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122nd out of 865 books
—
213 voters
A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance
by
Jane Juska
“Round-heeled” is an old-fashioned label for a woman who is promiscuous—someone who nowadays might be called “easy.” It’s a surprising way for a cultured English teacher with a passion for the novels of Anthony Trollope to describe herself, but then that’s just the first of many surprises to be found in this poignant, funny, utterly unique memoir. Jane Juska is a smart, en...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
May 11th 2004
by Villard
(first published January 1st 2003)
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Don’t bother picturing a spry Red-Hatter in juicy lingerie tramping it up with urbane, sexy, oldsters. Jane Juska’s game plan to “have a lot of sex with a man I like” really meant “have some sex but lots more drama with a few mediocre men who often belittle me, and I’ll travel mindlessly and expensively around the country to do so”.
Expecting the erotic quest of a normal woman celibate for thirty years now sowing her wild oats, I ended up questioning both her motives and her sanity. How many yea...more
Expecting the erotic quest of a normal woman celibate for thirty years now sowing her wild oats, I ended up questioning both her motives and her sanity. How many yea...more
"Before I turn 67 - next March - I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like." So read the ad that Jane Juska placed in the New York Times Book Review personals section. This book chronicles what happened after.
The funny, self-aware, thoughtful, beautifully human voice of Jane Juska was a joyful discovery for me - what a treat she is! Because I'm a voyeur, and because Juska's voice throughout the slightly scandalous book was full of humanity and courage, this book was a home run for me....more
The funny, self-aware, thoughtful, beautifully human voice of Jane Juska was a joyful discovery for me - what a treat she is! Because I'm a voyeur, and because Juska's voice throughout the slightly scandalous book was full of humanity and courage, this book was a home run for me....more
Jun 13, 2007
Destinee Sutton
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
the sort of person who is not grossed out by the combination of old ladies and sex
I bought this book on a whim because I thought it sounded light and I was in the mood to laugh. I mean, the misadventures of a retired grandma going on lots of blind dates? Shouldn't that be comical? Like, the female version of Grumpy Old Men or something? In actuality, this is a pretty heavy book and not for the reasons you might think (or not JUST for those reasons). The author had a rough life and a good portion of the book is spent documenting her most painful experiences.
So, not the beach...more
So, not the beach...more
Jane Juska's personal ad basically summarizes this memoir:
"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."
I don't know where I saw a review of this book, or why the book was even mentioned, given how relatively old it is, but the library had it so I checked it out on a whim. I didn't even remember what the book was about or what a round-heeled woman was (I'd never heard that phrase before the book) but I li...more
"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."
I don't know where I saw a review of this book, or why the book was even mentioned, given how relatively old it is, but the library had it so I checked it out on a whim. I didn't even remember what the book was about or what a round-heeled woman was (I'd never heard that phrase before the book) but I li...more
The book synopsis indicates that this book focuses primarily on the personal ad Juska placed ("Before I turn 67-next March-I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like.") It does tell the tale of her ad, the response, and the results of her emotional and physical journey, but that story is equally balanced with Juska's recounting of her past. The tales of the men she meets are interwoven with stories of her family life, her teaching career, her failed marriage, and her parenting hits and...more
I love the idea of this book: a long-divorced woman in her mid-60s places an ad in the high-brow New York Review of Books personals looking "to have a lot of sex with a man I like." Not your typical long-walks-in-the-rain kind of personal ad. I wish I liked the actual book more.
The title, the subtitle (My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance), and the jacket copy lead you to expect a saucier book when, in fact, it's pretty much an older woman's memoir with a bit of cross-country sex thrown in...more
The title, the subtitle (My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance), and the jacket copy lead you to expect a saucier book when, in fact, it's pretty much an older woman's memoir with a bit of cross-country sex thrown in...more
"The Round Heeled Woman," by Jane Juska, is a memoir about a former h.s. English teacher in search of sex, so she puts an ad in the new york review and gets some mighty interesting adventures ---- it's funny and sexy, and the writing is very good, and her intelligence is seen on every page with all of her literary references. I was the only one who read it in my book club, and I found it more amusing than the Alaskan memoirs book (the one we were supposed to read) , and this writer skips around...more
I read this book right after my (second) divorce... was a perfect time to read about an intelligent older (older than me!) woman taking risks to seek pleasure, joy and even love. While I agree with those who have issues with her approach and degree of risk-taking: I found many gems of wisdom.
"Therapy costs money, but so does lying flat on your own bed, able to live a life only dimly lit."
"I knew when I decided to fill my life fully, I could not choose only the good parts. And I did it anyway....more
"Therapy costs money, but so does lying flat on your own bed, able to live a life only dimly lit."
