I picked this book up at a thrift store just because I liked the title. I almost quit reading after the first two pages, but I am glad I stuck with it. The plot is flat at times and it can be raw to the point of vulgarity, but hope shines through it all. This is definitely not the sort of book I normally read, but I liked it because of that.

Quotes I enjoyed:

"Sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a chance to learn the appropriate greeting. Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to say is yes."

"And we danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we hugged too hard, and kissed too sweet, and threw back our heads and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight."

3.5 Stars

I liked this issue-heavy romance novel a lot. It’s not your typical romance novel- it might more accurately be described as chick lit or women’s fiction. But this is the homecoming story of a HIV positive young woman coming to terms with her diagnosis and trying to find love in the midst of a lot of stigma. In addition, this novel focuses a lot on the truths around the issues facing African-American communities and is pretty self-reflective in doing so. There are certainly elements of romance in this and I suppose the author would say this is a love story, but there’s so much going on in this that it’s somewhat beyond that. There are different kinds of love explored in this novel and all of them worthwhile.

It's not a complicated plot, and neither are the characters, but there are such beautiful turns of phrase throughout the book that I loved it. It was the kind of story that gets you so angry that you're shaking, but you keep reading because you know that your feelings will be avenged. (I don't think that's a spoiler exactly, as the whole time there wasn't a doubt in my mind that that was going to happen, and sometimes you just need to know that when you're reading a book.)

Ava must leave Atlanta as she found out that she had HIV, then was outed, and soon no one wanted to come to her salon anymore. She stopped back at home in Idlewild, only intending to stay for a few weeks, but the problems in the once idylic town had gotten so bad, that she had to stay and help her sister try and make things a little better.

I had only heard of Idlewild because of the arts school, Interlochen, I never knew about it's history. It was fascinating to learn about it and watch as it played it's own character in the story.

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day è un altro romanzo ricevuto tramite Bookmooch, su cui non avevo grandi aspettative e che non mi ha convinto completamente. Pearl Cleage affronta delle tematiche molto importanti con questo romanzo (l'HIV, la disoccupazione, la criminalità, le droghe, il sesso non protetto e le gravidanze indesiderate nella comunità afroamericana) e lo fa concentrandosi sul piccolo: le vicende della protagonista Ava, una parrucchiera di colore che torna al paese natale Idlewild, vicino a Chicago, dopo aver chiuso il suo negozio ad Atlanta, the black Mecca (così chiamavano una volta il ghetto di Harlem) a causa della diagnosi di HIV e del suo spargersi fra gli amici e soprattutto le clienti. Ad Idlewild è ospite della sorella, rimasta recentemente vedova dopo aver perso i suoi due figli, che solo ora sta ricominciando a credere alla vita, avendo deciso di lasciare il lavoro e di impegnarsi nel volontariato locale, grazie al premio assicurativo riscosso alla morte del marito.

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...

Read this book in undergrad for an African American Pros class and loved it! Was not what I expected for a class read and a welcome change!

Ava is spunky and speaks her mind and that’s appealing in a main character. As she tells her story she is not afraid to admit her shortcomings (she drinks too much, she slept with too many men) and I liked that about her. I also really liked her sister who brought a real warmth to the book. Her work with teen moms moved the story along nicely and provided a real nasty antagonist. Eddie was an okay character, but he was a little too good. He didn’t seem real.

I really liked that the main character was living with HIV, but the story touched very little on the details of the reality. That was a double-edged sword for me. It was nice that the story was about more than that, but it also seemed like Ava had her head buried in the sand.

there's more on my blog http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/201...

A surprising combination of beach read + gritty drama, but it worked.

It may take you a minute to get into What Looks Like Crazy, but stick with it. Ava is returning to her home town to spend the summer with her widowed sister Joyce after Ava's HIV+ status getting leaked ruins her haircutting business in Atlanta. Joyce is a tender heart, who takes care of the young women in the town. She's busy helping a young mom deliver a baby and sends Eddie to the airport to pick up Ava in her stead. Formerly Wild Eddie, just Eddie has long dreads. He is a tai-chi practicing vegetarian, but he's not the typical perfect love interest. Eddie has his shit together after serving in Vietnam and doing some bad things at war and after, but he's not unscathed.

You know I love Brother Buddha, but until he reincarnates as a black man in America, I think we better go with what we know.

Published by Avon, WLLC may be classed as a romance, but like many romances it has serious depth. In this case, clergy, social work regulations, and racial injustice are called out.

