What do you think?
Rate this book
Runnymede #5
Cakewalk
Continuing in the exuberant tradition of Six of One, Bingo, and Loose Lips, New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown returns to her much-loved fictional hamlet of Runnymede, whose memorable citizens are welcoming both the end of the Great War and the beginning of a new era.
The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house-during a Mary Pickford picture, no less-you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she ll not soon forget.
Set against the backdrop of America emerging from World War I, Cakewalk is an outrageous and affecting novel about a small town where ideas of sin and virtue, love and sex, men and women, politics and religion, can be as divided as the Mason-Dixon Line that runs right through it and where there's no problem that can't be cured by a good yarn and an even better scotch. With her signature Southern voice, Rita Mae Brown deftly weaves generations of family stories into a spirited patchwork quilt of not-so-simple but joyously rich life.
The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house-during a Mary Pickford picture, no less-you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she ll not soon forget.
Set against the backdrop of America emerging from World War I, Cakewalk is an outrageous and affecting novel about a small town where ideas of sin and virtue, love and sex, men and women, politics and religion, can be as divided as the Mason-Dixon Line that runs right through it and where there's no problem that can't be cured by a good yarn and an even better scotch. With her signature Southern voice, Rita Mae Brown deftly weaves generations of family stories into a spirited patchwork quilt of not-so-simple but joyously rich life.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2016
144 people are currently reading
825 people want to read
About the author
Rita Mae Brown
178 books2,201 followersRita Mae Brown is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter.
Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.
Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.
During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.
Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.
In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."
Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.
Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.
During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.
Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.
In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
September 15, 2016
Dear heaven.
Brown has had a long and auspicious writing career, and right about now she can do whatever she pleases. I came to this title thinking that it was a stand-alone novel; thank you, Net Galley and Random House Ballantine for the DRC, which I received free in exchange for this honest review. The book is available to the public October 18, 2016.
For awhile I wasn’t sure just what to make of it; there are some wonderfully wry moments, and then there are others. I’ve since learned that this is actually a continuation of a series that is chronologically placed, and so many readers will already be familiar with the characters and setting. Fans of Brown’s Runnymede series will be delighted. For those that don’t know:
“In Runnymede everybody knew everybody. Nobody forgot a thing, not one blessed thing, especially if a whiff of scandal attended it.”
The time is 1920; the small town just mentioned straddles the Mason Dixon line, with the Southern half in Maryland and the Northern half in Pennsylvania. Everyone that is important enough to make it into the story is Caucasian, and the wealthy, benevolent folk appear to outnumber the less fortunate, who work hard and are rewarded with grace and maternal affection by the local bourgeoisie.
This reviewer’s mother, long gone now, was born in the 1920’s in a different part of the American South, and I grew up hearing that welfare was simply not necessary, because in a small town, those with money always “took care of our poor”. Nobody starved, and nobody had money that came from the government, and everyone was fine, just fine. And after we’d heard this story a few dozen times, my sister, who was older than myself by many years and knew more about the small town in question than I did finally said gently, “No, Mother, you didn’t. I know that you did your best, but not all the poor were ‘taken care of’, and yes, some people there went hungry.” And I cannot help but wonder whether Brown has based her story on the same sort of flawed premise, of a benign but paternalistic system in which those in need receive from those that have extra to give, and nobody but nobody suffers.
You don’t want to know what remarks are tapped into my reader. Every time I realized that my inner snarky Marxist was taking over, I closed that particular book and went to read something else, and later came back to read it afresh. And though I found some bright spots, I was never a gentle reader here.
I think I might have enjoyed this story more had I heeded the note at the story’s outset that this is not a plot driven book. I assumed that characters would be more important than the storyline, and in this I was correct, but I wasn’t prepared not to have a plot at all, apart from one thing that leads to another in a meandering sort of way. Brown has created an everyday life using the small town she has fictionally reconstructed based on stories told her by her older relatives, and so the reader needs to be ready to drop in, almost as if looking through someone else’s attic at the letters, photos and diaries of those that were once there.
