Rating: 
Summary: Totally awesome and good
Review: I don't know how she does it, but Dr. Berry takes a story about ordinary people and try to teach us a lesson in the midst of it. I got this book yesterday, and I wish I could better describe it, but I will try. You have this middle age couple that was in a love rut, well the wife, Louella dreams up her dead female relatives one night, who tell her what to do in the love department, and chile, some of those love scenes in that book would probably rival some of Zane's stuff(which is racy)yet,to keep to the story, the couple gets out of the love rut, and come find out,they have the gift of knowing what is in people's minds, so much so, that they help, as well as frighten some of the townspeople into doing what is right.There were times that I had to put the book down and think on some of the things that was said because although it was fiction, it was if it was talking to me. At any rate, GET THIS BOOK!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Heartwarming, fun and smart . . .
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It is the story of Jim and Louella Johnson, an over-the-hill black couple who are having trouble in the love department. Louella conjures up her dead female relatives to ask their advice...the dead women appear to her in a dream and offer her some very savy sex tips on how to add a spark to Louella and Jim's love life. She follows their directions, and Boy-Howdy, things do start to perk up around the Johnson household. The story, to this point is very sweet, heart tugging and completely believable... but things get a little weird when both Jim and Louella realize that because of all their lovemaking, they now have the "gift" of reading people's minds. Between the two of them, they are privy to the secrets in the "downstairs" of the souls of everyone in town. To make things stranger still, Jim's long lost brother shows up, to explain how the "gift" is a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, and that Louella has received the gift because of her loving relationship with Jim. Armed with the "gift" the couple decides that they should help people find love. The walking wounded they try to teach to "walk in love" include a farmer with a hygiene problem who's wife doesn't want him any more, a dysfunctional librarian who distrusts people, a prostitute dying of cancer, and a crossing guard who molests children. All this mind-reading and reaching-out makes the Johnsons suspect among their neighbors and not everyone is happy with their do-gooding. Just when Louella begins to think that maybe she isn't cut out for it, a knock on the door and a visit from the local bookstore owners reveals that she and Jim are just one link in a chain of black folk who, since first being brought to American, have had the "gift" and used it to try to help black people stay true to the way of love, in a world of hate towards them. While the book has a homey feel, right from the beginning it is evident that while Louella and Jim have "countrified" ways, they are intelligent people with keen insight. This was evident even before they recieved the "gift." One of the reasons I kept turning the pages was the humor and warmth that I got from the voice of Louella Johnson. She is sassy and smart and I could listen to her all day. The truth of the story seems to be simple enough - it all comes down to love. However, nothing in the story is as simple as it first appears, including Louella, Although sincere, the contradictions take away from the simple truths of the story. When nothing else is as it seems, it is difficult to take the offered resolution at face value as well. This book is definitely worth a trip to the library. "Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-fix Remedy" is fun, intelligent and has lots of feeling. If it had been more about a couple who used years of love and the wisdom of experience to help others find love, and less about magical "gifts," I would have liked it even more.
Rating: 
Summary: Lord in Ten Years Just let me be Mrs. Louella
Review: In the same vibe as Redemption song this was such a wonderful book, I can't tell you how much I love reading a book in one sitting cause it's so good you just want to finshih it. I know someone who is Mae up and down and all around. I have shared some of the same kind of folksy wisdom with friends and was so happy to have read my saying in a book. I felt like Mrs. Louella. I read parts of this book to my husband the parts about how to handle the fruit, yeah that a really good part. You did an execellent job with this book Mrs. Berry
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Ruth, Move Over. Waay Over
Review: Jim and Louella are a fifty-plus couple who experience an i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e sexual re-awakening, after Louella consults with her savvy female ancestors in a dream. The advice she gets is pretty much Masters and Johnson sex therapy, but does it work? Wow! Not only do they become the hottest couple in the neighborhood, they develop psychic powers! They can hear other people's thoughts, and so, they begin a healing ministry of love. So far, so good. But as the story goes on it does begin to drag a bit. The dialect ("we just country folks") gets a little old, and the down-home, rambling chatter of Louella becomes almost tiresome. Still, I enjoyed it and recommend it to you. Not really a novel, more like a long short story, an extended parable about love and its power to change the human heart. Take it for what it is, a sentimental, mystical, romantic, spiritual journey, and you will enjoy it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber
Rating:
Summary: Delightful & Witty!