I don't want to quote some of the trenchant passages about how systemic oppression as impacted Black people out of context, but trust that the September chapter makes its point.

So crazy thing, I read this book over 10 years ago when a coworker at a bookstore recommended it to me and I remember I loved it. It obviously stuck with me because over a decade later and I’m still thinking about it.

I forgot what the book was called. All I remembered was the cover, the way it made me feel, and vague details about the plot. I randomly followed a link on YouTube to Lex Read’s blog site and the latest blog was about this book. I didn’t recognize the cover, but the title immediately gave me a visceral reaction. I thought “No, it can’t be,” looked up the book and the old cover and, it was the book!! The book I’ve been looking everywhere for! Over 10 years later and this book has not left me.

So all this to say 5 ⭐️ read. Will update after I reread.

I loved the book I felt extremely bad for the character Ava Johnson who was HIV positive. She felt judged and unwanted by society. But through tough times she went back to her hometown to refresh her mind and spend time with her strong sister Joyce. She unknowingly found true love and a new life she grew fund of.

First book i’ve finished all school year. This was for a class but actually pretty fire.

In What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Pearl Cleage writes a story about an HIV-positive woman's struggle to accept herself and her diagnosis. The main character, Ava Johnson, moves back to her hometown of Idlewild to escape the ignorance in Atlanta. But she still faces many problems, including navigating her budding relationship with an old friend, opening up to those around her, and dealing with a woman who will stop at nothing to keep Ava and her sister from helping the town.


This novel was...frustrating. Ava was too much of an outside observer in the story to be the main character! After she moves to Idlewild, she doesn't make any decisions to drive the plot! It would've made more sense to make her a supporting character.

For example, in chapter 5 of June, on the car ride to Joyce's house from the airport, Ava and Eddie come across a man screaming at the woman he's with. But, while Ava stays in the car and watches the man slap her, Eddie takes action, pulls him off the girl, and gives her and her kid a ride home.

Later in the story, when Ava realizes she's attracted to Eddie, she decides she can't be with him because she has HIV. Some people may say that it was selfless, but I think it was a copout. Ava didn't know how to have a relationship without sex, so she avoided thinking about it until Eddie flat-out asked her, "Do you want to be with me?" (chapter 17, July) And even then, it took some convincing on Eddie's part to get her to trust that he actually wanted a relationship with her.

When Ava finds out that Joyce wants to take in Imani, she is "less than enthusiastic about spending the summer with a newborn crack baby." (chapter 12, June) She doesn't start to take an active role in Imani's upbringing until August, when she starts taking Imani on walks with her. Before then, it was Joyce who did the majority of the work and acted like Imani's mother.

While Ava was a very flat character, Joyce was much rounder. She was a natural go-getter – when problems arose, she'd do everything she could to fix them instead of waiting around for someone else to do the work. When Gerry (the Reverend's wife) made up the story about Ava trying to seduce Frank and Tyrone, Joyce stood up for her sister. She got in Gerry's face and said, "If I hear one word of this ridiculous story anywhere in town...I'll sue you and the Good Reverend for slander," (chapter 13, August) before storming out of the room with Ava. And lo and behold, the story never left that room. Also, when Gerry kicks the Sewing Circus out of the church, Joyce works tirelessly to find a new home base for the young women. For a while, they meet at her house, but then Joyce buys a new house solely dedicated to their group and works with Eddie and Ava to redesign it to fit their needs. Joyce is unfazed by obstacles and always does her best to work through them.

I believe Joyce is actually an amalgamation of Cleage and her parents. In an interview with HowlRound, Cleage talked about how active they were in their community. "I don't remember a time when I wasn't going to meetings, handing out flyers, and participating in picket lines and election day activities. It was a big part of our lives," she said. This absolutely shows through in her characters. Ava may have been passive in her life, but Joyce was the opposite. Throughout the whole book, she was a tenacious problem-solver. This also may be why Joyce played a bigger part in the story – her personality was more familiar to Cleage because Cleage was very involved in her community growing up.

All in all, this book was alright. It's not going on my favorites list, but if Ava was a rounder character and Cleage didn't try so hard to fit e-ver-y-thing in one book, it definitely would. It had the potential to be truly captivating, but it just didn't do it for me this time. I will, however, still read the sequel, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, because I need to know what happens to Imani and the young women in the Sewing Circus.