To read this novel one would never make the association between this author and the one that wrote Rubyfruit Jungle, the bold, hilarious, fiery lesbian manifesto of the early 1980s. But there can only be one such book, and when I look back at various famous writers that published one smashing novel and then never published anything else, I realize that maybe this is why. When one has made a name for oneself by writing a novel that is legendary and can never be paralleled, the choice is to move on and write something else, or stop publishing fiction and take up a completely different occupation.
Feminists will find a few satisfying nuggets here, and other nuggets not as welcome. There is a doomed lesbian relationship, but oh how gently it goes into “that good night” (with my apologies to Dylan Thomas). The cheerier aspect of it is that most of the important characters are women—a breath of fresh air in a realm still dominated largely by men—and some of them wield significant power.
I was dismayed at an episode in which a teenage girl with large breasts is compared to a cow as part of a visual prank in a school-wide pageant, and the entire town laughs about it. To me, it looked an awful lot like body shaming, and I wondered what in the world it was doing there. What’s up with that, Rita Mae?
For me and for readers unfamiliar with the series, this really seems more like a 2.0 or 2.5, but faithful readers have been rating it about 4 stars, so I am shooting down the middle and calling it 3. For those that have read and enjoyed the other volumes in the Runnymede series, this book is recommended.
Brown has had a long and auspicious writing career, and right about now she can do whatever she pleases. I came to this title thinking that it was a stand-alone novel; thank you, Net Galley and Random House Ballantine for the DRC, which I received free in exchange for this honest review. The book is available to the public October 18, 2016.
For awhile I wasn’t sure just what to make of it; there are some wonderfully wry moments, and then there are others. I’ve since learned that this is actually a continuation of a series that is chronologically placed, and so many readers will already be familiar with the characters and setting. Fans of Brown’s Runnymede series will be delighted. For those that don’t know:
“In Runnymede everybody knew everybody. Nobody forgot a thing, not one blessed thing, especially if a whiff of scandal attended it.”
The time is 1920; the small town just mentioned straddles the Mason Dixon line, with the Southern half in Maryland and the Northern half in Pennsylvania. Everyone that is important enough to make it into the story is Caucasian, and the wealthy, benevolent folk appear to outnumber the less fortunate, who work hard and are rewarded with grace and maternal affection by the local bourgeoisie.
This reviewer’s mother, long gone now, was born in the 1920’s in a different part of the American South, and I grew up hearing that welfare was simply not necessary, because in a small town, those with money always “took care of our poor”. Nobody starved, and nobody had money that came from the government, and everyone was fine, just fine. And after we’d heard this story a few dozen times, my sister, who was older than myself by many years and knew more about the small town in question than I did finally said gently, “No, Mother, you didn’t. I know that you did your best, but not all the poor were ‘taken care of’, and yes, some people there went hungry.” And I cannot help but wonder whether Brown has based her story on the same sort of flawed premise, of a benign but paternalistic system in which those in need receive from those that have extra to give, and nobody but nobody suffers.
You don’t want to know what remarks are tapped into my reader. Every time I realized that my inner snarky Marxist was taking over, I closed that particular book and went to read something else, and later came back to read it afresh. And though I found some bright spots, I was never a gentle reader here.
I think I might have enjoyed this story more had I heeded the note at the story’s outset that this is not a plot driven book. I assumed that characters would be more important than the storyline, and in this I was correct, but I wasn’t prepared not to have a plot at all, apart from one thing that leads to another in a meandering sort of way. Brown has created an everyday life using the small town she has fictionally reconstructed based on stories told her by her older relatives, and so the reader needs to be ready to drop in, almost as if looking through someone else’s attic at the letters, photos and diaries of those that were once there.
