Miss Julia Hits the Road (Southern Comedy of Manners) (Hardcover)

by Ann B. Ross (Author) "Lots a people, that's who..." (more)
Key Phrases: snowball bush, quality ladies, Hazel Marie, Little Lloyd, Miss Julia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Fourth in a popular series about a Southern widow with perfect manners and a taste for trouble, Ross's latest will bring a chorus of "Thank you, Lord"s from faithful readers. Newcomers may need a moment to figure out who's who in the cast-for instance, that Little Lloyd is the son of Julia's late husband, Wesley Lloyd Springer, and his "paramour," Hazel Marie, both of whom Julia has embraced as family. Ross's heroine may set a premium on appearances, like any traditional Southern lady, but what she really loves is problem solving and gracefully doing good. This time out, she finds herself championing her longtime housekeeper, Lillian. A greedy landowner is about to raze Lillian's home-in fact, the entire Willow Lane neighborhood, which houses low-income blacks. In order to save them, Julia gambles her own home and flouts her sense of propriety by donning Hazel Marie's leather pants and participating in a high-stakes motorcycle marathon and poker game, along with the Presbyterian minister's previously stodgy wife. And if that sounds improbable, factor in a spring whose water has an awesome effect on garden shrubbery and men's anatomy, furnishing oodles of delicious scandal. Series fans take note: Binkie and Coleman have a baby, and things look mighty promising between Julia and lawyer Sam Murdoch at the end of the book.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Just a few months after the incidents described in Miss Julia Throws a Wedding [BKL My 15 02], the proper seventysomething widow is up to her neck again in other people's business. This time, housekeeper Lillian and her neighbors are about to lose their homes to a developer who wants to tear down the old houses and put up a water-bottling plant. Miss Julia won't have it, and she starts to look for ways to buy up the land herself. But there are other worries. Hazel Marie, who decamped with Little Lloyd to try a live-in arrangement with J. D. Pickens, has moved back to Miss Julia's after a few too many encounters with J. D.'s ex-wives. Unsavory old Lester Thurlow seems to have something more than fund-raising in mind. And what has come over Sam, who shows up one day wearing leather and riding a Harley? Despite Miss Julia's misgivings, Sam's motorcycle ends up being pivotal to the success of her schemes. Her many fans will lap it up. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (March 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670032077
• ISBN-13: 978-0670032075
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #244,877 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Fun, April 23, 2003

By A Customer

When I first read the jacket blurb, I had doubts about Miss Julia and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. It just seemed like too much of a stretch. But I enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. It's every bit as delightful as the first book in the series, much funnier than #3. Frequently I had to stop reading just to laugh out loud. The bike ride is certainly wild, but I think my favorite moments in the book include when Hazel Marie yanks the hairpiece off her rival Tammi's head and when Miss Julia gets so mad at Pastor Ledbetter that she deliberately talks his wife into defying him.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny and entertaining, July 28, 2003

By	C. Hill (Oregon, U.S.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the Miss Julia books, but this one just might be the funniest one so far, or at least tied with the first book. Miss Julia's housekeeper and friend, Lillian, is about to lose her home and her neighbors are in the same predicament. Clarence Gibbs owns the houses and the surrounding property and is evicting everyone to tear it all down and build a water bottling plant, of all things. Miss Julia won't stand for it, though, and with the help of her friends and eventually the whole town, she sets out to raise enough money to buy the land and houses from Gibbs before he can carry out his plan. But to Miss Julia's dismay, the biggest fundraising event of all might be one she has to participate in herself: riding a motorcycle. Full of hilarity and fun, the fourth book in the series is just as good as the first three and shows that the series is far from losing steam. I can't wait for the fifth book.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miss Julia just keeps getting better and better, April 18, 2003

By	Dianne N. Maul (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is WONDERFUL! Miss Julia and her escapdes keep getting funnier by the book. I have purchased this series for
my mother and numerous friends, and don't know anyone who doesn't love this series.
My sister in law is even reading them to her husband!
This book is the funniest of the series, so far.
One can just imagine this starchy lady hanging on the back of a
motorcycle with torn leather pants, borrowed from Hazel Marie.
I read books of all kinds, but these are my favorites.
Do yourself a favor and read them all!