Something Real

Rating:
Summary: Country Loving
Review: I thought I would love this book and I was sooo right! Ruth 'Penny' is so funny! I loved how she talks about her ex-husband and his horrible ways. She is such a strong woman and gets even stronger after she realizes what is holding her back. The moment she Dewey she knows he is meant to be with her. Penny does anything and everything to be with him.

This is a very entertaining book. I laughed out loud a lot with Penny about her husband and community. Everyone has some link to a character in the book.

Rating:
Summary: the best book ever
Review: i thought rene and jay was funny, interesting and fun to read, but this book has the laughter. i loved it. i hope you have another one that coming out soon because i can't wait. where do you two come up with the humor? keep up with the new titles and ideas.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book...
Review: I was cruising one day and I saw a bookstore going out of business. ALL BOOKS WERE 50% off. I told myself I was only going to buy one book...Lets say I brought about 7 including this one. From opening the first page I loved this book. I fell in love with Ruth's character from the very beginning. She was a strong woman, and although a litter bitter from the divorce and miscarriages, she kept pressing on. Whatever her ex threw at her she kept going, and in the end this book really shows you "what goes around comes around" Im glad she found true love. This is definetly a page turner.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book...
Review: I was cruising one day and I saw a bookstore going out of business. ALL BOOKS WERE 50% off. I told myself I was only going to buy one book...Lets say I brought about 7 including this one. From opening the first page I loved this book. I fell in love with Ruth's character from the very beginning. She was a strong woman, and although a litter bitter from the divorce and miscarriages, she kept pressing on. Whatever her ex threw at her she kept going, and in the end this book really shows you "what goes around comes around" Im glad she found true love. This is definetly a page turner.

Rating:
Summary: Not 5 stars but worth the read
Review: I was in the bookstore, and was supposed to be finding a book for chemistry, when my eyes flickered over this one (I bought it instead :) ). The cover drew me to it--bright yellow, it is, and the people on the cover are really cute, cartoon-like. By the way, I agree with a previous reviewer in that the people in the book were eons away from the images on the front, but that happens sometimes, I guess.

From page one, I was hooked by the main character's frank honesty--Ruth pulls no punches. She does have quite the potty mouth though, and there's a farting incident in the beginning that is not really all that cute, as I think it was meant to be. I think her decision to lose weight was made rather quickly--almost immeadiately in fact, kind of like she looked in the mirror and said, hey, maybe I should lose a thousand pounds tommorow. I also think that the book, from a racial viewpoint, is very presumptuous of what it's like to be a black woman, and I didn't think it was really all that believable, but the important thing to know is that it wasn't offensive, and didn't stop me from being engrossed.

Dewey's character was very hard to relate to, and very hard to come to care for. He was short with Ruth, bordering on rudeness (until the very very very end), and she had to persue him mercilessly, and relentlessly. She followed him, watched his apartment, took a volunteer position where his children went to school (in his son's class, no less), forced them to come in for haircuttings, confronted his mother.... I won't go on because I'm giving away the whole darn story, but you get the point. If it wasn't so cute, she would have been picked up for stalking.

Ruth was extremely abrasive at times, and CAN wear on the nerves. It is tempered by the fact that she has a good heart, although I was disappointed at the turn the story took near the end. She worked SO hard to get the man, and then when he finally wants to be with her, she'd turn him away because of what a bunch of busibodies in her church say? I'm just thinking that if I found the right man like she said she did, I wouldn't let something so silly put our relationship asunder, but whatever.

I was also disturbed by the whole church scene at the end, when her husband was trying to get her thrown out. I don't know about your church, but in mine we don't just stand and have a free for all argument-- VERY surreal right around this point. The book could have been ended a chapter ago. And it really disturbed me why she even wanted to have her special occasion held in the church who had done nothing but talk about her since the day she divorced the reverend

The most fascinating part of the story for me was the presence of Jar Man, a homeless vagrant who everyone but Ruth treated like he was crazy. He always carried around this Mason Jar, which he put to his ear and made predictions afterward. He said he had the ear of Jesus, and you know what? He just might've. It gave me chills to think of all the people who turned him away and rebuffed his good advice.

ANYWAY, back on track, I think the book was a good one, very unrealistic and annoying at times, but good for all of that. This is my first interracial romance, and I enjoyed it. If you're looking for picture perfect characters this is definitely NOT the book, for Dewey and Ruth are indeed something real.