"I knew when I decided to fill my life fully, I could not choose only the good parts. And I did it anyway....more
I feel this book suffered from trying to be more, and less than the title offered. You get little of her dating adventures. I would have enjoyed more details on the letters she received, and the emails that were exchanged.
This book actually offers glimpses into two other books, that would have made great reads. Her live growing up with her parents, especially her mother, and her teaching writing at the prison. I so wished she wrote a book about those experiences alone. The brief chapter on the...more
This book actually offers glimpses into two other books, that would have made great reads. Her live growing up with her parents, especially her mother, and her teaching writing at the prison. I so wished she wrote a book about those experiences alone. The brief chapter on the...more
1 like
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like
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i had heard about this book some time ago and then i kept seeing references to it in other things i read, so i decided to read it. what a delightful book. i am not sure men would enjoy it as much as women, but i could be wrong. the author put an ad in the personal section of the NY Times Review of Books, stating essentially that she wanted to have a lot of sex with a man she liked before she turned 67 on her next birthday. The book is a report of her adventures and it was both sadder and funnier...more
Strong start which in my opinion petered out. The title is completely false advertising! This is a memoir, with a twist, admittedly, but a dig-into-the childhood-and-failed-marriage memoir just the same. Ho hum. The dating part was fascinating but uneven in terms of detail. The author has an unnerving habit of varying tenses within a paragraph that I found quite exhausting. I did finish it, which should perhaps garner it more than two stars, but I admit to skimming a couple of chapters...
Enjoyed, but it does tend to ramble off in other directions at times. I liked the basic idea, something very different from such an older person. I did feel frustrated at times with her for putting up with such idiots. I mean, honestly - old enough to know better! Then again, she was knowingly seeing attached men, so I guess she didn't have the bar raised very high to start with.
I didn't dislike her as some readers seem to. It sounds like she had a hard life and she did the best she could with...more
I didn't dislike her as some readers seem to. It sounds like she had a hard life and she did the best she could with...more
Self-indulgent and too self-depricating, Jane jumps on the opportunity to write about her life which is not that enthralling or extraordinary. The book advertises itself as being about her sexual escapdes due to her advert, but 70% of the book is about her naiveness (not only in sex but in all domains of life), her family and her teaching. When she does get around to speaking about her sexual escapdes I felt they were under detailed (compared to other passages), rushed through and left me confus...more
2 likes
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Jane Juska was my first master teacher when I was getting my teaching credential. This memoir definitely showed her in a new light, and I could hear her voice in every chapter. The book wasn't as engaging as I'd hoped it to be, based on my fondness and respect for her as a mentor to me in my earliest teaching experiences. I guess I wanted her to be as strong in her personal life as she is/was in her professional life.
What a wonderful, humorous, courageous, uninhibited, effusive, candid, delightful book! I absolutely enjoyed reading Juska's friend-to-friend style of writing as she plunges headfirst into an outlandish adventure totally out of character with her (up-to-then) proper, respectable persona. At age 66 she decides to send a provocative ad to a personals section in a literary magazine, reading: "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,...more
A 67-year-old woman places an ad for sex in the New York Times Review of Books, hoping to overcome a lifetime of respectability. She gets sex, but falls in love with a cruel man who no longer desires her after a brief and torrid affair. She continues to live with him on visits to New York and takes all the punishment he gives out. How, I ask, is this an improvement from "respectability?" It's the same old female pattern of "loving" someone who also destroys you. And she's not even achieving her...more
This is such a great premise, and I was all set to love this book, but I really didn't. The author is (sorry) not that likeable, and the men she meets are mostly sad, issue-ridden disapointments. Not much of an adventure.
Offbeat, compelling memoir of a 65 year old woman who placed a personal ad in the New York Review of Books looking for "lots of sex with a man [she liked]". Very enjoyable.
"Before I turn 67 - next March - I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like." So read the ad that Jane Juska placed in the New York Times Book Review personals section. This off-beat memoir tells what follows, including the good, the bad, and the ugly and not so ugly bodies. Juska is refreshingly candid and honest about her neediness for human touch and its ultimate iteration - sex. If her attempts to find what she wants and needs are risible at times (and some might even say pathetic),...more
Ugh! That's about all I can say about this book. The premise was cute--it's the memoir of a woman who decided that even though she was older (66) she still wanted intimacy, so she puts out a personal ad for someone to talk to and be intimate with. But it's hard to read a memoir about a person you dislike so completely.
