Blogcritics Author: Vikk Simmons

Living the Google-Enhanced Writing Life

Vikk Simmons — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:58:29 EDT

The Internet search engine has forever changed the way writers conduct their lives. Today Google's influence and assistance is expanding at a phenomenal rate.
Google's impact on writers is growing. The dawn of the Internet search engine forever changed the way writers conduct their daily lives. Today Google's influence and assistance is expanding at a phenomenal rate. I confess: I have become Googlized. It began innocently enough. Tuesday I began the day firing up my computer while sipping my...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Book Review: A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words that Work by Jack Hart

Vikk Simmons — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 04:51:35 EDT

Every now and then you come across a book that is hard to review. Not because it’s a bad book but because it’s so overwhelmingly good. Simply put, some books demand you take them seriously and that you read them slowly and thoughtfully. That proved to be the case for me when I encountered Jack Hart’s A Writer’s Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words that Work. By the third paragraph he was singing my song: Great writing happens not through some dark art, but when method meets craft. The secret — if there is one — is to take one manageable step at a time. Superman may leap tall buildings in a single bound, but the best writers I know sit down at their keyboards and write one line. And then another. And another.By the end of the introduction I had begun the lament that would continue through my entire reading: “Why oh why wasn’t a book like this available when I first began writing?” Hart knows from experience exactly what it takes to write Pulitzer prize-winning stories. As the managing editor of The Oregonian and an invaluable writing coach, he has edited, cajoled, and advised many top reporters through their winning process. Before any fiction writer gets the idea that Hart’s book simply feeds reporters and other nonfiction aspirants, let me tell you that Hart’s method, his understanding of process, his complete command of writing cannot help but make anyone a better writer. Whether he’s talking about inspiration and the process of getting started or focusing minutely on the simplest of word choices, Hart has something important to offer. Why was this a hard review to write? Because every page is seeded with a wealth of knowledge that writers at any stage would be well-advised to review. Fiction writers who are facing the overwhelming task of simply getting started will find Hart’s discussion of the writing process and the strategies he provides a great boon. The pages detailing Hart’s understanding of the Ladder of Abstraction are worth a regular review. Method, Process, Structure, Force, Brevity, Clarity, Rhythm, Humanity, Color, Voice, Mechanics, and yes, Mastery - such are the chapter headings that hold the promise of secrets to great writing. Although the book is clearly weighted toward nonfiction, each concept is considered as it applies to fiction. Good writing is good writing. It would be silly for me to try and explain everything in Hart’s book when he does such a stellar job himself. If you are looking for a personal writing coach who will share the tricks of the trade and help you become a better writer, look no further than Jack Hart in A Writer’s Coach. As the author says, “Mastery is not some closely guarded mystery, but the step-by-step conquest of craft.”

Vikk has a traveler's soul and an explorer's spirit. An avid reader, writer, blogger, reviewer, and photographer, she is passionate about writing and traveling and loves to combine the two. Co-author of three travel books, she is also the Houston City Expert for Home & Abroad in partnership with Expedia.com. She is also the author of two teen novels. Check out her books and visit her blog at Down the Writer's Path for her comments on the publishing industry and the craft of writing.