To read this novel one would never make the association between this author and the one that wrote Rubyfruit Jungle, the bold, hilarious, fiery lesbian manifesto of the early 1980s. But there can only be one such book, and when I look back at various famous writers that published one smashing novel and then never published anything else, I realize that maybe this is why. When one has made a name for oneself by writing a novel that is legendary and can never be paralleled, the choice is to move on and write something else, or stop publishing fiction and take up a completely different occupation.
Feminists will find a few satisfying nuggets here, and other nuggets not as welcome. There is a doomed lesbian relationship, but oh how gently it goes into “that good night” (with my apologies to Dylan Thomas). The cheerier aspect of it is that most of the important characters are women—a breath of fresh air in a realm still dominated largely by men—and some of them wield significant power.
I was dismayed at an episode in which a teenage girl with large breasts is compared to a cow as part of a visual prank in a school-wide pageant, and the entire town laughs about it. To me, it looked an awful lot like body shaming, and I wondered what in the world it was doing there. What’s up with that, Rita Mae?
For me and for readers unfamiliar with the series, this really seems more like a 2.0 or 2.5, but faithful readers have been rating it about 4 stars, so I am shooting down the middle and calling it 3. For those that have read and enjoyed the other volumes in the Runnymede series, this book is recommended.
October 3, 2016
Brown returns to the town of Runnymede which straddles the Maryland/Pennsylvania border and the Mason-Dixon Line to revisit the Hunsenmeir girls as they come of age in the 1920s, all under the shadow of World War I and it's aftermath. However, one needn't have read the first books in the series ( Bingo set in present day and Six of One) to enjoy this one. The book focuses on sisters Louise and Juts Hunsenmeir and their mother's employer (and the girls' benefactor) Celeste Chalfonte. All of these characters are wonderful (which makes one wonder what became of Louise later) as are all the wonderful residents of Runnymede - these books are always at their best when focusing on the entire town. In fact, much of the book is about sisters, both Louise and Juts and Celeste and her sister Carlotta, and Celeste sums up all the relationships with a remark to Carlotta, "'You know I love you.' Celeste kissed her sister on the cheek and swept out the door. 'It's just sometimes I can't stand you.'
This is an absolutely wonderful addition to the Runnymede books, so much better than Six of One - Runnymede is back to itself again!
This is an absolutely wonderful addition to the Runnymede books, so much better than Six of One - Runnymede is back to itself again!
July 26, 2016
I understand this is part of a series written by Rita Mae Brown. But no worries, you don't need to have read the prior novels. The setting is Runnymeade, literally on the Mason Dixon Line between York County Pa and Carroll County Maryland. Having lived in both locations, I can attest that Brown has gotten that small town attitude just right. The book might take place in 1920 but the attitude remains the same. The one misstep is the idea that there would be a group of The Daughters of the Confederacy in Runnymeade. Any place that close to the Pa line would have shared northern sensibilities.
This is a sweet book. The characters are all likeable. The story line is a bit wild. For starters, Celeste’s lover is having a baby fathered by Celeste’s brother. And the brawl in the movie theatre that starts things off is a hoot. But in a weird way it reminds me of Jan Karon’s Father Timothy series. Well, for the open minded set. It's all about the various forms of love - romantic, familial and religious, even the love of our friends; about the sacrifices we make for those we love.
Brown’s writing and the conversations make you feel part of the time. There's a dry wit here that moves the plot along and makes you appreciate each character . “Juts.” Celeste put down the dough cutter. “Ben Johnson thought every man had his element. Yours is hot water.”
My thanks to netgalley and Bantam for an advance copy of this novel.
May 19, 2017
What a delight! I'm so happy to add three more series to my TBR list. If only I'll live long enough to finish all her delightful books.
October 29, 2016
I enjoy Louisa Mae Browns books. I love her Sneaky Pie and Aunt Jane books to death. This historical series set in rural Runnymede at the close of WWI is different from most of her other books. Sisters Wheezie and Juts star in Cakewalk and their relationship with Miss Celeste their mother's boss. A unique look into life in the 1920's.
