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Summary: One of my best reads in 2000
Review: This was truly one of my best reads in 2000. I'm a thirty something woman, and this book really touched me. I have two sisters and my mother is one of two sisters, and we have passed this on to one another and to other women we know as well. It is fabulous and I would highly recommend this to any age woman to read. I laughed. I cried. I felt a bond with the characters in this book.A must read.
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Summary: You'll Laugh Outloud
Review: Another excellent loan from my sister!My favorite flashback is when Vivi (the mother)and her three best friends (the 4 make up the "Ya-Ya sisterhood") are caught skinny dipping (in their preteen years)in the town's water supply tower by an embarrased beat-cop! I've not read a funnier moment! This book will make you laugh outloud.
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Summary: Loved the Ya-Yas!!
Review: Wells did an incredible job of telling the story of four life long friends. The Ya-Yas grew up together and grew old together. They shared in each other's love and losses. But one of the Ya-Ya's daughters, Sidda, was haunted by dark spots in her childhood. She didn't understand what happened to her mom and her parents relationship. At 40, Sidda was scared to marry the man she loved because she might someday lose him. Bad communication with her mother left her helpless and alone. But her mother's friends, the other three Ya-Yas, came to her rescue (or was it really her mother's rescue?) They explained their childhood fiascos and tried to help her understand that it truly is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. But do they get their point across in time? I loved this book and was never bored reading it!
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Summary: Ya-Ya envy
Review: Although a bit syrupy, this book was a lot of fun. Author Rebecca Wells has said, "I didn't write the book because I had a group of friends like the Ya-Ya's. I think I wrote it because I wanted one." Reading this book will make you want one, too. I know it did for me. Due to moves, school district changes, divorces, and other matters that complicate our childhoods today, it's difficult to maintain one group of friends. Our lives just tend to branch out in different directions over time. Reading about the unique bond that developed among the Ya-Ya's, though, made me wish I had had a consistent sisterhood of my own. I envy the Ya-Ya's!
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Summary: ¿Women on the Cusp¿
Review: That's the title of the hit play that the protagonist, Sidda, has directed, loosely based on her abusive, alcoholic, yet fully "joie de vivre" mother, Vivi. It also describes the relationship between mother and daughter, husbands and wives, and the Sidda's professional and personal future as she retreats to the Olympia Peninsula, trying to understand her fear of love through the stories and memorabilia of her mother's scrapbook. These flashbacked stories are the heart of the book, as Viv and her three close friends, who together make up the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, embark on various rites of passage as they grow up in the 1930's and 1940's. There are some hilarious scenes, reminiscent of Mark Twain, including a trip to see the premiere of "Gone With the Wind," a Shirley Temple look alike contest, and climbing naked into the town water tower. The warmth and loyalty of the four Ya-Yas, extending from childhood to their 70's is heartwarming and rare. As Sidda goes through both the pleasures and pains of her mother's upbringing, her self-analysis takes her through her own memories of life with Viv. A few complaints: The loyalty and personalities of the Ya-Yas are somewhat exaggerated, at times straining credulity. And, lest we forget that the fun-loving, generous, idiosyncratic mother also beat her child, we are constantly reminded (in redundant one-liners) about the physical and emotional impact of the belt on Sidda's skin. As a narration of self-analysis, realism is sometimes sacrificed for storytelling and emotional pull. But this is not a guide for the perplexed; it is a splendid confection (albeit layered with pathology) about the love of friendship, about memory and forgiving, and about intergenerational ties and the need for boundaries. A delicious summer read; highly recommended!
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Summary: Put me to sleep!
Review: I have to agree with the reviewer Shannu, this book was highly recommended to me but in my opinion completely boring. I felt like I was back in college and had been assigned a text to read instead of reading for pleasure. It was torture and put me to sleep each time I picked it up. I actually enjoyed the author's writing style and will read another of her novels but I just couldn't keep interested in the story line. After reading many reviews of this novel I can see that 95% of the reviewers would disagree with my opinion so it would probably be safe for someone reading my review to pick up the book and read it themselves. Hopefully, you won't expect much and then be pleasantly surprised.
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Summary: Couldn't Put It Down
Review: As a "deep thinker" like Sidda, I sometimes dwell too much on what everything means. I loved this book because it reminded me there may not always be answers to the "what's, why's and how comes". I really enjoyed the whole Ya-Ya bunch (petite et al included). I found a bit of myself in Sidda and ViVi and found their relationship very realistic with it's ups and downs and the whole mother/daughter love/hate thing. I was envious of the lifelong Ya-Ya friendships. As a Northerner (married to a Louisian) I've come to know that Southern ways may be different but yet wonderful in their differences and the author really made me wish I'd grown up there; through the good times and bad. I highly recommend this book. My only problem with the book was - I couldn't put it down- literally!! I stayed up until the wee hours one night and awoke to it again. I can't wait to read the previous book.
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Summary: The Ultimate Book Club Book
Review: Wells crafts a story that captures the complexity of relationships between women, especially between mother and daughter. The Southern slant is right on target, as any belle or would-be belle would know, and she writes about her memorable characters' light and often frighteningly dark sides with grace, humor and empathy. The book (along with Little Altars Everywhere) sparked my book club's liveliest debate to date. Don't miss the chance to put in your two cents worth--read the book!
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Summary: What and Mom and Daughter share
Review: This book was recommended to me from my college pysch professor. I orginally intended to give it my mother but started reading it and could not put it down. When I was finished I ear-marked and highlighted all the wonderful things that I thought my mother would enjoy and then sent it to her along with Little Altars Everywhere (also ear-marked and highlighted) for Mother's day. When she finshed it we talked for hours about how much we both enjoyed it and how much we both felt as though we didn't appreciate each other enough.I thought that Siddah was a hilarious character growing up in the South with an acholic abusive mother. If you don't know much about being in an abusive, which I do not, it certainly brings light to the whole awful mess. My mother enjoyed because she grew up like Siddah and I found that it actually brought us closer together than ever before.
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Summary: On Divine Secrets
Review: I've never read a more colored, textured description of Southern (Cajun) life. The voices, drinks, clothes, picnics and people kept me enthralled. This bittersweet book is not for those who demand plot over character developement. WARNING: Don't read Rebecca Wells' other book 'Little Alters Everywhere' first. It is depressing instead of bittersweet, and will make it difficult to read 'Divine Sisters of the YaYa Sisterhood.'
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