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Reviews of “Uphill Both Ways”
This is a great read!!!! With J T Weaver’s parents divorce and his own first marriage ending in divorce, he has learned to persevere throughout his life and found the path to happiness. This book is about “Life’s” twists and turns and fortunately J T Weaver moved forward with his own personal goals of nurturing a family, successful career and financial comfort.What a beautiful gift to his children. Hats off to you J T Weaver!!!!
When I first came across this book, I knew instantly I will relate to it. Divorces and memories, the shared thoughts, the witty writing style… This book captivated me right from the beginning!
J T Weaver crafted this book in such a beautiful manner, I’m sure everybody will enjoy taking this trip with him down the memory lane!
J.T. weaver loves to write. He wrote this book primarily for his children to better understand him. He does this by sharing his life experiences with them. We the readers are also the lucky recipients of his writing by having the opportunity to share his unique and often tragic journey through life. The end of the book left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling to see that real life stories can have a happy ending. I highly recommend this book.
To say that I liked the book Uphill Both Ways would not be quite complete. JT Weaver became a blogger friend of mine such a short time ago, but we have become good friends as though we had known each other all our lives. Part of the reason for that is his book, Uphill Both Ways.Written all online, JT got blogger feedback as he wrote his first book that just came out. I fell in love with his writing because in some ways it echoed my own upbringing, and few of us are writing about that, YET! It’s almost like I – we grew up without a culture because white, middle-class was the media-saturated norm in the mid-century before our eyes opened to the rest of the world. The way we lived, as far as we knew, was how the whole world lived, so what made us a distinct culture? JT put his finger on several distinct events that exemplified culture to me. As JT let us peer into the windows of his life, we could see that even white, upper middle-class folks had their mountainous ups and downs, unlike the Cleavers or the Ozzie Nelson’s picture-perfect family squabbles. Divorce imploded JT’s 10 year-year-old way of life, and brought drastic changes in stability, living conditions and status. Three years after the divorce, JT entered a military school for yet additional significant differences. JT recorded painful details that most people wouldn’t tell others, so that his children would know the humanity behind the myriads of photos he would eventually leave behind.Not surprisingly, the blogging public loved his work. The product of a man who wants to open his heart to his children warms the hearts of those whose fathers never did that for them. For mid-century historians, this is a primary source document, memories of an intelligent, thoughtful, and vulnerable human who lived through difficult experiences during otherwise prosperous times.
This book is so inspirational. For new parents it shows the wonders and necessity of the evening meal with the family. It shows empathy with the difficulties that young teens have in growing up with divorced parents. Baby boomers will enjoy wonderful descriptions of growing up in the 50s and 60s and throughout the reader will experience the effects of neglectful parents on an otherwise normal boy. This boy perseveres through the difficulties that life gives him. His unyielding determination to work through his problems will be an inspiration to all those who are losing hope. His is an example that hard work, perseverance, and the love of family can lead to a happy life.
Often when a memoir is written, its author hopes to convey the timeline of his life with all its inherent meaning, and to have these personal meanings resonate with the reader as universal truths. JT Weaver does this in a beautifully written, soulfully expressive recounting of the milestones of his life while holding nothing back. As we read about his triumphs and failures, we lift up the cover to his soul and see how he reacted to these intensely meaningful events, and how he now interprets them through the window of time.
What a gift he has given us, the readers! For not only do we feel the emotional impact as he lived it, but we also look into ourselves and realize that we can confront the feelings of our own life events with as much frankness and honesty as he has shown us. JT has bared his soul to us – total strangers – and stands exposed before all the world to see. If we’re true to ourselves, we peer deep inside us to see the same truths that he has shown us as we awaken to another level of emotional reality. Uphill Both Ways indeed resonates with me.
“Uphill Both Ways” is a delightful book. I read it in one sitting. The short and easy to read stories are those of a father to his children so they might know and understand him and the forces that shaped his life better. J.T. Weaver succeeded in his mission. “Uphill Both Ways” tell the stories of everyman. While the details differ for each of us, the underlying pattern and dynamics of life are the same for all. The best compliment I can give is that “your stories resonated with my stories” and Weaver’s stories accomplished that. I recommend this book to all.