Book Review: Girls Dinner Club by Jessie Elliot

Vikk Simmons — Wed, 6 Dec 2006 05:33:00 EST

Jessie Elliot’s debut novel, Girls Dinner Club, promises a lot — laughter, heartbreak, and dessert — but fails to live up to its full potential. Girls Dinner Club has a lot going for it: three very different girls from three very different schools living three very different lives. The development of a weekly dinner get-together where the girls learn to cook while sharing their life events seems like a great idea ripe with potential. A more mature writer might have mined the story for all its worth but as a debut novel it left me wanting. We all know teenage girls are consumed with boys and in today’s world that includes sex. While the book does go into some of the other aspects of teen life, it’s pretty clear that for the girls of the Friday night dinner get-together, the promise, fulfillment, and aftermath of sex is the main course. The unplanned ramifications of having sex before you’re emotionally ready are immediately confronted by the end of chapter two when Julie Wong-Goldstein succumbs to her boyfriend’s urgings for sex. Meanwhile, Danielle is confronting her attitudes and feelings about sex and for a boyfriend who can’t resist cheating on her, while Cecelia is still to have her first love-of-her life. I’ve been trying to figure out why the book left me wanting. Elliot is a good writer, but the story lacked a certain emotional intensity. Perhaps it’s because the author tried too hard. The three girls, three different ethnicities, three different lifestyles, three different schools concept left me with the feeling of seeing too much of the author’s hand at work. It felt too contrived. I also didn’t think the dinner club concept was mined enough. It, too, came off more as a plot contrivance to make the novel idea work. In the end I wanted to know more.Girls Dinner Club is clearly for the older teen (grades 10 and up) and not for those who are still young emotionally as well as physically. I do think the author’s handling of Julie’s reaction to having sex is provocative. Her sudden need to distance herself from her boyfriend is something many girls may be surprised to learn happens. While I do have problems with the scope of this novel, I would still be interested in reading any future books by the author

Book Review: Saints: A Year in Faith and Art by Rosa Giorgi

Vikk Simmons — Wed, 6 Dec 2006 02:55:22 EST

Saints and sacred art have captured imaginations for centuries. You have only to remember the recent deaths of two beloved individuals, Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II. Millions mourned their deaths while celebrating their saint-like lives. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel rendering of God and Adam, each reaching forward, their fingertips nearly touching, is a famous centuries-old image that evokes worldwide instant recognition and response. Saints: A Year in Faith and Art by art historian Rosa Giorgi melds the best of both faith and art into an extraordinarily useful and utterly gorgeous book. Giorgi had one simple goal: “One saint, anniversary, or remembrance for each day of the year, including the added day of leap year.” Giorgi draws as much as possible on the Roman Catholic calendar and liturgical tradition, but she is not afraid to highlight saints from the popular tradition, as well as some who are still in the canonization process. She strove for universality:… (the calendar) is composed of examples of sanctity expressed by men, women, and children, by adults and by the elderly, all of them treated equally in the pages of this book. Let it be said immediately that this universality is not a merit of this volume but is rather an outstanding characteristic of the call to sainthood, which is universal in the sense that it can come to anyone, to people of every age and gender and also every walk of life. The clergy and the lay, the enslaved or the free, the noble or the derelict.While the accompanying daily text provides a short bio, an outline really, of the saint’s life and “an indication of what led him or her to a life of sanctity,” the true purpose is for the combined art and life of a saint to daily feed your soul. Most days have one saint, although occasionally you will run across a second and a third depending on the painting chosen. This literary gem is perfect for short daily readings as well as deeper meditations. Another window into using the book's contents is through the added index of names. For someone like me who is interested in iconography and religious art, the physical attributes of the book are a huge plus. While thick (780 pages), the size (6.4 x 4.8 x 2.1 inches) is that of a smaller, hand-held devotional. Art lovers will delve into their own brand of heaven with the 380 images, each highlighting a day in the year. From early icons to adored Renaissance depictions, the saints are presented in glorious color, and Giorgi’s specialties in iconography and iconology are clearly evident. Included are the works of artists such as the famous Raphael, Caravaggio, and — my favorite — Michelangelo, as well as those by the lesser known and the unknown. Hardbound, the book's covers and binding gleam like gold leaf from the saturation of color.It is said the saints are always with us. Perhaps they are. Certainly, their lives and images are well within reach between the covers of this large-yet-little volume. Recently released, the book arrives just in time for the gift-giving season.

Book Review: Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace: My Spiritual Journey in Opus Dei by Scott Hahn