November 18, 2017
I haven't read Rita Mae Brown before. Took some getting used to! The lead female characters are appealing: clever, surprisingly frank, blessed with a zest for life and love. The novel may seem a bit of a fluffy thing on its surface, but in this tale of a town divided- literally- values, social customs, judgments, which long have and still do divide us, are no match for the universal urge toward connection, empathy, kindness... and love and joy.
January 2, 2017
I think I was really not in the mood for southern US nostalgia.
July 12, 2016
It is great fun for a reader to revisit characters and places in a series book. Rita Mae Brown, in her new novel, "Cakewalk", brings her loyal readers back to Runnymede - a small town perched directly on the Mason-Dixon line - and the wonderful characters, including the Hunsenmeier sisters (Juts and Louise), their mother, the beyond beautiful Celeste Chalfonte, and the others we grew to love in "Six of One", "Sand Castles", "Bingo" and "Loose Lips", Brown places "Cakewalk" in the very important year of 1920, where the 18th and 19th Amendments were passed. The book takes place in the spring of the year; the 18th (Prohibition) was already on the books, but the 19th was waiting on a final state - Tennessee - to ratify the amendment. (The story of how the Tennessee house ratified and the one man who voted his conscience is another great political tale, but not one included in "Cakewalk")
Brown's "Six of One" really started the Runnymede series and is the strongest book of the five books. (And why is "Six of One" not available in ebook form?) It was in "Six" that Brown introduces her marvelous characters and builds a back story on each. The most interesting character - Celeste Chalfonte - around whom the others circle, was not included in "Bingo" and "Sand Castles", but is brought back in "Cakewalk". Since this book includes the plot points of Celeste's lover, Ramelle" having a child with Celeste's brother, a new lover had to be introduced into the story. And what a surprise that lover is. You'll have to read the book to find out who Celeste falls in love with.
Rita Mae Brown doesn't neglect her other characters, all who are brought up-to-date, as of 1920. "Six of One", which ran from 1912 to 1980 was more expansive in time and plot, but "Cakewalk" is right to hone in on one 5 month period. I will never love a book more than Brown's "Six of One" or "Southern Discomfort", but "Cakewalk" is a solid "companion" to "Six".
I was given this book as an advanced copy to read and review by Net Galley. I think it will be published in October, 2o16. Oh, and if the publishers are reading this review, Celeste and her friends went to Vassar, not Smith. You might want to change that in the published edition.
Brown's "Six of One" really started the Runnymede series and is the strongest book of the five books. (And why is "Six of One" not available in ebook form?) It was in "Six" that Brown introduces her marvelous characters and builds a back story on each. The most interesting character - Celeste Chalfonte - around whom the others circle, was not included in "Bingo" and "Sand Castles", but is brought back in "Cakewalk". Since this book includes the plot points of Celeste's lover, Ramelle" having a child with Celeste's brother, a new lover had to be introduced into the story. And what a surprise that lover is. You'll have to read the book to find out who Celeste falls in love with.
Rita Mae Brown doesn't neglect her other characters, all who are brought up-to-date, as of 1920. "Six of One", which ran from 1912 to 1980 was more expansive in time and plot, but "Cakewalk" is right to hone in on one 5 month period. I will never love a book more than Brown's "Six of One" or "Southern Discomfort", but "Cakewalk" is a solid "companion" to "Six".
I was given this book as an advanced copy to read and review by Net Galley. I think it will be published in October, 2o16. Oh, and if the publishers are reading this review, Celeste and her friends went to Vassar, not Smith. You might want to change that in the published edition.
February 7, 2017
Not a fan of this book. Too many characters to keep track of. Went back and forth witj all of them and I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. Story did not flow smoothly.
