Rating: 
Summary: Melancholy, Melodic, and Masterful
Review: In her latest novel, Leaving Cecil Street, Diane McKinney-Whetstone transports the reader to 1969, suburban Philadelphia. Life is good for the residents of Cecil Street -- a neat, clean, tree-lined community filled with a close-knit group of law-abiding, hardworking middle class citizens. The story centers on two families: Joe, Louise and their daughter Shaylala (Shay) live next door to Alberta and her daughter, Bonita (Neet). Shay and Neet are best friends from infancy, but their 17-year-old bond, along with family marriage vows, religious convictions, and the neighborhood's tenacity are tested when tragedy strikes. The novel opens in the afterglow of a festive neighborhood summer block party -- on the surface, all seems well. However, within Joe, this magical night has unleashed a longing for his first love and his balm: a mysterious prostitute named "C" and his music. He is a former tenor sax musician who seventeen years ago gave up the club life for his wife and family and now suddenly wants to pick up his horn again. He recklessly engages in an affair with a young, southern belle visiting for the summer in an attempt to recapture the freedom and passion that the previous lifestyle offered. Louise, Joe's wife, is wrestling with thoughts of Joe's fidelity and her own demons stemming from unresolved childhood issues of loss and abandonment. Alberta, harboring her own secrets, is the neighborhood outcast who emerges herself and Neet in a cult like "fire and brimstone" religion to atone for her shady past. Like most of America at that time, Cecil Street has slowly recovered with mixed emotions in the wake of the turbulent political and social outcries that besieged the 1960's. Their hopes and dreams of a brighter and promising future are entrusted in the next generation. Outgoing Shay and reserved Neet are nice, college bound, wholesome girls idolized within the neighborhood. However, when Neet, one of Cecil Street's brightest flowers, nearly dies from a botched abortion performed in the very heart of the neighborhood, Shay and the whole of Cecil Street internalize the tragedy and are thrown back into the reality that reminds them of their shortcomings, misdeeds, and misgivings. When one of their own hurts, the neighborhood mourns and rallies to ease the pain and initiate the healing. It is in the healing that each of the characters through several subtle, yet unexpected plot twists resolves their issues with humility and dignity. McKinney-Whetstone uses daydreaming and flashback sequences to reveal the pain of lost loves, suppressed sadness, underlying fear and insecurities of the characters. She builds delicate layers of complexity with amazing skill and delves into the emotional psyche to deliver wonderfully developed characters - a reader can clearly see their desires, needs, and understand their motivation. Reader empathy is definitely elicited in this wonderfully blended saga of love, forgiveness, and resolution. Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
Rating:
Summary: Congratulations to Diane Mckinney Whetstone
Review: JAN. 2005
Syracuse, New York
First of all--let me congratulate Diane Mckinney Whetstone on winning a N.Y. HOTEP SOCIETY BOOK AWARD. My bookstore was one of the stores that cast ballots and I think a lot of people around here voted for her book. So congrats.
(...)
You go to that link and then you click on the AWARD WINNERS.
This book is very nuanced, very soulful and very 1960's Motown. It's a slice of life that we can't soon forget and it managed to bring back the nostalgic old days. I loved reading it so much that I read it twice.
Books you can count on for a sensational read. All of these are worth the money and they do not disappoint:
"Some People, Some Other Place"--J. California Cooper
"Leaving Cecil Street"--Diane Mckinney Whetstone
"The Darkest Child"--Delores Phillips
"The HoneyWell"--Gloria Mallette
"Flesh and the Devil"--Kola Boof
"Brick Lane"--Monica Ali
"Dark Corner"--Brandon Massey
"The Good House"--Tananarive Due
"AFTERBURN"--Zane (the girl is BACK with a really good one!)
Rating: 
Summary: Title to be Revised
Review: Leaving Cecil Street had me feeling like a sleuth; I was trying to piece the puzzle together. Trying to figure out how all the pieces fell together was the mystery. McKinney-Whetstone keeps the reader intrigued by what's happening on Cecil Street, a neighborhood in West Philly. The neighborhood consists of: Alberta, Neet, Shay, Joe, Louise, Johnetta, BB, Nathina, Tim and Deucie. Those are the main characters but there are others who add more color to the storyline. Are you confused yet? Don't be because after reading the story you'll agree with the theory that says there is only "six degrees of separation" between you and another person.
Cecil Street has been known for its closeness and block parties; however, the neighbors have shunned Alberta because of her choice of religion. She's been dubbed the religious, cult following, homely looking introvert. Her daughter, Neet, is best friend to Shay, Joe and Louise's daughter. They are also neighbors with only a banister separating their row house. As a result, they can hear everything that goes on in each other's home. A commotion one evening prompts concern and it's the beginning to the end for Neet, Shay, Alberta, Louise and Joe's relationship. They are each forced to evaluate themselves and their love for one another.
Johnetta keeps the gossip hot in the neighborhood. The latest rumor is about a crazy lady, with nothing but a tie-dyed shirt on, roaming Cecil Street. A man named Luther, with a scar across his face, is looking for her. Johnetta and most of the neighborhood believe the crazy lady, Duecie, has ties to Alberta. Duecie is dying and her last hope is to find her daughter before she takes her final breath. But before she gets to her daughter, she suffers one of her headaches and ends up finding refuge in someone's cellar...on Cecil Street.
Tim has rats in the apartment above his barbershop. At least that's what he tells his wife Nathina. It's really a lavish apartment that his regulars use when they need to escape and the code is "how are the rats?" BB has what's called the "Saturday Morning" house. The name is given because of what's been rumored to happen on Saturday mornings. When someone from the neighborhood visits the house on Wednesday, all hell breaks loose and the people of Cecil Street have to pull together to keep the police from asking too many questions.
