Crazy for Trying: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Sad and funny. I laughed with tears in my eyes.
Review: 19 year old Tulsa Bitters carries a lot more baggage than her 2 guitars when she steps off a train in Helena, Montana. She carries with her a lifetime of feeling ugly and inadequate, growing up in a home with a lesbian Mother and a long gone Dad. These feelings vanish when she goes on the air as a late night Dee Jay. Her new life as V.A. Lownes, in which she can be heard but not seen brings out her inner beauty and brings a jaded Viet Nam vet, Mac McPeters into her life. The romance filled battles between the old vet and the glamorous sounding young Dee Jay are fought against a background of the mountains of Montana. Love eventually overcomes the bad memories Tulsa and Mac grew up with. A classic love story that will make you laugh and cry, occasionally at the same time

Rating:
Summary: "Crazy for Trying" is a love story with an edge.
Review: In my first novel, "Crazy for Trying," I sought to address sensitive issues with a gentle, humorous touch, rather than whack folks over the head with my views on sexuality, racism, abortion, and drug abuse. Most of all, I wanted to make you laugh and remind you of the healing power of love. When I wrote "Crazy for Trying," I was the working mother of two pre-schoolers. I was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I finished the manuscript and underwent chemotherapy as I searched for a publisher and made revisions. I was thrilled and grateful when "Crazy for Trying" was selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. With my cancer in remission, I'm hard at work on another novel. Thank you for your time and interest. I hope you'll enjoy reading "Crazy for Trying." Shalom and Best, Joni Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: great character exploration!
Review: Over all, CRAZY FOR TRYING is a well-written, if uneven, story of a woman who must overcome a myriad of psychological punches from her past and present and still try to love someone even more damaged than she. This starts out as a lighthearted TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS-style story, but does a 180 midway through to tackle every issue from homosexuality, to feminism, to abortion, to Vietnam, to drug and alcohol addiction, child abuse, spousal abuse, sexual harassment in the work place, to Alzheimer's, to leukemia. Sorry for all the movie references, but think NORMA RAE, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.

The characters are extremely well developed, and due to the tremendous amounts of trauma they must face, every facet of the characters' character is explored. Tulsa is painfully drawn as the obese, book-worm wallflower who, under the tutelage of life on her own and the love of a not-so-good man blossoms into a sturdy, strong-willed Montana rose. This is a believable transition to some extent, though her strength after Mac's crippling accident seemed to come from nowhere. Though Mac was also an interesting dysfunctional misfit, his fear of commitment rose and fell, and rather than arced. Over all, a good read.

Rating:
Summary: great character exploration!
Review: Over all, CRAZY FOR TRYING is a well-written, if uneven, story of a woman who must overcome a myriad of psychological punches from her past and present and still try to love someone even more damaged than she. This starts out as a lighthearted TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS-style story, but does a 180 midway through to tackle every issue from homosexuality, to feminism, to abortion, to Vietnam, to drug and alcohol addiction, child abuse, spousal abuse, sexual harassment in the work place, to Alzheimer's, to leukemia. Sorry for all the movie references, but think NORMA RAE, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.

The characters are extremely well developed, and due to the tremendous amounts of trauma they must face, every facet of the characters' character is explored. Tulsa is painfully drawn as the obese, book-worm wallflower who, under the tutelage of life on her own and the love of a not-so-good man blossoms into a sturdy, strong-willed Montana rose. This is a believable transition to some extent, though her strength after Mac's crippling accident seemed to come from nowhere. Though Mac was also an interesting dysfunctional misfit, his fear of commitment rose and fell, and rather than arced. Over all, a good read.

Rating:
Summary: A friendly voice in the night
Review: Since I spent over twenty years on the radio and have just released my own novel with disk jockeys as the main characters (WIZARD OF THE WIND, St. Martin's Press), I was very interested in Ms. Rogers' book. She didn't let me down.There's something sacred about being able to touch someone over the air, and her protaganist quickly masters that knack. Each time I was afraid she would allow the story to get too serious, she would bring me right back up with something so funny...and so real...that I was swept along with the story.I hope Juni Rogers will continue her literary career. She shows great promise. And she has done every late-night dee jay out there a real service.