Not That Kind of Girl: A Memoir

“It was on the bus to Christian school that I first heard Echo and the Bunnymen,” Bauer says, looking back at her New Jersey childhood, and the tension between the sacred and the secular permeates every page of this heartfelt memoir. Whether she's recalling the lurid details of the apocalyptic warnings she received in Sunday school or discussing a college friendship that was a constant test of her faith, Bauer writes about her spiritual idealism without a trace of pride. The humble, honest tone continues when she moves to New York City and begins to test “just how far you could go until freewheeling expansion of mind disintegrated into soul-destroying sin,” quickly realizing that her constant efforts to push up against the boundaries of her virginity have left her only “a pile of false starts.” These experiences do lead to religious disillusionment, which she attempts to resolve by converting to Catholicism, without success. “I am someone who loved God before I hardened my heart,” Bauer writes, but no matter how hard she is on herself, she maintains an ambiguous optimism that enables her to poignantly describe the grace and beauty of ordinary moments. (Aug.)