January 15, 2017
Picked this up because I like stories set in post WWI era. Apparently Brown has written several books set in this small town (Runnymede) straddling the Mason/Dixon line but they are all set in different eras and are not in any chronological order. It was a little slow getting into but once I became more acquainted with the many characters I really came to like them or at least to become interested in them if they were not particularly likable. Celeste was my favorite character but I also enjoyed knowing young Juts and her family. The book is not a "plotted" story but is more like vignettes of life in this town over a limited time frame (1920). And a lot goes on here. By the end I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Runnymeade and wonder what will become of these folk, especially the wealthy families when Black Friday, 1929, hits. Hope a future (or former?) book tackles that.
November 5, 2016
This is the second Rita Mae Brown I've read, this one not strictly a mystery although there is an uninvestigated arson, and an unsolved murder in the past. One of a series, god forbid, about the fictional town of Runnymede. I just don't get it. The writing is clunky, the characters all speak with the same voice, the plot makes no sense. It's all live-and-let-live unless you're the one girl in town whose mother is pressuring her to marry well and everybody hates her for it. I was seduced by a cute cover and a setting in my favorite time period (just post-WWI) and neither had much to do with the book.
January 2, 2017
RMB gives her usual dose of social commentary in this book, but it is not as on the nose as in some of her work. In Cake Walk she dives all the way into female sexuality and mores.
I particularly enjoy the way she weaves the message into the quotidian lives of those in Runnymede. She uses history, personal experience, and common sense in characters whose motivations and actions we know from our own lives.
I particularly enjoy the way she weaves the message into the quotidian lives of those in Runnymede. She uses history, personal experience, and common sense in characters whose motivations and actions we know from our own lives.
October 2, 2016
A fine book had you read the previous books in the series first. In my haste to read this, I totally missed that important fact. My mistake!
Thank you Netgalley for approving me, and for clearly trying to tell me.
Thank you Netgalley for approving me, and for clearly trying to tell me.
November 3, 2018
One of my favorite books of all time is Six of One. I have read that book no less than 20 times. I love the characters, their interactions, their antics, their goodness and most importantly, they each had their own independent strengths. Each time I read this book I did not want it to end. But end it did. And so, I kept waiting for the next book that would continue the story of their lives.
Sadly, with each new installment the characters started to become unfamiliar. Their core changes. This book was no exception. I barely recognize the people who I loved to much in Six of One. What happened to the sass? The independence? The stubbornness? The antics?
I can tell you what happened. Messages. Instead of letting the characters live regular ordinary lives they have become conveyors of Ms. Browns politics and beliefs. Nothing wrong with that, if that was how the first book was written. But it was not. SOO was about family and fun and what is right and correcting the wrongs. It was so so funny, each character with their quirks, and coming together for the greater good.
I think when I was not thrilled with Loose Lips that I should have quit then. The core of the characters was already changing. By this book they are almost unrecognizable. Sad.
If you are reading this Ms. Brown, please bring back the characters you brought to life in Six of Won.
Sadly, with each new installment the characters started to become unfamiliar. Their core changes. This book was no exception. I barely recognize the people who I loved to much in Six of One. What happened to the sass? The independence? The stubbornness? The antics?
I can tell you what happened. Messages. Instead of letting the characters live regular ordinary lives they have become conveyors of Ms. Browns politics and beliefs. Nothing wrong with that, if that was how the first book was written. But it was not. SOO was about family and fun and what is right and correcting the wrongs. It was so so funny, each character with their quirks, and coming together for the greater good.
I think when I was not thrilled with Loose Lips that I should have quit then. The core of the characters was already changing. By this book they are almost unrecognizable. Sad.
If you are reading this Ms. Brown, please bring back the characters you brought to life in Six of Won.
July 7, 2021
The fifth book in the Runnymede series by Rita Mae Brown, Cakewalk continues the tale of life in the fictional down divided by the Mason-Dixon Line. The inhabitants are divided in many ways but a small town is a small town wherever you go. Everyone knows everyone's business. After a riot at the movie theater, caused by a mistaken kiss in the dark, a new love is blossoming just as times are changing. The Great War is over and things are starting to look up as life moves on. The Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are feminists before the word was a thing. Their father had left the family and they swore never to rely on a man to provide for them. Louise is started to think about her future while Julia is still worried about a date for the big dance.
