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Women's Fiction
Dancing on the Edge of the Roof

Dancing on the Edge of the Roof

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $9.71
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mahogany Book Club Book Of The Year 2003
Review: At 42 Juanita Lewis is tired of her day to day life. She works hard as a Nurses Aide, has one son in prison
and the other one is not far behind. Her daughter is always on the go but has no job and leaves her to watch
her grand daughter. When one of her patience dies she discovers a book that gets her attention. Juanita starts reading the romance novels and decides
she wants adventure too. While her children are furious with her about leaving home, she buys a map,
picks a spot called Paper Moon Montana and heads off to start her adventure. Juanita writes this journey down she journals
her views from the Greyhound bus, the people she meets and new found friends. She starts life over at 42 in little Paper Moon
as a cook in a diner and falls in love with the owner. This was our B.O.M. we all enjoyed this story. We loved that her adventure all started
with a book and that she found love and that he loved her enough to not hold her down, he encouraged her to continue
her adventures knowing that someday she would return to him.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Charming.
Review: At some point in our lives, we?ve all wanted to just walk away and start all over again, which is exactly what Juanita Williams did. This was a quietly funny feel-good book. The protagonist was the typical uneducated enabler mother that did not have a clue why her offspring turned into parasitic losers. Several times Juanita rhetorically asks herself ?was I a good mother.? NO ? Hello! But the story was so enchantingly wistful that you couldn?t help but enjoy yourself. It was an unglamorous sweet, quick, read that I enjoyed very much.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Adult Getaway!
Review: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to:

quit your job?

leave your three twenty something year old, no-good children to fend for themselves?

to get on a bus and just pick a place because of the name?

Juanita Lewis did just that, her adventure lead her to Papermoon, Montana. Where she begins a new life in a diner that has not seens a black person in many moons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book takes you to another world
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. This book really made me feel like I was in Papermoon Montana. I enjoyed myself sitting in Jess's diner eating good homecooking from Juanita. And laughing and joking with all the townsfolk. I really felt like I was there and when Juanita left I felt the hurt because I felt like I was leaving to right with her and even though the adventure was about to start all over again .The book was over and so was my adventure with Juanita. I think there are many women who have felt like Juanita who just wanted to pick up and go and LIVE. But this in most cases does not happen and is very unrealistic. I guess that's why it was fiction. But it still doesn't stop a sister from dreaming.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Juanita is my new HERO!!!
Review: I loved this book!!! I couldn't put it down mostly because Juanita is such a likable character. How many of us would like to do what she did? She decided to stop living for others and just live for herself. The book wasn't sappy or overly sentimental and it also wasn't predictable. It was truly a great read. I am definitely looking forward to more works from Sheila Williams. I think I want to be like Ms. Juanita when I grow up!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Go Juanita!!
Review: I loved this book. I hope there is a sequel, if not I am looking forward to Ms Williams' next book. Juanita did what I am sure so many have wanted to do.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More, please!
Review: I loved this book. I loved reading about an African American woman and yet there was plenty of room for other races and cultures, including an interacial love interest, as well. How refreshing! I literally laughed out loud at numerous points. I loved being reminded that love and abundance can bloom at any time in life, not just in our 20's/early 30's, as we are led to believe. This is a wonderful first novel and I look forward to many more. I think this would make a wonderful film and I think Alfre Woodard would be a lovely Juanita. Do I hear an amen???

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reading on the Edge of the Roof....
Review: My review title is just what I felt like doing...when I read this book! I wanted to escape and devour it...which I did. I am not embarrassed to share with the world that I read this book, in my car...while working. (it was that GOOD!) I was introduced to Sheila's work by someone in the literary industry during a literary retreat in Savannah, GA. I started reading the book a week after I returned home and in less than 2 full days, I was done with it.

It is a wonderfully written story of a mother (Juanita) who simply walks away from her (3) trifling kids...to get her own life back..or better yet...to start a new life. The best part of the novel (and it's good all the way through) was...the fact that READING is what changed this woman's life. That was very powerful to me as an avid reader because I can testify that reading has helped me in so many ways over the years. This woman leaves with a one way ticket to a place she's never been to or heard of...which speaks to the notion of her NOT being afraid to step out the box! What awaited her in Paper Moon...was the life she needed and deserved. This book is small in size but a heavy hitter for sure. I assure you..if you purchase this one, you won't be disappointed.

I am looking forward to meeting the author soon as well and to reading her second novel. (real soon)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reading on the Edge of the Roof....
Review: My review title is just what I felt like doing...when I read this book! I wanted to escape and devour it...which I did. I am not embarrassed to share with the world that I read this book, in my car...while working. (it was that GOOD!) I was introduced to Sheila's work by someone in the literary industry during a literary retreat in Savannah, GA. I started reading the book a week after I returned home and in less than 2 full days, I was done with it.

It is a wonderfully written story of a mother (Juanita) who simply walks away from her (3) trifling kids...to get her own life back..or better yet...to start a new life. The best part of the novel (and it's good all the way through) was...the fact that READING is what changed this woman's life. That was very powerful to me as an avid reader because I can testify that reading has helped me in so many ways over the years. This woman leaves with a one way ticket to a place she's never been to or heard of...which speaks to the notion of her NOT being afraid to step out the box! What awaited her in Paper Moon...was the life she needed and deserved. This book is small in size but a heavy hitter for sure. I assure you..if you purchase this one, you won't be disappointed.

I am looking forward to meeting the author soon as well and to reading her second novel. (real soon)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Runaway Momma
Review: Sheila Williams' debut novel is a solid winner. You are entered into a world where a mother has had all that she can take. Who feels that there has to be more to life than caring for her grown kids, and their children. What does the rest of the world look like? What might be out there for her?

Juanita Lewis leaves behind her children and grandchild to head West. Where she's going she does not know, but what she finds is not what she expected. She walks into the Paper Moon Diner for something to eat and ends up staying for months. Here she meets a nice rainbow of characters. A landlady who communicates with her dead husbands through her cats, a ghost who may or may not have killed her cheating husband, and an ole Injun who's not only set in his ways, but turns out to need Juanita more than he bargained for.

Sheila Williams shows her talent of being a great storyteller. She draws you into the world of Paper Moon, Montana and makes you care and wonder: Will Juanita stay? Will she continue on her journey west? Will she give into the pleas of her children and return home? Has she found the freedom she was seeking? I recommend this book for anyone afraid of finding themselves; to see that at the end of the journey they will find a true gem.

Jacki
R.E.A.L. Reviewers


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