This is not the type of book I would normally pick up, but it was a fun, quick beach/vacation read that addressed some serious topics (HIV/AIDS, child abuse, and the crack epidemic, among others).

What looks like beautiful is an ordinary novel,



I was excited when I started reading this book. The author has a good voice, a beautiful voice, an honest voice. But that is all it is. The main character is well defined, strong and believable. The beginning is exciting and new. But then the plot. oh, the plot. so thin, so predictable, so boring. I knew from the first clue how the book would end. The other characters are one dimensional, either all good or all bad and did I say the plot was thin. ok, I did. The preacher and his wife come off like cartoon characters and the romantic lead man both too good and too bad to be true.
The book is well written. This is not a complement as all books should be well written and this writer has talent. She could have done much better. Her voice is the voice of a poet, a queen, a prophet, however novels are not easy to write and it is easy to use words to please yourself and not your readers. Who said "You must kill your darlings" oh William Faulkner. This is good advice for the author. She fell in love with her language. Hell, I fell in love with her language, her aura of truth, until I realized it was all a dream, so real you don't realize how false it is until you wake up: in this case toward the end of the book.
Yes, I finished it but I was angry and unsatisfied, like when you expected a toy for Xmas and were given socks or the ice cream you just ate was low sugar. Writing a novel is not easy. I would have loved this as a memoir. or a poem, but not a novel. At the end, there are truths about living a honest life in the moment but the author doesn't follow her own advice. I felt tricked. I wanted more. I expected more from such a talented woman. I guess I just expect a lot from novelists. Treat your readers with more respect. I am sorry if this is a harsh review because I didn't hate the book. I just wanted so much to love it.

I have had this book on my shelf for a very long time and have only just now read it. I found I really liked it. Was it a romance or a mystery? It was both!

The title was gleaned from a line in the book, “What looks like crazy on an ordinary day, looks a lot like love when you catch it in the moonlight."

The main character is Ava Johnson who is diagnosed with HIV, pre-AIDS. She is a hairdresser in Atlanta but her clients find out and stop coming. She plans to move to SanFranciso but on the way there she stops to visit her sister in her home town in Idlewild, Michigan. Called the "Black Eden of Michigan", it was one of the few resorts in America where African-Americans were allowed to vacation and purchase property during the first half of the 20th century. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, AAs have had more choices for vacation and the area is a bit depressed when the story begins. Ava rekindles a relationship with a local enlightened veteran, Eddie Jefferson. There are some ruff teens in town who vandalize and babies are being born to young women. Ava's sister, Joyce Mitchell, who has recently lost her husband, is attempting to work with the church on preparing female teens for a better future by forming a group called 'the Sewing Circle'. Joyce makes a list of Ten Things Every Free Woman Should Know. The preacher's wife does not approve! But then the preacher .... well, you will have to read the book.

This is one of those timeless novels you find in a thrift store and think,"Where has this author been hiding?"

I enjoyed Pearl Cleage's style or writing; it's mellow-paced and far from dramatic. You can compare it to reading journal entries if you like.

The protagonist, Ava Johnson, is like that next door neighbor you heard about as weird and anti-social but once you finally get to sit down and talk with her, out comes a backstory of courage, strength and love that you'll never be able to shake off. What's even more fascinating is her strength facing HIV around the 80s, when the world would rather shake it off or make fun of.

I wish I had a neighbor like Ava, but Cleage's fictional version will do. There's a lot to learn "What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day", so I highly recommend it.

Once you get that first glimpse of another way of looking at things, you can't get enough. p134
Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to do is say yes. p149m

Considering I liked this book so much that I immediately ordered the sequel; and that I already read and returned it a few weeks ago, it seems fitting that I write this review before that one. It may be too late; the books conflate in my mind somewhat and even with different narrators, the story continues fairly seamlessly.

Idlewood was once a prosperous community for Black families but over the years the demographic has shifted and the community faces the same extremes and problems as any big urban centre in a crumbling system that does nothing to ensure the well being of those who live in poverty.

We had bought all this stuff to help us calm down and we were working ourselves into a frenzy just trying to figure out how to use it....I CONSIDER doing them all the time, but I rationalize by thinking they'd be so EASY to do if I ever really wanted to do them. Which is bullshit of course since one of them would require a major redirecting of energy. p60

One of the really good things about meditating is that it helps you spot your own bullshit must faster. The bad thing is, sometimes a little harmless b.s. is quite a pleasant diversion from what are invariably the much harsher realities.....p108

But Ava Johnson, who is a reliable if unconventional narrator and her sister Joyce , who gets to narrate the next book, are not the type to be content with self-care routines and no where to go.
Creating the Sewing Circus for the mostly Black and Brown teenage moms so they could stay in school, extended their community of care.