Across the town on the rich side of town another family is preparing for a wedding of the youngest son. Tensions are up as he is marrying his sister's pregnant lover. Oh the drama of it all! If you love long ranging family/town sagas this series is for you.
Across the town on the rich side of town another family is preparing for a wedding of the youngest son. Tensions are up as he is marrying his sister's pregnant lover. Oh the drama of it all! If you love long ranging family/town sagas this series is for you.
April 1, 2018
O really enjoyed this charming book placed in 1920's in a small town that straddles the Mason Dixon line. The first Runnymede book covers 80 years in the lives of two sisters who much like the two halves of the town, are constantly battling each other, but stick together when it counts. That book was a 5 star novel that explored life and love in many forms with lots of air and wisdom. It had several well drawn characters that I have enjoyed revisiting through the series.
Unfortunately, each of the sequels retell part of the original story in a different manner. Careers are completely different, characters that supposedly disappeared forever actually return, even names are mysteriously changed.
This charming novel does not begin to compare to the original. The characters are pale copies of the earlier portrayals. If you haven't read any of the earlier books, or if you are once again willing to set aside the discrepancies, the book provides a nice little diversion.
Unfortunately, each of the sequels retell part of the original story in a different manner. Careers are completely different, characters that supposedly disappeared forever actually return, even names are mysteriously changed.
This charming novel does not begin to compare to the original. The characters are pale copies of the earlier portrayals. If you haven't read any of the earlier books, or if you are once again willing to set aside the discrepancies, the book provides a nice little diversion.
September 7, 2020
I read the other books in this series years ago, and didn't know about this one until I was browsing at the library. If you haven't read the others yet it won't really matter, I would really term this as a "prequel" because it takes us back to Weezie and Jutes' teen days in the year of 1920.
Being a Southerner, (though of the working middle class variety, not the rich society class) the tone of this book sounds very familiar to me, but I must admit that I was surprised at the ready acceptance of 1. Cecelia's unconventional relationship and 2. The non-event of Ramelle and Curtis marrying and Ramelle already being pregnant. I realize they were part of the privileged class, but even in my young years (the 1960's and 70's) these would have been major scandals, and would have been grounds for major snubbing. Well, #1 anyway, but I realize this is fiction and Rita Mae Brown has used this theme in other books of hers so....if you like Southern literature you will like this one.
Being a Southerner, (though of the working middle class variety, not the rich society class) the tone of this book sounds very familiar to me, but I must admit that I was surprised at the ready acceptance of 1. Cecelia's unconventional relationship and 2. The non-event of Ramelle and Curtis marrying and Ramelle already being pregnant. I realize they were part of the privileged class, but even in my young years (the 1960's and 70's) these would have been major scandals, and would have been grounds for major snubbing. Well, #1 anyway, but I realize this is fiction and Rita Mae Brown has used this theme in other books of hers so....if you like Southern literature you will like this one.
July 6, 2017
I won Cakewalk by Rita Mae Brown from Goodreads.
Readers will settle in to enjoy life in a small town at the end of the Great War in Rita Mae Brown's funny and moving novel, Cakewalk. Runnymede, on the Pennsylvania - Maryland border, is a town readers will love visiting, filled with characters who are uniquely complex, yet so familiar. Readers are immediately engaged in the exploits of the townfolk, cheer their successes and comeuppances, and laugh at the dialog and prose as it presents a running commentary on life.
The plot gently unfolds, yet is a page-turner, providing readers with the opportunity to savor the delicious plotlines within the story of love and revenge - if only the reader were not so anxious to find out what happens!
I truly loved Cakewalk by Rita Mae Brown and I want to visit Runnymede again and again!