Vikk Simmons — Mon, 4 Dec 2006 13:13:18 EST

During the reign of The Da Vinci Code, the Catholic Church and, in particular, Opus Dei took some pretty hard punches. Cable specials, TV commentaries, the movie, and every ad aired conjured up the ogre and called him Opus Dei. Portrayed as secretive and exclusive, the organization didn’t take it on the chin and forget about it. Instead, the members viewed the Da Vinci controversy as an astounding opportunity to get their own message out. They decided to “make lemonade.” While people went to the Internet in droves to research the book and the movie, many clicked further and found the official Opus Dei website. (A quick search of “Opus Dei” and “Da Vinci Code” revealed 582,000 links.) How did they fare? In a paper titled "Three Years with the Da Vinci Code" presented on April 27, 2006 in the Fifth Professional Seminar for Church Communications, the New York Communications Office of Opus Dei reported this: The official website, www.opusdei.org, has proved to be an amazing instrument in a period such as this. The site is of its nature global, like the Da Vinci phenomenon. There we have offered the most extensive and detailed answer to the Da Vinci Code in 22 languages. During the year 2005, the American section of the website received more than a million different visitors (that’s visitors, not visits); and the total more than three million. The day that these reflections were finalised in New York, there had arrived 156 messages by 9 in the morning. One curious effect is the scholar-novelist Umberto Eco’s recommendation of the official Opus Dei website. Exhausted by continuous questions about the veracity of the DVC, Eco tells his readers, “Besides, if you want up-to-date information on all the matters in question, go to the site of Opus Dei. Even if you are atheists, you can trust it.”Now Scott Hahn comes with his 11th book, Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace: My Spiritual Journey in Opus Dei. Hahn, a former Protestant evangelical, a Presbyterian minister to be exact, relates how he eventually became a “wannabe Catholic.” But not until, as he says, he “arrived at Marquette University for graduate studies in theology with high hopes but low expectations.” There he met a couple of Catholics who -- shock! -- carried small Bibles in their pockets. Card-carrying Bible readers who depended on scripture in their everyday life were, in Hahn’s experience, not everyday Catholics. Thus begins Hahn’s introduction to Opus Dei and his first steps on a spiritual journey that would lead to his embrace of the Opus Dei spirituality and eventually end in his conversion to the Catholic faith. Hahn’s book offers an insider’s view of what it’s like to do “the Work.” Opus Dei means “the Work of God” or “God’s Work.” When Hahn heard those two words, he understood their meaning and reacted instinctively. He knew “Opus Dei was someplace where I could begin to feel at home.” Why? He had discovered that the members have a sincere devotion to the Bible. They welcome non-Catholics. They live “ordinary” lives. “They were not theologians, instead they lived the theology." Hahn appreciated their devout work ethic, their willingness to answer questions, and, most importantly to Hahn, they prayed. He saw the Opus Dei members in daily “true conversation with God.” Hahn had found his place and his way. Opus Dei gave him entrance into the full Catholic faith. Over the course of the book’s 122 pages and 12 chapters, Hahn expresses, often poetically, what it’s like to follow the way laid out by Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei and the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. For a former evangelical, Opus Dei’s daily reliance on the Bible offered a firm foundation for his further studies. The call to a daily, imaginative five-minute Bible study of the New Testament made sense. Escrivá urged his followers to pick a scene in the Bible and to imagine it fully using all the senses. “Take part in it as one of the characters,” he said. It will “enable you to incarnate the Gospel, reflect it in your life and help others reflect it.” In Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, Hahn makes a lot of lemonade as he continues his successful work in apologetics for the Catholic faith. He relates his journey in an engaging, intimate, personal style. He tells a story, his story, about finding God in everyday life. In the process, he reveals the inner workings of Opus Dei, its way, and God's Work.

O.J.'s If I Did It: It's Not About the Book, It's Not About You, Judith

Vikk Simmons — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 04:22:09 EST

If I Did It, the new O.J. Simpson book that is roaring over the publishing landscape like a tsunami and leaving as much devastation in its wake, is wrong on so many levels, it’s hard to even begin to separate them; but frankly the real issue has nothing to do with publisher Judith Regan or even that of Simpson writing a book about the slayings. What is weird, perverse, and pretty much evil is that Simpson is being given a public forum to fantasize, relive the details of a crime in his mind, and then invite us all to share in the “dream.” I mean, how perverse and voyeuristic have we become? Blood money transactions abound in our culture. Publishers show dismal taste in their choice of many books. Readers open their minds to baser and baser information. That’s a given in our culture today. But this, this is different. There is something wrong, something twisted, something unreal about this whole issue and the ensuing conversation. For whatever reason there are, apparently, those who believe that somehow Simpson’s creative “confession” would be a boon for society. The announcement took on epic proportions early, long before Judith Regan entered the fray. Now, what already screamed bizarre became, if possible, even more odd. How can Reagan even imagine that Simpson’s folly will have some kind of cleansing effect on anyone, let alone her? And what does it say about her own pathology when she has apparently so intricately threaded her personal psychology into the fabric of this drama?Whatever Regan’s reasons are for publishing the book, she is not the issue. Whatever ethics might be called into question regarding the supposed three million dollar deal, that is not the main problem. Whatever motivations are ascribed to O.J. for his latest headline-grabbing antics, they are barely worth the time and energy invested in their generation. The fact that there is an automatic assumption that we, the readers, will not only want to know but will willingly become accomplices in O.J.’s public fantasy projections is something that society may need to examine carefully. If Simpson is innocent, how does this benefit us? If Simpson is trying to make a rather perverse “confession,” what is our role in all of this? If Simpson committed these crimes, what are we allowing him to do to us?