Review: Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-Fix Remedy: A Novel is a delightful, anecdotic little book that is a welcomed break from the drama-filled fiction of late. The central characters, Jim and Louella, are a middle-aged, devoted Christian couple that discover a "gift of hearing" while rekindling their love life (which is rather steamy for an older couple). Jim and Louella, believing that all gifts from God should be shared, begin offering advice to their friends and neighbors on matters of the heart. Rumors of the "love couple" travel fast and their home is quickly overrun by the lovesick townsfolk in search of counsel. Much to their surprise they find some very lonely, neglected, and abused souls in their midst and quickly learn that despite their best intentions the outcome is not always what is expected. Told largely in Louella's point of view, the reader will enjoy her sense of humor, her witty retorts, and her self-proclaimed "country" ways. The book has a wonderful cast of supporting characters that symbolically represent the good, the bad, the lost, and confused. Berry delivers a powerful message at the end, which we have come to expect as demonstrated in earlier works such as Redemption Song and The Haunting of Hip Hop. Her fans will not be disappointed because she is still on target with her keen storytelling ability and lyrical writing style. This little book is a keeper! Phyllis
APOOO Bookclub
Rating:
Summary: Love's ailments
Review: Jim and Louella, a couple of fun-loving fifty-somethings, were in a rut. Their lovemaking wasn't what it used to be, and they were scared. After enlisting the help of her dead mother, grandmother and aunt via her dreams, Louella rekindled their romance and ignited something else far more powerful. Jim and Louella were able to hear people's thoughts, and used this gift to promote love and end internal turmoils. It seemed that the world could feel the love emanating from Jim and Louella, and many of their neighbors in their small Georgia town came to them for help with their own affairs. Berry has created a wonderful cast of characters in this novel. I kept hoping this book would never end. The writing is conversational in tone and powerful in content, as Louella proves that what the world DOES need now is love, sweet love. ~ Reviewed by CandaceK
Rating:
Summary: Love's ailments
Review: Jim and Louella, a couple of fun-loving fifty-somethings, were in a rut. Their lovemaking wasn't what it used to be, and they were scared. After enlisting the help of her dead mother, grandmother and aunt via her dreams, Louella rekindled their romance and ignited something else far more powerful. Jim and Louella were able to hear people's thoughts, and used this gift to promote love and end internal turmoils. It seemed that the world could feel the love emanating from Jim and Louella, and many of their neighbors in their small Georgia town came to them for help with their own affairs. Berry has created a wonderful cast of characters in this novel. I kept hoping this book would never end. The writing is conversational in tone and powerful in content, as Louella proves that what the world DOES need now is love, sweet love. ~ Reviewed by CandaceK
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Just wondering where Jim and Louella's kitchen is... would love to visit!
Rating:
Summary: Liked but not loved...
Review: Okay, the book starts off hilarious and an incredible page-turner. Then it gets a little slow and boring. Then it peps up again, but starts sounding like a lecturing grandmother. Then it dies towards the end because it just sounds like all-out nagging. It would definitely be the perfect book for someone with low self-esteem or someone who really needed to hear "I love you"...but for me, it just went in one ear and out the other. But I still liked "Haunting of Hip Hop" and I loved the beginning of this book, so I know she's an amazing writer, just a little too teachy for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming and funny story about the wisdom of our elders
Review: Sometimes we don't recognize that the wisdom of our elders --- living or dead ---often holds the answers to our biggest problems. Louella Parsons had certainly forgotten this, but very early on in JIM AND LOUELLA'S HOMEMADE HEART-FIX REMEDY, Louella is reminded. In an enchanting and enchanted dream, Louella is visited by her grandmother, her mother and her aunt, all voices of tried and true, down-home, country wisdom, tweaked with a dash of surprising spice. Louella explains to her predecessors her simple, familiar plight: married for twenty-six years to Jim, they have become complacent and their romance routine. Her female ancestors give her very powerful advice, promising her rejuvenation of body and soul if she can adhere to the basic rules they lay before her. To put the spark back in the bedroom --- and, actually, every room in the house! ---they must spend three days limiting their sexual activities as dictated by Louella's long-dead kin. While taking advice from the dead and buried may seem bizarre, in REMEDY it's absolutely charming-and successful! Written in a folksy, comforting and accessible style, the advice to Jim and Louella goes something like this --- on day one, they can talk about intimacy, but they cannot act. On the second day, they can touch, but they cannot taste. On the final day they are limited to tasting, but nothing else. These scenes are tantalizing, teasing, and enough to jumpstart anyone's libido. Berry builds a loving, sexual tension of great power, until, finally, on the fourth day, Louella and Jim can't keep their hands off each other. But they don't just recapture their love life-they reinvent it. The pleasures of the body seem to open up their minds, too, and they find themselves possessed of new powers of intuition and able to read the very thoughts of those around them. A journey of healing and revelation begins for the entire town as the news of their special "heart-fixing" capabilities spread. And soon lines are forming outside their house-people come seeking help with their love lives, or long-standing familial battles, and even deep horrifying, unthinkable secrets and problems. Berry tells us so many wonderful stories about the townsfolk --- the librarian, the heavy girl, the crossing guard, the bookstore owners; each tale is a gem in itself. Berry's rich characters tug at our heartstrings and make us laugh at the same time. There's Mae, the town whore, who has never known love, but knows a bucketful about the so-called pious men who populate the church pews every Sunday morning. Then there's Jim and Louella's son Naim, an educated boy who often can't see beyond his books. And John, Jim's long-lost brother, who carries perhaps the biggest and most pertinent revelation for Jim and Louella. The wisdom of the ages, the true self, the nature of love --- these are just a few themes in REMEDY. --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
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