Lessons everywhere ...flying around like birds, but you ain't even take a minute to check 'em out 'cause you're moving too fast cutting you a path....you in here now...to slow your ass down. p119

Ten things Every Free Woman Should Know
1) How to grow food and flowers
2}How to prepare food nutritiously
3)self defense
4)Basic first-aid/sex ed/ midwifery
5) child care
6) basic literacy/math/computer skills
7)defensive driving/map reading/ basic auto and home repairs
8) household budget/ money management
9)spiritual practice
10) physical fitness/ health/ hygiene
p158
plus three addendums: Don't fuck with people you don't like
If it's hurting you, it shouldn't be exciting to him.
Don't fake, demonstrate p161

The biggest thing the young mothers are learning of course is a sense of agency and the power of sisterhood. Pearl Cleage has a rare ability to inject a lightness of being into the stories behind the statistics. Her optimism is perfectly balanced by her skepticism which makes for the kind of reading where the reader might find themself laughing helplessly and sobbing on the same page.
More laughter than tears, unless you are prone to cry over racism and systemic injustice.

They're training people to look at this for fun....They're going to make them love the shit, and once you learn to love it, it doesn't make any difference what it is. You just love it. p128

Decent read. It was interesting to step into the shoes of a person living with HIV...but I couldn't get over the basic premise of ensuing story between a couple of the main characters (made that intentionally ambiguous to avoid spoilers). The story also got really slow at parts. But the writing is great and had a few laugh out loud points. It was more of a 3.5 for me but that's not an option so it gets a 3.

So glad I finally picked this book to read because I very much enjoyed it. Different than most of the books I read because this was a story told by someone who had aids and it did not carefully tiptoe on certain subjects like most of the books nowadays do.
She spoke about loving sex and having had many bed partners for one so definitely not the perfect character.
The story was engaging.
Not knowing the exact date I finished reading

I pulled out a really old book on my back pile of books I have acquired - just want to pull something totally different. I am really glad I did real this book. Clearly - quite a backlisted one - but I thought it was very engaging and inspiring story. It centers around a black women named Ava who has Aids. This story seems to have been written during the height of so much talk and discussion of Aids at the time in the 1990's. So many of the topics brought up seem so familiar to me for that time -- aren't we glad many things have changed.

Anyway -she decides to go back to her hometown for a bit and then gets involved with her sister and a new/old friend Eddie. Their story is charming -and just would want from family support and love. The three of them hit many community challenges that seem even familiar in today's times. They work together to work through supporting each other until the end. With the few bad things they encounter, I was glad for an ending that seemed hopeful and inspirational.

This was a good story that had some dark underpinnings (AIDS, drugs, child abuse, etc.) but unbelievably, this was ultimately a hopeful story. It was also a coming-of-age story, even though the main character was already in her 30s. Being a Christian, it was hard for me to watch the story unfold with some very un-Christian people in charge of the local church. But, on the other hand, I know that these things unfortunately do happen. I did wish there had been some redemption for the church included, but it didn't take away from the story. Some romance, some super hard stuff, some bad people causing big problems, and some good people really making a difference in their community: it was a good read.
Five words to describe this book: AIDS, drugs, hopeful, romance, redemption

Any book that makes me think is an automatic thumbs up. Working in healthcare has made me appreciate the evolution of the stigma surrounding HIV, and this book highlighted the roadblocks that HIV treatment and prognosis have overcome. I fell in love with Ava’s character and her desire for things she can’t have while also creating a new life for herself. Although I felt that the story wrapped up abruptly, I could almost hear the celebratory music playing as the plot resolved after having my heart torn to shreds pages earlier. This one was a roller coaster, but I loved it.

I have carried this book around for years. I have moved fived times and I think I have had this book for 18 years...today, I finally read it! I can't believe I waited so long, the story is timeless, the language is still current, the only thing out of date is a quick mention of VCRs and no mention of cell phones. The first chapter is hard to get through, which it why I think it took me so long to really get started with it; the first page is off-putting, but if you can get through that you will not want to put it down. The writing is lyrical, there is plenty of wisdom in this book....now I want to read more about Joyce, Althea and Imani, they all deserve to have their own books. The world needs more books about the ladies of the Sewing Circus and the rebirth of Idlewild, Michigan....and now I have to go figure out if Idlewild is a real place.

LOVED! LOVED! LOVE this book! So many gems and the last sentence really sealed the deal for me!