Book Review: Rosalie and Truffle, Truffle and Rosalie by Katja Reider, Illustrated by Jutta Bucker

Vikk Simmons — Wed, 4 Oct 2006 17:07:08 EDT

Rosalie and Truffle, Truffle and Rosalie is a clever, deceptive little book. Two young dreamers meet and fall in love under the apple tree. Easy enough, but this story of true love is told from two perspectives. First is Rosalie and Truffle, “A Story of Love,” where Rosalie spends her days dreaming of true love. Flip the book and you have Truffle and Rosalie, “A Story of Luck,” where Truffle dreams of “being really lucky.” The clever part lies in the ending. Each story comes to a stop on the same double-page spread that shows the yin and the yang of Rosalie and Truffle’s love — and it works beautifully. Rosalie is a sweet pink pig. Truffle, well, he’s chocolate brown and he’s just Truffle. Both lie under the apple tree to while away their days dreaming. Both are accused of having no ambition. When Rosalie’s mother castigates her for doing nothing, Rosalie says, “But I am doing something, I’m dreaming.” When Truffle’s parents recite the big dreams they had when they were Truffle’s age, he says, “But I have dreams, too.” Rosalie’s two friends Lottie and Clara dream, but their dreams are of being rich and famous. Truffle’s two friends Spike and Carlo dream, too, of chocolate cake and girls. On the fateful day when Rosalie and Truffle meet under the apple tree, each experiences a moment of pure bliss. But of course the path of true love, never easy, has huge boulders blocking their way. By the time each has followed the advice of his or her friends, neither recognizes the other. How these two soul mates come together as one is the heart of the story. Rosalie and Truffle, Truffle and Rosalie is a book about appearances and how important it is to be true to yourself. At first glance the small book feels and looks like a child’s picture book — and it is. However, the storytelling and the book’s execution are quite sophisticated. The simple charcoal drawings coupled with color illustrations entertain young and old. While children will relate to most of the story’s language, many lines have another layer of meaning for adults. “After all, around every corner await sweet new temptations, ripe and yours for the picking!” may not make much sense to a child but an adult will catch its drift. Pick up the book and read Rosalie’s story; turn it over and read Truffle’s. Choose the book for a small child; flip open its pages and find a book worthy to be read any time to any one when love is in the air. If you’re looking for something small and charming, a gift perhaps, then Rosalie and Truffle, Truffle and Rosalie is worth considering, especially if you like to go "Ahhh," at the end.