Readers will settle in to enjoy life in a small town at the end of the Great War in Rita Mae Brown's funny and moving novel, Cakewalk. Runnymede, on the Pennsylvania - Maryland border, is a town readers will love visiting, filled with characters who are uniquely complex, yet so familiar. Readers are immediately engaged in the exploits of the townfolk, cheer their successes and comeuppances, and laugh at the dialog and prose as it presents a running commentary on life.
The plot gently unfolds, yet is a page-turner, providing readers with the opportunity to savor the delicious plotlines within the story of love and revenge - if only the reader were not so anxious to find out what happens!
I truly loved Cakewalk by Rita Mae Brown and I want to visit Runnymede again and again!
November 24, 2018
TITLE: Cakewalk
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK: It met my reading challenge criteria being connected to the book before it, Santa Clawed, both written by the same author, Rita Mae Brown
REVIEW: When I was barely out of high school Rita Mae Brown played an important part in my life. She gave me a glimpse into myself and a world I could belong to through books like Rubyfruit Jungle. Her subsequent books have not had the same impact on me. Some of that may be due to my being different and some of it may be due to her writing being different, less good. This book, which is part of a series, of which I have read a few, wasn't bad it was just a bit blah. A glimpse into southern culture. I like the strong and intelligent female characters. I particularly liked Celeste Chalfonte who is the center of the story, all the characters revolve around her. The insights were not that insightful.
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK: It met my reading challenge criteria being connected to the book before it, Santa Clawed, both written by the same author, Rita Mae Brown
REVIEW: When I was barely out of high school Rita Mae Brown played an important part in my life. She gave me a glimpse into myself and a world I could belong to through books like Rubyfruit Jungle. Her subsequent books have not had the same impact on me. Some of that may be due to my being different and some of it may be due to her writing being different, less good. This book, which is part of a series, of which I have read a few, wasn't bad it was just a bit blah. A glimpse into southern culture. I like the strong and intelligent female characters. I particularly liked Celeste Chalfonte who is the center of the story, all the characters revolve around her. The insights were not that insightful.
February 27, 2017
I haven't been too impressed by the Sneaky Pie series even though I am a cat lover and usually like cat detective stories so was not sure whether to read this book. The jacket cover sold me because it spoke of small town America in a simpler time then ours, and has a cast of quirky and different types of personalities. This book did have a bit of charm to it but didn't care for the character of Celeste. Beautiful rich older women with a past of many female lovers (her last marries and has a child by her own brother) who catches the eye, heart and body a virile young baseball player. Love is love is love but I can not imagine being with someone young enough to be my child in a sexual way and don't care to read stories of it.
May 8, 2017
The latest in Brown's Runnymede series, this is set in 1920, right after the Great War. I've long been a fan of Brown's early works, including Six of One, the first book in this series. However, the series jumps around in time so it's easy to get lost or confused. It's probably best not to treat as a series but as books written at different times about the same people and places. As always, some of Brown's scenarios and characters are a tad too stereotypical or trite for me, and the details of people's lives seem to vary from book to book. That said, I'm going to reread earlier books to try to piece all this together.
June 30, 2017
Rita Mae Brown's use of language and perspective were always what makes these Runnymede novels worth the time - Juts and Weezie are just kids in this book, testing their adult thoughts for the first time. It's prohibition time, and the family is still mourning the son lost to war. Brown is at her strongest story telling point, and it is truly a joy to read her work without her frequent co-author, Sneaky Pie the cat, dumbing down her phrasing and vocabulary. Now, fans of Sneaky Pie and the series she and Rita Mae write together, don't flame me now - I love those books too, for entirely different reasons. Runnymede though - those books allow the true voice of Rita Mae to shine.
April 11, 2018
I had no idea that this was in a series of books, but now that I know I will go back and read the others, as I did not want this book to end. The Town of Runnymeade which straddles Maryland and Pennsylvania on the Mason Dixon Line in the year 1920 just after the Great War has ended. Celeste Clairmonte, one of the wealthy Clairemonte family, our main character, is dealing with her lover R of 13 years, who is now marring her younger brother in order to become the mother she has always wanted to become. Where does this leave Celeste, and her life? Her closest friends gather to her side to keep her from being lonely.There are so many unique and quirky and touching characters in this town.
