Monthly Archives: November 2021

The Monday Book: A STEP TOWARD FALLING by Cammie McGovern

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This is what’s known as a high-concept book. In other words, the premise that makes the plot unfold is a little bit complicated.

Belinda is a special needs girl getting ready to graduate high school. She has a fixation on Pride and Prejudice and a mild crush on a football player who dances with her at a BEST BUDDIES required event. (In other words, the football players have to go to a dance for special needs kids. Yeah, no worries there.)

Belinda winds up under the bleachers at a high school football game trying to see her crush, but meets someone else instead. And as that meeting goes very South, all the kids who see her, who see what’s happening, ignore it.

Which lands two of them in community service hours working with, yes, you guessed it, the special needs day program for adults. Where they get their lives handed to them in pieces as they realize what jerks they actually are. (Spoiler alert: there is redemption.)

A lot of the subtleties of the plot are driven by Emily, one of the two, being an academic nerd and Lucas, the other, being a football player. Cue the violins. The story is told from Emily and Belinda’s points of view in turns, and Emily spends a lot of time trying to unravel how stuck she is in stereotyping people.

The do-gooder pair wind up holding a play with scenes from PnP for the day care center, and that’s the culminating conflict of the book, which is more about exploring the shortcomings of policies for people like Belinda. The author is the founder of a non-profit for parents of special needs kids, and a lot of information comes out in the fiction.

Comes out well, I hasten to add. This is not a sermon cloaked in a story; it’s a story that delivers a good sermon. Belinda is a compelling character and her voice as a narrator is the best thing about this book. Emily and Lucas are interesting but a bit more predictable. The scene where Belinda walks away from Emily the first time she attempts an “apology” is wonderful. And the insights into a world too often hidden from view are meaningful. Thoroughly recommend this book, which provokes both laughter and thought.

Failure to Froth – – –

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Jack gets over the line again – – –

Many years ago when we were living in Scotland I made wine, mostly from things that grew around and about in the fields near our house. Raspberries, blackberries, apples, elderberries and elderflowers. Particularly raspberries, which grew in a sunken pasture at the foot of the lane; we would lift our terrier over the stone wall and remove his leash, clamber down, and pick for hours while he ran about making himself crazy pretending he owned the place.

A few months ago we decided to revive the activity and ordered a kit on-line. The delivery date kept going back and back so we canceled and bought from a local source—which turned out to be cheaper. Shop local, kids; we learned our lesson. When the stuff arrived, I recognized some of the doohickeys but found it hard to remember exactly how I’d done the process years ago.

We put together firethorn berries and black raspberries from our yard, along with various fruit juices plus sugar dissolved in hot water and added the yeast. Then we waited for the frothing to start – and waited, and waited. Nothing! Maybe the temperature in the house was too low, so we upped to 72 degrees and didn’t lower it at night. (Every night about 2 am Wendy throws off the covers and mutters something. I think it’s “I’m melting.”) Still nothing!!

I made a yeast starter with some of the juice, more water and sugar, and yeast and yeast nutrient. It started to bubble and then stopped.

I don’t remember ever in the old days having this problem, so I will be getting advice from my friend Beth in a few days. She regularly makes wine from grape juice and never has this problem; she even made the wine for her own wedding, which for a good Baptist girl is quite something.

Whenever I need to get advice about something that may be going wrong I usually consult Dr Google but she hasn’t been much help this time – lots of differing and confusing instructions.

Likely Dr Beth will have the answers and I’ll get that elusive primary fermentation frothing happily soon. It’s begun to feel personal, this failure to froth….