Joy: The Love of Reading Leads to the Joy of Writing

Vikk Simmons — Mon, 2 Oct 2006 17:01:07 EDT

I love reading — probably even more than writing. First thing each morning I pick up a book, usually on some aspect of writing, and read for about 15 minutes. By doing this at the start of every day when the remaining strands of my subconscious still thread through my conscious mind, I fill my mind with things that are important to me and feed my subconscious, centering my mind for the day ahead. There is nothing like beginning the day in the company of an author who tickles my brain cells.Recently I picked up a book that promised to make my morning reading ritual an absolute delight. I’ve only read the introduction but my imagination and my love for books is so thoroughly captured I know I will greedily devour the rest of the pages. The book is Robert Schwartz’s For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Book They Love Most, and I believe it falls under the Gee-I-wish-I’d-done-that category. Cast your eyes on this:Bookstores were of course my weakness and ultimately my way back. As solace from an otherwise law-benumbed life (He had just graduated from law school.) I was soothed by the symmetry of aisles and sections; mesmerized by the vast compression of facts, ideas, lives, epochs, travels, and regions of the heart. Books of imperishable charm, of bracing or painful insights, endless realignments of twenty-six letters -- all contained in one impossibly small and dense place, a paradoxical mix of tranquility and sheer explosive power -- as if a bookstore or library can be said to breach some law of physics or create a new one all its own, like a nuclear bomb with good intentions. Reading for me had become fun again but no mere parlor game. I would read, as readers do, to tame the unfamiliar or see the familiar through new and enlightened prisms; to see how different, or eerily familiar, another person’s interior life could be from my own.I have been reading for so many years that I cannot remember a moment when words did not light up my life. I’m an only child. Books are my friends, authors my siblings. I delved deep into experiences, lived well with characters, learned much from the lessons woven tightly into the fabric of the stories. Books are so much more than words on paper; they are conversations. So when I scanned these words, I understood. Writing, after all, seemed to me the most important thing one could do crawling between heaven and earth for a lifetime, even if I could not say why. Even if, having read the entire set of Paris Review interviews, I could still not really say what writers did or how they did it. Or how their words came together or pulled apart or crumbled in their hands in the course of infinite reshaping.Bookcases full of slipcovered Heritage books lined the walls of my parents’ home. At thirteen I fell in love with Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy, and over the next ten years re-experienced those words and images through an annual re-reading of Stone’s masterpiece. Like Michelangelo, I felt the coolness of the marble, heard the tap of the sculptor’s hammer; saw the figure in the block. I didn’t realize for many years, but that book played an important part in sparking my desire to understand the creative process and later to become a writer. My 1963 edition with full color plates is a treasure that has surfaced during the high and the low tides in my life. A memory held close to the heart is not only meeting the author the year before he died but having him sign my worn copy that had survived my growing up, a flood, and even a fire. If Irving Stone opened my understanding of the creative process, Ray Bradbury kindled my power and joy of writing. Imagine my joy and awe in not just meeting him and talking with him, but standing next to him ready to assist during a book signing. Reading Bradbury is never a passive act. I watched literally generations of families come to meet their literary hero. The grandfather introducing his hero to his grandson, the father reminiscing with his son in tow. Hundreds of people waited hours, all eyes staring at the man who released their imaginations and set them soaring. Today Bradbury's essay on "The Joy of Writing" found in Zen in the Art of Writing is another annual reading ritual. If, through the reading of words, one soul can touch another, then those pages witnessed my collision. “Great writers are children of the gods,” writes Bradbury in his famous essay. “Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind.” These writers lived their work, they had fun, knew joy. “When was the last time you dared release a cherished prejudice so it slammed the page like lightning bolt?” he yells. “This afternoon burn down the house. Tomorrow pour cold critical water upon the simmering coals. But today — explode — fly apart — disintegrate!”Bradbury demands writers to write with passion. Easy enough for him, his loves are visible. They saturate his being and illuminate his soul. He doesn’t tap into his passions — they explode from within and scatter across the page. He loves life. His ardor knows no bounds. Writing about his passions is second nature; he cannot help but do so. His exuberance for life and his unexcused love for writing is a siren’s song. “Find your twins," he urges, no matter where in life they reside. Where do your passions intersect? That’s the point where the spark will fire and illuminate your soul. Bradbury unabashedly scrolls across the genres from playwright to screenwriter, storyteller to short story writer, essayist to novelist. Writing is his playground. Like a joyful Johnny Appleseed, the age-old Bradbury skips across cultural landscapes planting seeds within the fertile grounds of his essays and shorts stories and moves on. He trusts good fruit will follow. Every day Ray Bradbury pushes me to unabashedly grab my pen or pull the keyboard forward excited, even trembling, ready to create the next story, essay, or novel. I must embrace work that moves and invigorates me. Reading sparked this essay. The constant push and pull between the two processes, writing and reading, continues. This continuous movement energizes me, engages my creativity, and prompts more writing. Reading throws off the comfort of passivity and demands I act. My books, littered with marginalia, stoke the desire to write. I am steeped in good conversation. Working in a bookstore, living in a home brimming with books, and being a natural library slug, I confess I live with that humming power that emanates from bookish environments. The tactile expression of writers having written words that “crumbled in their hands” resonates as I recall scenes and paragraphs of my own that disintegrated before I barely had time to read them through. Books are the repositories of minds at work and if you listen carefully you might hear them call your name.Shh! Listen.