July 29, 2024
I feel like I'd like to see these Runnymede books' stories all put in chronological order--except #4, the Sand Castle one, with its errors of continuity, just leave that one out--& then re-divided into 3 books that are actually a serial series! I've found the going back & forth in time confusing. e.g. "Ok, now, did this thing already happen, or is it yet to happen?" "We've heard that last name before, are they going to be so-and-so's father? Grandfather?"
This could be read as a standalone. This one covers Jan. 31 to June 15, 1920. In fact, it might be better if you could read each one as a standalone, completely forgetting the others, it would be less confusing!
This could be read as a standalone. This one covers Jan. 31 to June 15, 1920. In fact, it might be better if you could read each one as a standalone, completely forgetting the others, it would be less confusing!
September 28, 2024
This is my first book by this author, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was funny and while not particularly plot driven, I liked the characters. This is the last book in a series of five about the Mason-Dixon town of Runnymede, but it's more like a prequel than anything else. Unfortunately, the series started in 1978, so my library only has one other book available, Bingo, which actually appears to be chronologically near the end. I might pick this up one day.
May 18, 2017
Sometimes I just want to step into the book I'm reading; this is one such book. Would I be Celeste, a beauty with pots of money? Cora, who keeps Celeste's household running smoothly and everyone else on track? Daughter Juts, trying to work out where she fits in this world? Seriously though, this is engaging storytelling, set in a small town community in 1920 USA. There's a lot of background - the world is changing after the first World War - the Great War, they call it, and say there will surely never be another. Will we ever be free from war?
July 28, 2017
This is a pretty good book which should have been great. The characters are likable, funny, smart women with the exception of the youngest, who was portrayed as a way too young silly person...that simply ticked me off.
The fist fights are far too many and weaken the storyline.
The story is mostly about friendship, love, and marriages. It includes two women who are lovers but both end up with men...what's with that?!
I know this is coming across as me not enjoying the book, which isn't soo, because I really did. I just wanted it to be more...maybe next book.
The fist fights are far too many and weaken the storyline.
The story is mostly about friendship, love, and marriages. It includes two women who are lovers but both end up with men...what's with that?!
I know this is coming across as me not enjoying the book, which isn't soo, because I really did. I just wanted it to be more...maybe next book.
September 8, 2020
I almost got 100 pages read but just couldn't keep on going! It was like a mouse was running around in my brain...all the characters and their discussions, most of which did not interest me in the slightest, as they went on and on and on...I can't totally explain it. Since Cakewalk is our bookclub book for this Saturday, I have now started Bingo (#2 in the Runnymede series)...as an 'in' to a possible contribution to the discussion? So far, in 25 pages, I'm thinking I'm enjoying it...good vintage RMB!
For those of you who are loving Cakewalk, I'm happy for you but????
For those of you who are loving Cakewalk, I'm happy for you but????
May 3, 2022
Rita Mae Brown writes about Wheezie (Louise) and Juts (Julia) living in fictional Runnymede, where the timeline is 1920, high school drama and Wheezie's new love of a veteran make some of the plot. There's also a rich woman with a female lover. Each seems to have fallen in love with someone of the opposite sex. Hmm. Prohibition is in force and all the women are sure the Volstead will not pass, keeping the vote from women. Nice backdrop.
This is number 5 of a series; it does not run chronologically.
This is number 5 of a series; it does not run chronologically.
December 11, 2017
Honestly, this one is a head-scratcher. The cover shows four flappers on a beach with parasols, but the story is set in the early spring in Maryland in 1920. No flappers, no beach. Cakewalk is a prequel to Brown’s other books in the Runnymede series, but there doesn’t appear to be a central plot, other than plenty of excuses for teenage girls to get into smack-down style cat fights. Didn’t make me want to read the rest of the series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews