Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel

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Summary: Southern women are a breed apart.
Review: Southern women understand a great deal about relationships." The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" says a lot about Southern women and about all mother-daughter relationships. Women everywhere can relate - with envy - to the Sisterhood, and women everywhere can relate to the conflicted heroine Siddalee as she struggles to establish herself as a 40- something 90's woman and comes to understand that who she is depends on where she came from. Unlike the males in some feminist writings, the men in this book are portrayed affectionately and realistically. This is a book which even speed-readers will read twice. Ms. Wells knows and loves the characters she portrays and they will remain in the reader's mind long after the book is done. She tells her story with candor, with great love and with humor. We should all be so lucky as to have friends like the Sisterhood! We should all be so lucky as to have a woman like Vivi -warts and all - as our mother. Ms. Wells' style - in spite of the somewhat irritating flashbacks - brings her characters to life. In the South, as in England, eccentricity is not just tolerated, it is celebrated.Vivi is too colorful for her small-town setting and she, as a child of her time, is unable to escape it. Her daughter Siddalee escapes, but finds herself drawn towards her roots - as we all are, whether we deny it or not. This novel has something to say to all overachieving daughters who are alienated from their mothers and to all women who hated the small towns they grew up in- even if those towns weren't Southern. It alternates between laugh-out-loud funny and reach-for-the-Kleenex truth. A book to recommend and pass on to one's female friends!

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Summary: Simply superb!
Review: I read this book and knew I wanted to be a Ya-Ya! Not only did I want to be one of them, I wanted to know them all, and thanks to the author's spectacular characterizations, I felt like I did. It is a book that should be read by every mother, and every daughter because I think that each would find a familiar voice somewhere in the text. I could not put it down, and once I finished, I wanted to go back and read it again. You will laugh and you will cry at this lovely taste of the south and what it means to love biological family or family of choice. It's a beautiful statement of the value of lasting friendships and of forgiveness. Now pass the pecan tarts.

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Summary: The best birthday gift I received this year!
Review: Having grown up in Louisiana and being a contemporary of "Sida", I LOVED this book. I cried during the last 50 pages or so because Rebecca Wells managed to touch so many sensitive areas (it was a good thing I was alone in the house at the time...otherwise my boyfriend would have been completely baffled). The minute I finished reading it, I expressed mailed it to my mother who is still living in New Orleans...she loved it too. This is the next book for my book club and I've even recommended it to anyone who asks. It is one of the five best books of the 100+ I've read this year

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Summary: I wish the Ya-ya's were my friends!
Review: I loved reading "Little Altars Everywhere" even when it got disturbing, and I felt like I had lost my friends when the book ended, so finding "The Divine Secrets..." was like linking up with long-lost friends. I was transported to their south and lived with them, and cried with them and had such a good time that I felt like at any time they might just show up at my door and off we'd go in the convertible for a bloody mary picnic. I've already passed it along to one of the members in my reading group and I'm sure there will be others. Here's to friendships

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Summary: Completely Impossible to put down.
Review: My attention was caught the other day by the title as I browsed at the local book store, so I thought "Heck. I'll read a few pages just to see." By the time I reached page 25, I was hooked, and *had* to have it. It is a brilliant story of the meanings of love, friendship, motherhood, daughterhood, and all the thousands of layers that you find in each relationship in your life. Be prepared to buy a second copy to send to your mother or daughter...it is a book like The Color Purple...it will change your world

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Summary: Fabulous!!!
Review: I loved every minute it

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Summary: Wonderful story about women's relationships with women
Review: In this story, a woman grows to understand and appreciate her mother through her mother's lifelong friendship with three other women. The author does an excellent job in portraying the difficult relationship between mother and daughter and an even better job of portraying the depth and richness of the 50 year friendship between the four women. This is a great gift book for your friend

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Summary: A Life Changing Book....
Review: This book was given to me by a friend and it is one of the most life changing books I have ever read. It truly is a best seller. After years of trying to forgive my mother for things she doesn't even realize she's done, the book was an inspiration to me to finally write her a letter of appreciation for all she did that WAS wonderful. The reading of the book allowed me to forgive and to be at peace with myself about our relationship. Being an oldest daughter, I could certainly identify with the daughter. It is truly a must read for all mothers and daughters. I shall never forget it. My appreciation to Rebecca Wells for such an inspiring, thought-provoking, and delightful book

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Summary: Awesome!
Review: I picked this up at the library simply because I was intrigued by the title. Ya-ya's? Without going on and on with accolades, I highly recommend this funny, sad,thought provoking novel to anyone. It's like Steel Magnolias in print only much more wonderful. The best

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Summary: Forgiveness not Forgetting
Review: Okay... so love means never having to say you are sorry is ridiculous. But in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells shows us that families often don't have the language for apologies. The novel's protagonist, SiddaLee Walker, grew up in the sixties with a crazy family (who didn't) and now, at 40, she's struggling to transform the old hurts and grab hold of her own life. Through memory and the voices of her mother's dearest friends, she finds learns that forgiveness is a journey of understanding, not forgetting. This book paints a portrait of mother-daughter relationships that is ever so true. But it is also a book about friendship and the special quality of unconditional love that exists between women who have shared all of their lives' best and worst events with each other. Between the belly-laughs and the tears, you won't want to put this book down