This brave debut novel by bestselling author Joni Rodgers, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and a Discover Award finalist.

Seeking to escape the shadow of her infamous mother—a radical lesbian poet who is larger than life, even in death—Tulsa Bitters, zaftig, bookish and freshly orphaned, takes a westbound train, determined to reinvent herself. She gets a job as a late-night disc jockey at a radio station in Helena, Montana. It’s 1979, and people aren’t accustomed to hearing a woman’s voice on the radio, but for Tulsa, far away from all the people who loved and hurt her, midnight rock’n’roll feels like home. Painfully aware that she’ll never be beautiful, she discovers that being invisible is even better.

Michael White Wolf MacPeters, half Blackfoot, half raging Irish, hears her voice on the radio and finds himself on the phone with her one night. The conversation evolves, smart, funny, and full of compassion, and Mac begins a careful courtship, her voice in his ear, his voice in hers. Despite the baggage of his damaged past—from the suicide of his half-breed mother to his own bloody passage in Vietnam—Mac allows himself to believe it could work, but the unlikely romance is cause for horror among Tulsa’s friends and Mac’s drinking buddies.

With love-struck energy and sharp-tongued tenacity, Rodgers loads up a tight circle of lovers, adversaries, dysfunctional family members and comically flawed friends, driving them down a fresh road through hard-earned love, a dangerous western solitude, and the old sexual politics.

Praise for CRAZY FOR TRYING:
“Think Jane Eyre with rock’n’roll.” Houston Press

“Terrific…a rollicking ride through emerging feminist sensibilities.” Billings Gazette

“A fresh pleasure…Rodgers writes unconventional love scenes that scorch the pages.” Orlando Sentinel

“Refreshing and provocative…” Houston Chronicle

“Truly captivating…Rodgers’ prose and style are unique.” Texas Books in Review

“Joni Rodgers can write sex scenes that’ll make your toes curl and your hair stand on end. At her best, her prose is dazzling, risky, and intoxicating, and at its heart, Crazy for Trying is an inspired debut.” Pam Houston, bestselling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness