Rating: 
Summary: Very contrived and convoluted.
Review: A book supposedly showing the strength and tenacity of Southern women. Hard to relate to characters who were psychotic, self-absorbed, indulgent alcoholics who beat their children. Maybe I don't appreciate the allure of the South because I'm a Yankee.
Rating:
Summary: I was surprised by this book
Review: Instead of loving the Ya-Yas, I was surprised by how much I disliked this book. Wells can get specific vignettes just right: a small-town contest that falls into disarray, or girls out on the sleeping-porch on a hot summer night, are wonderfully drawn. The framework for these vignettes is a problem, though: how can a person's, Vivi's, memories be invoked in her daughter when that daughter simply holds a memento from Vivi's scrapbook? Some divine or magical agency? ESP? Who knows? A loving group of women who help their friend's daughter understand her mother better by *telling* her stories would be more mundane, but also more credible and involving. That may be a problem that only I have with the book, but why spend leisure time on a character who is as completely toxic as Vivi? I recommend it if it rains on your vacation and it's the only book you've got.
Rating: 
Summary: Has its ups and downs
Review: The Ya-Yas are wonderful, loving friends, with complex and sometimes painful lives. A straight-telling of their lives, complete with both their pranks and heartbreaks, would have been better. Rather than telling the story straight, Wells has concocted a contrived excuse to tell the Ya-Yas' story. I won't go into details, but it centers around one Ya-Ya's daughter. The daughter is a pretentious, whining, annoying, self-indulging, over-analyzing jerk. Yes, her mother wasn't June Cleaver, but she was a vivacious, loving woman who had too many demons of her own. Sidda, the daughter, says "I just don't know how to love," and blames this on her mother. Her mother did not know how to deal with 4 young children who were each born a year apart, but she had no problems loving all of the people in her life. As Wells went into the details of the Ya-Ya sisterhood, I sat back and enjoyed every moment. Each time she came back to the present, and to Sidda's problems, I just couldn't bear to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly entertaining
Review: I really enjoyed this book, particularly because the reader was able to follow along on Sidda's journey to learn about her mother, Vivi, and more about herself. It was very moving and reminded me at times of my relationship with my own mother, so I could really relate. I liked this book much better than "Little Altars Everywhere." Very descrptive, and I loved how beautifully Sidda told her story. Would like to meet Caro. =)
Rating: 
Summary: No connection to my life.
Review: This book was a disappointment because so many of the women that I share and swap books with recommended it to me and it fell flat. I guess because I did not grow up with an abusive, alcoholic mother and live-in help, I could not identify it.
Rating: 
Summary: I love a happy ending!
Review: Siddalee has some tough decisions to make but doesn't realize that they hinge so much upon her mother's life and their entertwined histories. I laughed and cried and felt waves of emotion for these wonderfully descriptive characters. A great read!!
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining and engaging homage to Southern Womanhood.
Review: Great characters, rich settings, wonderfully complex relationships
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books every written about women in conflict.
Review: This well written book sucks you in the very beginning. Characters are real and identifiable and you will find yourself slowing down towards the end only to prolong such a satisfying read. If I could give it 10 stars, I most definitely would.
Rating:
Summary: predictable and trite
Review: Wow...is this the dumbing down of America if so many people give this 5 stars? The book was so self-serving about boring, self-indulgent, contrived characters...especially the boyfriend...yeah right, he was a cardboard cut-out..and the scenes of Lake Quinalt...please..it was so unreal. I really skipped many pages out of boredom...and that I really didn't care about these women at all! This whole book was like a comic strip with no depth. Yes, I can see the film now...with the cast of Friends....ya da ya da ya da.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I did not like this book. It was hard to follow and was extremely difficult to finish.
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