Rating: 
Summary: lifelong reader
Review: I know this book is all the rage right now due to the movie release. I read this one about a year before the movie release with my book club. While it was interesting and sometimes entertaining, it still lacked some in storyline. It skimmed areas which should have been developed, while going into to much detail in areas which could have been summarized in 2 paragraphs instead of 2 pages etc..
Rating: 
Summary: A tribute to southern sisters
Review: If you are a southern woman, or know one, you'll enjoy this book. The characters and situations seemed so real to me that I wondered if it was based on reality--if the author had actually found the "Divine Secrets" scrapbook assembled by the ya-ya's, and researched it's beginnings. I loved the way their story was slowly revealed, developing characters who were very real, with histories that forged the choices they made. This is a very entertaining book....you'll laugh...you'll cry.
Rating: 
Summary: Close to home!
Review: Rebecca Wells has captured what it feels like to be a southern woman. The complex feelings that involve the friendships, families, and community are all too real even today in the South. Women in the south have always felt that in many ways their feelings and emotions had to be surpressed. You would not be considered a "lady" if you made waves. I don't want to sound prejudice but unless you were born and raised in the South, I don't thing you can truly catch the intensity of this story.
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Summary: Perhaps this one is best left to the 50+ set?
Review: The reviews I have read here have not been generally enthusiastic for this book. The book is difficult and frequently while reading it, I had to have a "brain break" to reflect on the ideas. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone under 45 would even "get" the complex relationships presented here between mothers and daughters. The characters, at times, reminded me of some of the women I have met while I have visited Louisiana and at other times seemed to rely too much on the stereotypical southern woman. Religion plays an important part of the book and sometimes the flip way that it was discussed made me uncomfortable. I suppose the value in the book was that it caused me to consider my own mother's life differently. I know that she and my grandmother and my great grandmother all had horrible times in their lives and while I know of the event, I can't possibly ever know the true pain that was caused or how it changed the course of their lives. Their lives were the antithesis of the lives presented here, so one might wonder how I could relate so well to the book. As a genealogy hobbyist, I enjoy discovering my ancestors and knowing about them and imagining their lives based on what I can learn about them and perhaps that's what I like about this book. It made me want to stop collecting names and start writing the stories of my mother, grandmother and great grandmother before their lives were relegated to a scrapbook with someone having to imagine their joy and pain. Of course, as Ms. Wells writes, "There is the truth of history and there is the truth of what a person remembers." Perhaps I was having a total estrogen surge, but something in this book really touched me and I read through tears from about the midpoint on. Even so, I wasn't in the least depressed and it in no way related to my own life other than everyone has her own sad stories. Perhaps this was just a "shared grief that brought us together" for a time. The bond of the young Ya-Ya's was something unfamiliar to me. I've had wonderful girlfriends, but never anything like that. The concept wasn't really that appealing to me, but I was happy for them and it didn't influence me one way or the other. I did enjoy the book and it touched me and spoke to me and I'm still not sure exactly why, but I'm happy to have had the experience.
Rating:
Summary: truly entertaining!
Review: This book encompassed so many emotions and was a total delight to read. I cried. I laughed. I got angry. I understood. I cheered on womanhood in general.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought this book but am now recommending it to every woman I know. Being from the South, it made me want to go home. It was like looking through a window and seeing my grandmother and her sisters carrying on with their pranks and sneaking out of the house. It made me want to hop on the next plane home just to hug my mother, best friends, and grandmother!
It was a great journey to take with the characters - self discovery, self love, and even some self loathing. I wanted to teleport into the story and hold Vivi and Sidda and tell them it would all be okay. This is definitely a book I intend to keep forever.
Rating:
Summary: What a Story!
Review: I thought this book was incredibly well written, with a lot of truth in it as well. It's a great book about mother/daughter relationships, as well as friend relationships. Although the 'drinking' aspect of the book didn't apeal to me, it added a sort of funny, and laughable part to the book. I also saw the movie, and it was just as well done as the story was. I loved this book, and think that all women, and girls should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel
Review: When I read this book, I found it very entertaining in a humorous way. The characters were delightful & realistic, which endeared them to my heart.As the plot unfolded throughout, I was interested all the way through the book. I really didn't feel the storyline dragged at all.
Rating:
Summary: A book for women
Review: I have to say that I LOVED this book. My mother gave it to me to read about 2 years ago, and I could NOT put it down. You can read the recap above, so I won't re-hash that. Yes, Vivi could be spoiled and temperamental, but she was vibrant and complex as well. I was disturbed by her treatment of her children, and NO there is no excuse for a person to treat any child in this manner. But although this is fictional and not reality-face it folks- what Vivi did is not that uncommon. Don't just sweep it under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist. And don't dwell on it as the "whole" of Vivi's personality, because that one episode does not define her. She was at a point where she "dropped her basket" and couldn't pick it up again. She was extremely depressed, and that combination with her drinking and medication took it's toll on her and her children. This book is really about the emotional journey of Vivi and her daughter Siddalee. Through Vivi's memories in her scrapbook, and through her lifelong friends (her Ya-Ya's), her daughter comes to an understanding of who her mother is and how she got to that point in her life. She comes full-circle so to speak. Sidda also learns forgive her mother and move on in her life, realizing that her mother is human and has weaknesses and makes mistakes, and there are no guarantees in life, but that doesn't mean that you should be afraid of living! "You've just got to get on the beast and ride!" When I got done reading this book, I yearned for the kind of friendship that Vivi and her friends shared. It was a magical bond they had, there for each other no matter what life brought them. Through a second reading of this book, I found more complexities than the first time, and I still loved the relationship these women shared. I had removed my "rose-colored" glasses that I had on for Vivi, and this time around I felt her pain more than her joy for life. Maybe the third go-round I'll discover even more. It is NOT a depressing book at all - other than the one incident I mentioned. There are many great laughs to be had in this book as well. I recommend this book to any woman I know looking for a great read.
Rating:
Summary: The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Review: This novel was very well written. I'm a young teen and this novel showed me how much a family member, mainly my mother, can mean to me. It showed me how much of a relationship my mother and I have together. I saw the novel to be funny at times ,but then again sad. This novel made me think about love and how much you can feel so deeply for someone and never let them go. It also shows the long relationships between friends and how no matter how old someone can get you'll always have friends by your side. I loved this book and it taught me about life and relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: Skating on the success of "Little Altars"
Review: "Little Altars Everywhere" was quite touching, the author clearly gifted (at times even Faulkner-esque). So I was floored at how poorly written and flat-out boooooring "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" is. I couldn't get past the fourth chapter. There's no trace of the talented writer from the previous novel, nor any glimpse of the lovable protagonist who, in this novel, is all but unrecognizable. It leaves one with the feeling that the author was under contract pressure and sat a monkey in front of her keyboard to fulfill it.
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