This is an intriguing book.

At age 66, Jane Juska places the following ad in the New York Review of Books:
"Before I turn 67—next March—I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."

What follows is Jane's adventures on acting upon some of the replies. She is witty and very frank.

Even more interesting than the romance stuff is her descriptions of teaching prison inmates creative writing and her dramas with dealing with her teenage son.

I found this book a very good antidote to some of the unrealistic chick-lit I have been reading.

Wow definetly interesting and very good reading though I did find myself nodding over it on the train last night but it was 10:30 and I was very tired!

Jane's memoirs are intriguing - not just her encounters with the men who answer her add but her frankness regarding her addiction to drugs *not that she mentioned how or why she stopped taking them*, her relationship with her family and her son and the student teachers she teaches and also the prison inmates.

Definite recommendation, an interesting story about a round-heeled woman.

Caught at Meetup, thank you BookFrog and Servalan. It looks like it will be a very interesting read!

I really enjoyed this book. Juska intertwines stories of her recent relationships with tales of her past. Her love of teaching, reading and all things literary are a strong theme throughout the book. Readers can feel for her throughout the highs and lows of her life, and during the search for that special person. I wonder what she is doing now. An entertaining read. Thank you Servalan and BookFrog. This book is a huge step up from that 'orrible 'Bride Stripped Bare'.

Why oh why do people keep sending me books? This one turned up in the mail and I won't have time to read it for another six months or so. I don't need MORE books. Everyone get that through your thick heads. Especially you, you miserable spineless worm writing these words.

Thanks, Mark! You're a gem. A most amazing quick gem, especially with post office queues the way they are at the moment. I'll probably have this read in a couple of days while I wait in line. If my wife doesn't steal it out from under my nose, as she does with all the good books I get.

Oh, but I loved this one! What a delightful person Jane must be. Just look at her on the back flap of the dust jacket - she positively twinkles out at the reader from in front of a wall piled high with books on shelves and in stacks. My kind of woman!

She's frank, but never for the sake of frankness. She carries the story along on butterfly wings of ego and libido, laughing with schoolgirl happiness one moment, crying with a grandmother's tears the next as she flutters from man to man and finds something to love in them all. Well, nearly all. There's a dud or two amongst them, but even the fumbles are good reading.

We ride along with her on parallel stories. Of sex in her sixties, of growing up, getting married and having a family, of teaching students, her son, San Quentin inmates. And herself.

And she knows how to tell her stories. I'm glad I didn't leave this one for six months. And now I'm sorry it's over.

Released on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at about 2:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Babar's Cafe, Woden in Woden, Australian Capital Territory Australia.

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll release this at our monthly meetup tomorrow, confident that at least one of the voracious readers there will light upon this and carry it off to be devoured at leisure.

As it deserves to be. thanks again, Mark, for sending me this meaty morsel.

How come I always get the sex books? Caught from Skyring at January Meetup. Reserved for Bort next.

...

Extremely good! I agree with previous journallers - the descriptions of her life outside the sexual premise of this memoir is the more interesting part of the book.

I might not have always liked Janed Juska, but hell I admire her. She's smart, funny, brave and unapologetic. She destribes her quest for "lots of sex with a man I like" and her life to that point with a freshness, honesty and self-awareness. It's too rawly honest to have been easy to write. In places I just felt how painful it was and it is all the better for that.

I particularly enjoyed her lifelong love affair with literature, learning, teaching and libraries. Especially libraries. The description of her reaction to reading in manuscript one of her favourite novels brought tears to my eyes as it did to hers. This honesty of emotion is one of the reasons I do what I do and it's a privelege to be present at these "eureka" moments with reaers. I could have throttled the library-nazis in the New York Public Library!

This book is a delight to read and a gorgeous artifact - a small hard cover.

Read this. Do NOT read the Bride Stripped Bare which is appallingly conceived, constructed and written.

I actually picked this book up for Bort at the February Canbera MeetUp (SMS from him: "can you lay hold of that rather risque book for me?"), but seeing as I've read it in the meantime I figured I may as well journal it.

I really enjoyed this book, in particular Juska's recollections about her life and her descriptions of some of her teaching work with teenagers and prison inmates. Her narrative voice is warm, engaging and self-assured. Reading it felt rather like having a conversation with an intimate friend. At my age I don't have much to contribute on the topic of later-life sexuality, but I did enjoy this memoir very much.

RELEASE NOTES:

Released to Bort on my couch.

Have had my eye on this book since it made a brief cameo at the january canberra BC meeting... so is nice to finally get my sweaty paws on it.
To be read.

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Rather a fascinating story. The concept is a little unusual, an otherwise straightlaced 'chronologically advanced' woman setting out to seek sex and discovering that happyness ultimately revolves around relationship.
Clever, well writen and stragely engrossing...

RELEASE NOTES:

Controlled Release by mail to Tess in Adelaide. I hope she enjoys it... or more importantly finds the time to :)