I confess, I started reading this book as an assignment to be accomplished because I had accepted a free copy. And then -surprise! I was gripped. This is a good – and true – story that reads like a novel.First off, I was relieved that it’s good writing. Not great literature, but that’s not the intention. It was a relief because I’ve encountered too many published books lately where the grammar, structure, you name it, has just plain put me off. To tell the truth, there were a few places in Weaver’s book where I felt unpleasant chills when he followed what is, apparently, the new correct – applying some mysterious new rule to the use of pronouns. I can’t cite exactly where he did it, because yesterday I `loaned” my copy to my daughter with the recommendation that she read it. But I’m referring to the form “He went with Joe and I,” for example. I still scream to myself “No,No, It’s not correct to say `He went with I,’ so why would one say “He went with Joe and I.’ It’s … `Joe and me.'”OK. My tribute to my amazingly thorough English teachers.And there were a few places where I was thrown by the format. Most of the time I felt I was following a chronological tale when suddenly there was inserted a chapter that seemed to reach back in time to be the beginning of an overall theme from his life. I wish his editor had found a way to incorporate those really interesting sidebars (if that’s what they were) into the overall chronological plan.But now for my enthusiasm. I don’t want to give away any of the conflicts or surprises. But I think it’s safe to say I may have loved the book because I’m a New Englander who can practically taste the pleasure of lobster by the sea, Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and Williamsburg Virginia where we spent many summers and where my granddaughter is now an historical interpreter. I love the recollection of the streets of Boston where I worked for my graduate degrees and lived for the first few years of my marriage, to say nothing of the great inns and restaurants.Perhaps having experienced the periods of time he walks us through serves as a connector for me. Maybe being a psychologist with an interest in forgiveness turned me on to some great – though not loudly announced – examples. And maybe it biases me toward loving a good, exciting story. But then, isn’t that why we all read novels?Those are my biases which may have contributed to the enthusiasm about the book. Really, though, I think it’s what everyone will love about it. It turns out to be the adventure of an ordinary man who is not so ordinary after all. In writing his memoir for his children he has written a memory-evoking and emotion-enhancing story everyone can relate to – with details that make it come alive.Yes, I was gripped as I would be by a good novel. I know from the author’s blogs that he’s been asked by “marketing experts” to identify his target audience. Well, folks, step right, enjoy being the target. He’ll hit you where you enjoy feeling and reacting.
5.0 out of 5 stars Stories From The Heart, October 2, 2013 By Rachel – See all my reviewsI found this to be interesting on so many levels. I am the about the same age as the author and from the same area. I especially tuned in to what it was like to grow up in the 50’s and 60’s. The music, the protests, the draft, the Vietnam Nam War. I appreciate the honesty with which he told his story so that his children would better understand their father and his family. Lucky kids, great dad, interesting book!
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful legacy, October 14, 2013The author has given his children a most precious gift – a chronicle of their family and their roots told in a loving voice. All too often family stories get lost and no one even realizes it, which I find very sad. We end up not really knowing who our parents are and how they came to be the central figures in our young lives. No chance of that happening with the Weaver family history. Bravo!
I really enjoyed this memoir, with the authors humorous and often tender memories of his own childhood and offered as life lessons to his grown children. Chapters are short and entertaining. I found myself wanting to keep reading as he moves through the decades of his life. The author has a very nice writing style, and the tone is conversational. I very highly recommend.
J T Weaver 
I would like to do an interview with you. I bet I can think up some pretty interesting questions! Let me know. Meanwhile I snagged your picture of you for my review for today. I’ll see if you have anything else here I might steal. 🙂 Marsha 🙂
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I would like that. Let me know when.
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How about two weeks? I’ll email you some questions after I think about them a bit. 🙂
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OK, so this is a written interview? As opposed to a Skype interview? I just wanted to know if I should get my hair cut or not.
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haha Leave your hair. I’m thinking written, but hmmmm. Let’s think about it.
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J T Weaver thank you so much for following my blog. I am also following yours. Are you interested at all in interviewing someone for your blog? If it is something you would consider, I would like to send you information about a woman with one of the most inspiring stories I have ever heard. She is doing interviews right now. Please let me know what you think. Best always, Sandra
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Sandra, I’m afraid I wouldn’t know the first thing about interviewing anyone. I am scheduled to be interviewed in the near future but the whole concept is quite foreign to me. I would, however, like to receive information about the woman you mentioned.
Thanks for stopping by and reading the Prologue to my book.
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