Book Review: Donutheart by Sue Stauffacher

Vikk Simmons — Sun, 1 Oct 2006 02:51:20 EDT

Donutheart’s Sue Stauffacher is the kind of writer who reminds you why you developed a love of reading. In eighth-grader Franklin Delano Donuthead, she has created a character who has you smiling and laughing out loud before the end of the first paragraph. Three pages in I was still laughing. Told in the infectious voice of a middle-grader who has developed a personal code based on his “interpretation of the principles set forth by President Roosevelt in the New Deal," Stauffacher uses humor to tell a deeper story about family, friendship, and dreams. The big three in Franklin’s code are mental improvement, health promotion, and risk avoidance. Risk avoidance is a major part of his character. Franklin avoids germs and assesses all risk factors before moving forward. He knows to sit close to a teacher to be sure he has good grades and to blend in with others in the lunchroom to avoid being marked as “easy prey.” He thinks a lot about middle school bathrooms; the Pelican View Middle School bathrooms should be “avoided whenever possible.” That is not as easy as it may seem and the mere structure of the boys' bathroom is enough to send Franklin on a rant: The problem is, the adolescent body is 75 percent water. And what goes in must come out. Just not in the boys’ bathroom. Note that I did not say 'the boys’ and the girls’ bathrooms.' All you need is a peek through the open door to realize that girls can attend to their business behind closed doors. I am still working through my feelings about Who decided — and then proceeded to tell generations of architects — that boys need less privacy than girls? Who? Girls are always saying they want everything to be equal. Hello? The restroom facilities are not equal.While Franklin devotes a lot of brain time to the subject of the lovely Glynnis Powell, his actual days are spent with a wide-ranging cast of characters. From morning calls to Gloria Nelots, a chief statistician for the National Safety Department in Washington, D.C. to drive time with his vivacious mom, encounters with her new boyfriend, and lunches spent with his absentminded friend, Bernie - and Sarah. Sarah. In a perfect world Franklin would practice major risk avoidance and steer clear of Sarah Kervick. But Pelican View Middle School is not the best environment for a young, sensitive, asymmetrical boy like Franklin. Due to “administrative tampering at the highest level,” Franklin sits next to Sarah in five of seven classes. She has imposed a deal on him: She watches over him, keeps him safe from “the criminal element at school,” and he makes sure her grades are good enough for her to participate in the Greater Pelican View Amateur Figure Skating Association. For all her faults and weird ways, Sarah can skate. And for whatever reasons, Franklin’s mother and Gloria Nelots, his Washington D.C. friend, have invested a lot of time, care, and money into seeing that Sarah meets her dreams. But life is not all laughs and the world is not always safe. Beneath the humor there’s a growing sense of things not being right, of friends coming apart at the seams. Franklin’s intense self-focus gravitates outward. Sarah has stopped attending school. She had warned him that she might disappear. Her hidden famly life is revealed, and he learns that things are not always as they seem. Sarah's departure has left a gaping hole in Franklin’s life and his heart. If he is to be a true friend he must now assume some major personal risk. Donutheart is the second book about Franklin and Sarah. While I read and thoroughly enjoyed the story, I wonder if I might have understood more had I read Donuthead first. I never fully grasped Franklin’s relationship with Gloria Nelots, nor the intense focus on Sarah by both his mother and Gloria. Maybe the first book would have answered those nagging questions and they could have been avoided.Finally, I did have a bit of a problem in the way Stauffacher resolved Sarah's problem. While Franklin conquered his fears and made giant strides in going way beyond his comfortable boundaries in order to help Sarah, she is actually secured to safety by the additional help of another character. Despite those issues, the strength of Franklin’s voice and the story, itself, kept me reading, laughing and hungry for more.