She jumped topics so frequently, talked about multiple men in the same sentence, and didn't explain people enough for me to keep them straight. She quoted authors too much, talked...more
She jumped topics so frequently, talked about multiple men in the same sentence, and didn't explain people enough for me to keep them straight. She quoted authors too much, talked...more
Oh my gosh, how funny! This book is the late-life adventures in sex and romance of a 66 yr-old woman who places an ad in a newspaper: "BEFORE I TURN 67--next March--I would like to have a ot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me. NYR Box 10307"....and then she receives over 60 responses. Funny, yes, but full of feeling for both women and men who believe "it ain't over yet".
I learned that we are alive until we are not; that elders should be proud, not meek; t...more
I learned that we are alive until we are not; that elders should be proud, not meek; t...more
"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. Read the personal ad in the New York Review of books.
A memoir that tells more truth than any other memoir that I have ever read. She is 66 years old and has lead the celebite life too long.
She gets 67 replies and sets out to meet these guys. In the process we learn about her whole life up to this point. She was born in 1933, coming of age in the fifties where...more
A memoir that tells more truth than any other memoir that I have ever read. She is 66 years old and has lead the celebite life too long.
She gets 67 replies and sets out to meet these guys. In the process we learn about her whole life up to this point. She was born in 1933, coming of age in the fifties where...more
If you've read a description of this book you know that it sounds salacious and juicy...however, the reality is that this book is a tale of the self awareness travels that one woman takes. Make no mistake - this book is about sex but it's about the authors' history with sex, ideas about sex, experiences with sex and her growing understand of her true relationship with sex and the opposite sex. it's both humorous and tender at the same time. Very honest, sometimes heartbreakingly so, this is an i...more
Jane Juska wrote this sex-positive autobiography when she was 67 years old. While it promotes itself as "late-life adventures in sex and romance," most of the book is a review of her life prior to placing an ad at age 66 saying she would "like to have a lot of sex with a man" before she turns 67. Keeping with the theme of the title, her biographical writings do focus on how sexuality fit into her rather mundane white middle-class upbringing in the midwest and her 30 years of celibacy following...more
I really enjoyed the descriptions about her relationships with these men, but I didn't really enjoy hearing the other facets of her life. I realize that who we are is what makes 1/2 of a relationship, but I was more interested in her and her motives without knowing anything about her personally. I found her to be sad. She had a run of shitty relationships in her youth and allowed herself to repeat past mistakes by knowingly developing relationships with men who were already spoken for...and then...more
Aug 23, 2009
Dr. Ruth Neustifter
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Dr. Ruth by:
I found it.
Shelves:
fun-sexuality-books-non-fiction
A fantastic read! This has joined the very short list of books that I own multiple copies of, so I can give them to friends as needed. It's as fun as fiction (but not too fluffy) with the satisfaction of a biographical story. Light, enjoyable, touching and very real this is a fantastic tale of sexuality in singlehood after menopause. The best part, in my opinion, is the end that thoroughly defies tradition. I do hope to meet the author sometime. Highly recommended to those seeking an example of...more
(truncated version of my original thoughts)
A woman reaching her 67th birthday decides she wants to have “lots of sex with a man she likes.” She puts out a personal ad to this effect, the responses come rolling in, and she sets out to decide who the lucky man will be. Or men, rather, since she ends up having sex with a handful of men she likes. This is an interesting memoir, but the author seems to have a hard time staying on task. She digresses from the story on several occasions to talk about o...more
A woman reaching her 67th birthday decides she wants to have “lots of sex with a man she likes.” She puts out a personal ad to this effect, the responses come rolling in, and she sets out to decide who the lucky man will be. Or men, rather, since she ends up having sex with a handful of men she likes. This is an interesting memoir, but the author seems to have a hard time staying on task. She digresses from the story on several occasions to talk about o...more
I just finished this book and feel quite sad that it's over. I don't think I've ever read a more honest biography and just love Jane Juska for it. I feel a need to know what happened in her life since she wrote it and intend to do some research to find out. I just hope that she found someone to hold and to give her the love she needs and deserves. I would love to have her for a friend although I could never come close to being intelligent enough to feel her equal. Still, I think she would like m...more
I walked by a book, the other day, entitled: A Round-Heeled Woman. My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance. The author put an ad in her favorite newspaper. The ad was shown on the cover of the book. It read: "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."
I continued walking, but returned for the book, as I was curious as to why a woman of 66 would write such an ad, beyond the obvious, that is.
The book is an i...more
I continued walking, but returned for the book, as I was curious as to why a woman of 66 would write such an ad, beyond the obvious, that is.
The book is an i...more
The cover of Jane Juska’s book features a newspaper personal ad that reads: “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.” This personal ad reveals much about what lies between the covers of A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance: a sexual romp and an exploration of aging and womanhood, imbued with a literary sensibility and a boisterous sense of humor. Juska’s candid memoir is a livel...more
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Oct 11, 2011 11:37pm
Jan 21, 2012 12:35pm