Rating:
Summary: Something Real
Review: I'm not accustomed to relaying my thoughts about a book in a review but, I just have to about this one. I must agree with those who only gave this book (1) star and in my opinion that was (1) star too many. It really disappointed me. Not only do you have to read through 20+ chapters before Ruth and Dewey get together, as a female reader, you never find a reason to be attracted to him. Reason being because the author never gives him a voice as the object of Ruth's obsession. The book's cover (which I now know you can't trust) gives you the impression that the characters will have equal input regarding their relationship. He has no presence, she does all the talking and all the thinking. You are denied the opportunity to travel with him as he learns or discovers his feelings for her and makes them known to her. Ruth tells him how he feels about her and what he's going to do about it. She was just annoying. All you get about him is that he is a big, white, country boy who has two interracial children (with dumb names) and works loading and unloading steel and obviously has no friends. There was no reason to be supportive of them as a couple, let alone interested in them and I'll be very leary to read anything else by this author. I'm getting my money back for this one and would advise you not to waste your money purchasig it.

Rating:
Summary: RE: Want a Book That Dares To Be Different?
Review: In his second book author JJ Murray is creating his own style. The characters are very well developed and interesting. He shows the various trials and tribulations that black women encounter when dealing with an interracial relationship, especially if they had a previous relationship with a black man. Ruth, the main female character is very strong and knows who and what she wants. Dewey the main male character is a little bit slow and reserve, but as the story progresses he steps up to the plate.

If you are looking for a story that dares to be different with a a positive twist, then this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Touching
Review: J.J. Murray is back with his sophomore novel Something Real. He takes the reader on a humorous journey with Ruth Borum, newly divorced from the unfaithful Rev.
"Bor-em." Thought she is divorced from the good Reverend, she does not lose her seat at Antioch Baptist Church where she has been the organist for years. Her presence at the church makes for some interesting gossip in the small town in which they reside and uncomfortable for the good Reverend and the Deacon Board, especially when she becomes surrogate mother to two bi-racial children. She provides more fuel for the gossip mill by falling in love with their father, a big, burly white man named Dewey Baxter. She finds some of her friends will leave her by the wayside and others stick with her, but she also finds some people she has passed by on Vine Street can have her best interest at heart.

Besides Ruth, there are some interesting characters in this book. Fred or "Jar-Man" can hear God talking to him from a Mason jar. His words of wisdom encourage Ruth to follow her heart. Tee and Dee are two little children who will steal your heart as they did Ruth's when you find out about the hardships they had to endure. Tonya and Naomi are friends who Ruth can depend on sometimes. Her reluctant ally is Meg, Dewey's mother and another supporter is the school secretary Mrs. Holland.

I found this book interesting, especially that a non-African American man could tell the story in an African American woman's voice. Though some of the generalizations were a little over the top, I found this story funny enough for laughing out loud moments and touching enough so that I wanted to wrap my arms around the characters as I felt their pain, confusion and anger. I would recommend putting this one on your To Read list.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

Rating:
Summary: High Praise for JJ Murray
Review: Mr. Murray is without a doubt on of the best new authors to date. His ability to tell a story from a black woman's point of view is amazing.

Something Real moved me from the very beginning to the very end. Ruth's struggle to stay a part of her church and win the heart of the man she loves truly warms the heart and soul of the reader. Every character adds their own special sense of style, grace and humor that brings this story together in a magical harmony.

I can honest say that this is the first novel to ever make me cry. I just loved it, can't say enough about it. This is a MUST READ!

Well done Mr. Murray, well done.

Rating:
Summary: All women should be loved like this
Review: Okay I read it, and there is only one word: it's a four-letter word that starts with 'd'. I was moved by Ruth's pain, and surprised at the depth of the other characters. I came to know them, love them, like them, and despise them. One of the most moving passages in the book was when 'Ruth' flipped out and told the corner store owner off about what they just couldn't have; the other was Sam's preaching about not enough ink, white-out, etc... It surprises me how well JJ Murray was able to not just get into the characters, but how well he was able to portray both the ugly and the beautiful in Life. I would like to thank Mr. Murray for another great book, but I am awaiting his retirement or major cash windfall so that I can read his book about teachers. I for one am glad to have read not one, but two books from Mr. Murray that showcase a Black woman being so thoroughly loved, instead of showcasing her as a downtrodden victim. Love is the one thing that everyone should be able to understand. The reality is that Life is full of characters that are far from perfect...that includes preachers and their wives; congregations and communities. To any of his would-be critics: I recommend that he tell them off like 'Ruth' told off 'Dee's' teacher. I have already rubbed-in the fact to my he-thinks-that-he-is-the-better-half about Mr. Murray writing a book merely make his wife laugh; I am definitely going to have to rub in the fact that 'Dewey' built an entire church for his woman (dramatic sigh...wait for husband to inquire what is wrong...another sigh...state that nothing is wrong...wait for him to go out of his way to please me). I'm thinking that if a man would build an entire church for his woman, at the very least I should be able to get a Ferrari...or a dog. And to Mr. Murray's beautiful wife... I chant her name because not only has her husband written her a book, I have a feeling that he would have also built her a church if that is what it would have taken. I wish all women of all races could be loved like that. And here I am, still Ferrari-less.