Book Review: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Vikk Simmons — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:45:52 EDT

I never would have believed Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s debut teen novel, Dairy Queen, about a 15-year-old Wisconsin farm girl whose family is steeped in football, would keep me up all night reading, but that is what happened. I refused to stop reading the perfect-pitched voice of her protagonist, D.J. (Dorrie) Schwenk. The thing about D.J. and her family is that they do not talk; they work. When D.J. finally discovers her voice, this 15-year-old has a lot to say about her life, her family, her passion for sports, and her cows. While Dairy Queen may appear to be about Wisconsin farm life, heartland football, and a maturing teenager, at its center the book is an exploration into communication and what happens when families and friends fail to go beyond surface talk. It’s hard to ignore the opening passages where D.J. describes her aging cow, Joe Namath, and how, despite her deep feelings, she had to lead the cow to the butcher’s trailer. “If this was a perfect world, we’d keep her forever and spend a million dollars trying to fix her sore legs and she’d die of old age in a rocking chair or some pretty pasture. But this isn’t a perfect world, it’s Wisconsin, and feed costs money and vets cost money, and we barely have enough for the healthy cows, and the butcher pays us money for the old cows, and that money feeds the healthy ones.” D.J. knows about cows. Her family lives on the Wisconsin farm her great grandfather bought; she still bales hay with the same baler Grandpa Warren used. She’s never heard of power washers. But D.J.’s spent her life caring for cows, listening to cows. Since her Dad’s operation and his inability to work the farm, she’s milked thirty-two cows two times a day, seven days a week. So don’t even talk to D.J. about cows. It would be nice if she had help, but her two star football-playing older brothers have gone off to college, her teacher-mom is working even more hours as the fill-in for the retired principal, and her younger brother is caught up in the end-of-season baseball run-off. When Grandpa Warren ran the farm it had the spit and polish of a marine barracks. Now, despite her mowing, manure spreading, hay baling, cow milking efforts, the barn is in desperate need of cleaning, the milk house of painting, and the granary, corncribs, and old chicken coop of resuscitation. It would be nicer still if anyone in her family talked. Instead, her mom hides behind her work at school, her younger brother remains mute, collecting skulls, and loving going to the dentist, her father devotes all his time to trying out new recipes, and the two older brothers returned to college five months ago and as far as D.J. knows haven’t spoken to anyone since. When her family friend and rival high school football coach sends his football star, Brian Nelson, to report for farm duty, D.J.’s life is forever altered. First, he plays for the wrong football team. Second, the boy doesn't want to work. But then Brian compares her to a cow. Cows "go along doing what they're supposed to do without complaining or even really noticing, until they die." He infuriates her; he befriends her. Despite all her misgivings, D.J. agrees to become Brian’s sports trainer for the summer. D.J.'s love for sports enters full force. Yes, she’d been on the track team; yes, she’d played on the basketball team. But Brian’s words release the Schwenk family passion. Before long she's cut her hair, put on pads, and tried out for the high school football team. Does she dare tell her family? What about Brian? Their friendship seemed to have deepened over the summer. What would he say if she played against him? Never mind, D.J. has a lot to say to all of them. I haven’t seen any reviewers mention Murdock’s thread that lightly touches on the sexual orientation of one of the characters. The storyline is an echo of the major theme and is done with a light touch, not with humor but with care. Some may find that it provides added depth. I’m not sure how necessary it was given the many layers already woven into the story’s fabric, but it adds texture and it works. Dairy Queen encourages you to wade further and further into deep waters. D.J. is coming into her own as an individual and as a young woman. While the opening does read a bit slow, it captures the thought processes of a young woman who is not used to talking and who has to slog her way through mounds of verbiage. The long, sometimes extra long, sentences reflect a mind groping, searching to find the right phrase. But the story soon gains momentum. Murdock is great at depicting farm life and expertly weaves the descriptions in with D.J.’s observations making them all relevant, and the barn functions as a symbol that works on several levels. While the story builds to a fast-paced ending, the characters linger, working Murdoch's magic in the reader's mind long after the final page has been turned. Dairy Queen is aimed for readers 12 and up, but the story will provide the most enjoyment for readers who are mature and willing to allow D.J. all the room she needs to grow.