The mood in the neighborhood becomes somber. Joe and the other men of Cecil Street feel a block party will lift everyone's spirits. It's during the block party when the pieces of the puzzle start to come together. Eventually someone ends up Leaving Cecil Street, but who?
Leaving Cecil Street has a slow beginning. Once the pace accelerates, it is hard to put the book down. Heartwarming. Set in the 60s, it tells about how neighborhoods used to be, but not anymore. Makes you reminisce about "back in the day" when things were cool. The ending will catch you by surprise. Kudos to McKinney-Whetstone for a book well-written.
Reviewed by Esther "Ess" Mays for Loose Leaves Book Review
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story!
Review: Leaving Cecil Street is a story that centers in on the lives of two families whose lives are intertwined in more ways than even some of them realize. These characters learn valuable lessons about trying to hide from their pasts and learning to live in the present as well as the future. Using Philadelphia as the backdrop for this story, Diane McKinney-Whetstone vividly brings to life the mood and atmosphere of the 60's in an amazing and unforgettable story of love, loss, and redemption. The way the author breathes life into these characters and the way their individual stories come together in the end make for a well-written, fresh, and full-of-surprises story that I really loved. For those who have enjoyed her previous work, Leaving Cecil Street is yet another fantastic story by this excellent writer.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!!!
Review: Leaving Cecil Street is set in Philadelphia during the 1960's but centers around one particular block Cecil Street and two families that live on that block. Diane tells the story in such a way that the characters seem to come alive with each page that you read. First there is Joe whose heart is back in the clubs blowing his sax but his reality is a wife, child and a job with the transit system. The regret that Joe carries with him about giving up playing his sax so soon after marrying his wife Louise, at times becomes a pain so unbearable that it brings him to tears and causes him at times to question the choices that he made early on in life. Shay who is Joe's daughter and Neet's her next door neighbor have been best friends for 17 years but that friendship is put to the ultimate test when Shay tries to help Neet get rid of an unwanted pregnancy and the procedure goes terribly wrong. Then there is Louise (Joe's wife) who is losing all of her teeth due to gum disease. These characters learn valuable lessons about trying to hide from their pasts and learning to live in the present as well as the future. I read this book in one day and enjoyed it from beginning to end!! -reviewed by Jocelyn Lawson for www.avid-readers.com
Rating:
Summary: Diane has done it again!!!
Review: Leaving Cecil street takes the reader back to not only a place, but to the mood of the era.( West Philly / 1969). The story unfolds in careful layers so that the truthis not evident to even the sharpest eye at first glance.As the lives of Joe, Louise , Alberta, Shay, Neet & Deucie are introduced to the reader ,you can almost feel the "unspoken" brewing right beneath the veneer of their "we shall overcome " attitudes & their freshly pressed clothes.Each character has a story to tell and each tale is ultimately linked to a greater truth.These truths that are the "ties that bind" the residents of Cecil street in a tightly guarded alliance.There is a rallying spirit that prevails throughout this very well written story. Leaving Cecil Street is a must read for book clubs, everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: Mckinney-Whetstone never fails to please! All of her books have been good, this was her best yet!
Rating: 
Summary: On "Cecil Street"
Review: Mrs. Whetstone truly has a way of creating stories that will leave you wanting more. As with her previous novels, I am totally smitten with these characters. Shay and Neet's kinship is such a beautiful thing and left me grinning as I flipped through the pages.
The only problem I had with the story was the relationship between Joe and Alberta. Mrs. Whetstone left us hanging. Was the relationship concluded with a good basement screw or was it the beginning? I'd like to know what happens next. And I was even waiting for Shay to find out who Neet REALLY was! But I won't spoil it for the others who haven't read it.
Still, it is a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Leave Cecil Street
Review: Ms. Whetstone has penned another fabulous story for fans (new and old) to enjoy. I actually stall finishing any of her books (that's really how good they are) and LEAVING CECIL STREET was no exception. I almost cried when I knew I only had 20 or so pages left to this wonderfully woven story. At the risk of not telling too much of the story (don't want to spoil it for anyone considering to read it), I shall never forget....(from this story)...THE WOMAN IN THE BASEMENT (no pun intended Mr. Mosley), the cat food, the mouth surgery, the barber shop hotel, the "lights out" fling between Joe & Alberta, the dreadful abortion, the block parties, the horn playing....and finally the death... Ms. Whetstone as long as you keep sharing your gift of writing and storytelling with us ...we will always WAIT for your next best seller. God Bless you...you are a true novelist and I enjoy every book I pick up with your name on the cover. Keep it up! You have fans in the south who adore your work, Shunda Leigh
Booking Matters Magazine
Atlanta, GA
www.bookingmatters.com
Rating:
Summary: There¿s no place like home
Review: Set in 1969 Philadelphia, LEAVING CECIL STREET by Diane McKinney-Whetstone is
a story of redemption and finding peace in spite of all the unrest that life
brings your way. Cecil Street is a tree-lined block located in West
Philadelphia that is trying to deal with the mounting social unrest and crime
of the times. The inhabitants of the street are struggling to maintain its
pleasant feelings, but each person has his or her own story which
in some way contributes to the changing emotions of the environment. Filled with nostalgia for simpler times, Cecil Street is populated by a cast
of characters who are linked by the tragedy of each other's past. Each person
has tried to leave a hurtful history behind, but finds that they cannot hide
from themselves. Whetstone writes a story filled with a colorful cast of
characters who complement the backdrop of an urban tapestry. Her characters
are likable, real and familiar. She also succeeds in making the setting as
much of a part of the story as each person. LEAVING CECIL STREET is emotional
and folksy and will entertain from page one on. Reviewed by Diane Marbury
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
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