the land out of reluctant necessity, distilling and distributing “purified corn water” throughout Prohibition and the Great Depression in order to stay solvent. Abe’s daughter, Emma, willingly takes over the farm after her mother’s death. Emma’s love for this place inspires her to open the farm to school- children and families who share her respect for it. As she considers selling the land, Emma is confronted with a difficult question—who, through thick and thin, will care for Blue Shadows Farm as her family has done for over a century? In the midst of a controversy that disrupts the entire community, Emma looks into her family’s past to help her make crucial decisions about the future of its land. Finalist, General Fiction, Midwest book Wards, 2010 Reviews: Many books have good stories, but too often end up with the reader feeling that the story was better than what the writer did with it.  Likewise, many really good writers unfortunately just don’t have very good stories to tell.  But Jerry Apps scores big time on both counts with Blue Shadows Farm.  It’s an exceptionally well-crafted tale, spread over three generations of Starkweathers. From Silas Starkweather, a wounded Civil War soldier who homesteads the farm in rural central Wisconsin, through Emma his grand-daughter who ushers in the 21st century, the book chronicles their trials and triumphs through their relationships with their neighbors and the land.  But Blue Shadows Farm is not a straight linear account of their lives. Successive chapters go back and forth among all three generations, creating interconnected timelines. From Silas Starkweather, a wounded Civil War soldier who homesteads the farm in rural central Wisconsin, through Emma, his grand-daughter who ushers in the 21st century, the book chronicles their trials and triumphs through their relationships with their neighbors and the land. Apps' smooth narrative, vivid descriptions and natural dialogue effectively weave the stories together into a large, coherent tapestry, covering a century-and-a-half of change on their farm and in the surrounding community. Each compact chapter is filled with a wealth of details about the era in which that chapter's specific events occur, providing you with a fine taste of the vintage realities of rural life during each period. It all comes together seamlessly and very effectively, including the mystery of an underlying theme that is an intriguing and satisfying part of the story. As you read and enjoy the literary pleasures of Blue Shadows Farm, it will inevitably expand your perspectives on how things were and how they are. You can't help but learn some significant things in this historical novel that's as much or more history as it is novel. With Blue Shadows Farm, Jerry Apps has penned another gem in his long line of superb books. This one gives irrefutable proof that his craftsmanship as a writer is outstanding and the tales he tells are truly good stories. Nowadays, that is a hard-to-find and much-to-be-treasured combination.  Jim Pope, Amazon.com. Purchase on Amazon
Purchase on Amazon	Cranberry Red - October, 2010 From Publishers Weekly: The fourth title in Apps's Ames County, Wis., series offers a feel-good slice of 21st-century life in smalltown U.S.A. When his job is eliminated, Ben Wesley had been an Ames County agricultural agent for two decades. After breaking the news to his often difficult wife, Beth, a registered nurse, Ben is offered a more lucrative position as a œresearch application specialist � by a new online, for-profit university, which means he has to start charging fees for his services, a change he's none too happy about. He also has to aggressively market the university's scientifically developed miracle fruit, Cranberry Red. Claims of improved health from its higher antioxidant content clash with a lack of adequate product testing that leaves its side effects on humans uncertain. Ben has grave concerns, butting heads with Brittani Stone, his ambitious, by-the-book office manager, and seeks the counsel of his old fishing pal, Lars Olson. Despite all the drama, there's time for such rural staples as the county fair and family cookouts before the truly disturbing aspects of Cranberry Red emerge in Apps's satisfying outside-the-city-limits tale.  Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist: In the fourth book in the Ames County series, Ben Wesley, an agricultural agent for the past two decades, is suddenly out of work when funding for his program is cut. He’s immediately offered a job with Osborne University, doing pretty much what he did before but charging people for his services. This makes him a little uncomfortable but not nearly as much as Cranberry Red, a new chemical developed by the university’s researchers that could have spectacular benefits for people with heart disease or Alzheimer’s. When it begins to appear that Cranberry Red has some pretty nasty side effects, Ben is faced with a difficult choice: keep his job and find a way to protect the community, or blow the lid off the secret and risk everything. Apps approaches his familiar themes (honor, the importance of community, the increasing threat to traditional farming) from a new angle, focusing on the issue of genetic modification and its impact on an entire way of life. As usual, he creates compelling characters and places them in a vividly realized setting. --David Pitt Purchase on Amazon