Rating: 
Summary: Reaches into your heart and mind
Review: Reaching Back reaches into your heart and mind as it leaves you wondering about the lives of your own ancestors. As you're transported into the world of the descendents of slavery through the lives of four generations of women, you'll feel their pain as they handle rapes, incest, racism, difficult relationships, money problems, and disappointments with their children all the while struggling to provide their children with better lives. The strength of Megan, Carrie, Ana, and Mignon will inspire you to strive to be a better person. Simone puts a face to a history too often dismissed and ignored.
Rating:
Summary: Reaches into your heart and mind
Review: Reaching Back reaches into your heart and mind as it leaves you wondering about the lives of your own ancestors. As you're transported into the world of the descendents of slavery through the lives of four generations of women, you'll feel their pain as they handle rapes, incest, racism, difficult relationships, money problems, and disappointments with their children all the while struggling to provide their children with better lives. The strength of Megan, Carrie, Ana, and Mignon will inspire you to strive to be a better person. Simone puts a face to a history too often dismissed and ignored.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired
Review: Reaching Back took me on an INCREDIBLE journey! The characters were so real I think of them as old friends and wonder what they will be up to next. I hear Miss SImone has just finished the sequel and I can't wait to read it....I am a fan for life!
Rating:
Summary: Reaching Back -Absolute Read
Review: Reaching Back will grab your attention from beginning to end. Nea Anna Simone touches on the complexity of skin color with depth and actualize without the use of a documentary. The characters are so real that you are pulled into every experience they encounter, praying the best will come out of it. This book is definitely on the top of my list.
Rating:
Summary: Reaching Back -Absolute Read
Review: Reaching Back will grab your attention from beginning to end. Nea Anna Simone touches on the complexity of skin color with depth and actualize without the use of a documentary. The characters are so real that you are pulled into every experience they encounter, praying the best will come out of it. This book is definitely on the top of my list.
Rating: 
Summary: Four Generations of Women Striving for Acceptance
Review: Reaching back, like throw back, is a common term in some African American communities to describe a child that is born with the features of an ancestor. Usually, it refers to a child that has distinct Negroid features whereas the parents may not appear so. It can also refer to a child of two distinctly black parents who is born with white features. The former is usually cause for concern when families are trying to "whiten or bleach" the line or pass into white society altogether. This premise is the crux of the storyline of four generations of a family who has been fostered to believe that being white or white in appearance is the saving grace and desire of the black race.Megan, Carrie, Ana, and Mignon, the women whose lives are told, have had their share of trials and tribulations with poverty, men, family, and self-esteem and independence issues. Raised on a Louisiana plantation, Megan is the product of a rape by the landowner, who in turn rapes both Megan and Carrie when they come of age, his own daughter and granddaughter. If it sounds complicated, convoluted, and complex, it is. But we find out later in the book the disastrous results of these complexities. Meanwhile, Carrie suffers isolation and humiliation because she "reached back" and does not look like the rest of her light, bright, damn near white family. Her "caramel" coloring guarantees that she will never be able to have the advantages of white skin or be able to passe blanc. Some of her siblings do indeed move to New Orleans and cross over into the white world. Carrie loves her childhood sweetheart, John, who is a dark brown skinned man , but marries a fair-skinned man because she believes that is best. Her life is at first good but a series of circumstances causes her to question her choice and then she encounters John again. Her daughter Ana "suffers" the same fate as Carrie and is "tan" colored, unlike her white- looking siblings. She, in turn, is mistreated by both her siblings and father, a renowned minister. Ana's beauty and talent cannot be denied however and she becomes a singing sensation in Paris where her sense of worth is elevated, until again, as is the fate of the Devereaux women, she faces heartache. Back home in Houston, she marries the near white Clark, whose background remains hidden for several years. Ana's daughter Mignon, in trying to please her now passing for white father, marries a light skinned man. As she matures and comes into her self-worth, she realizes her former choices and values have been misconstrued. This book was my local book club selection and all kinds of emotions and comments were expressed. The subject matter was not particular to everyone's liking-we felt the synopsis on the back of the book was misleading because it did not mention color issues-- but that aside, what we most agreed upon and which verified my feelings, is the immature writing style and the poor editing of this book. Someone compared it to Cane River (women who believed in bleaching the line, desiring white appearance, etc) but that is where the resemblance begins and ends. While Cane River was well written and less intrusive, Reaching Back has an undeveloped writing style, though in the last few chapters the quality of writing improved greatly. Though the spelling and grammar appeares flawless, the content editing of this book put it in the category of many self-published books, that while it is entertaining-there is plenty of drama, a quick read, and flows satisfactorily, misses out on being a better final product. Constant contradictions in timelines, misplaced names, even descriptions of the main characters, are glaring examples of poor editing. I understand the author is writing a sequel to this book; I can only hope the editing is improved. I offer congratulations to Ms. Simone for undertaking such a project and for telling her story.------ Dera
Apooo Bookclub
Marcus Book Club (Oakland)
Rating:
Summary: The author REACHED BACK and pulled me in!
Review: This book was good from beginning to end. For this to be a first novel I think the author did a excellent job! The book has all the drama you could possible need. Betrayal, lies, abuse, regrets, and strong family ties. The book gives you the feeling that you are sneaking and reading YOUR grandmothers diary. The description is so vivid you feel like you are there going through each dilemma with the characters. Nea Anna Simone gives you a refreshing change of pace from all the current authors story approach. The only thing that I had a problem with is following some of the characters timeline of events some things were left up in the air. All and all I will be looking foward to her next novel. Definately pick this one up you won't be disappointed....
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