Rating: 
Summary: lighthearted but poignant
Review: Everything about this book is beautiful and full of life. You will fall in love with the lovable, if sometimes loony, characters and you will envy the bonds they share. The language is delicious...your senses will be astounded as you are brought into the hot and spicy Louisiana bayou. As a northern girl, I hardly thought I would understand that easygoing southern philosophy, but on the contrary! Ms. Wells's beautiful creation is fun for all, and it will undoubtedly have you alternating between hysterical laughter and sentimental Kleenex moments. This novel is a memorable one that will touch your life, most definitely.
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Summary: Divine Secrets of Th Ya Ya Sisterhood
Review: This is a wonderful book! Every woman and girl who has had to over come advesity in thier relationships with thier mothers and daughters should read this book, and they will treasure it. I cried and laugh, and I am not what most would call the "sentimental" type. Read this book!
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Summary: Ya-Ya gris-gris
Review: Family is a cross most of us have to bear. We can't choose which set of relatives we're plopped down in the midst of to either sink or swim. Some of us are compelled to raise our adult selves to be the people we always meant to be. If we are very, very lucky, we will have a collection of Ya-Ya's to help us along the way.This book, as it explores the tortured relationship between the reserved Siddalee Walker and her flighty, melodramatic mother Vivi Abbott Walker, is pure magic. The Ya-Ya Sisterhood are Vivi and her 3 best friends from childhood in their small Louisiana town, whose children are known as the petites ya-ya's. Sidda, now a New York theatre director, spends a small fortune on therapy before perusing her mother's old scrapbook titled Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and discovering the strength and insight to make sense of not only her own life but her mother's. The Ya-Ya sisterhood -- Vivi, Necie, Caro, and Teensy -- have remained as close and loving with each other as many blood sisters for over half a century. When Sidda at age 40 is having something of a mid-life crisis and postpones her wedding because she is convinced she doesn't know how to love, it is the Ya-Ya's who travel cross-country to support her and give her the ammunition to stand up and see things the way they are. Mama Vivi, meanwhile, isn't speaking to her daughter because of an interview Sidda gave the New York Times which happened to mention child abuse. Every word was true, but Vivi has disowned her. The book chronicles the loves and losses, wisdom and idiosyncracies, and joys and sorrows which have made the Ya-Ya's and their children who they are. You will laugh out loud and you may shed a tear or two as you follow the journey of these strong and wonderful women who do things THEIR way. This is a book best savored -- read a chapter or two, then put it down and think about it before continuing. While these particular Ya-Ya's are Southern, thank God there are Ya-Ya's everywhere!
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Summary: Rebecca Wells matures as an author
Review: This is a great book! Oh what a diffence an outline makes! When Ms. Wells wrote this book, she no doubt had a clear outline of what she wanted to DO with it, what she wanted it to do, unlike when she wrote the mixed up, hot and cold, scatterbrained Little Altars Everywhere. These characters come to life, into your life and change you for the better. We all do the best we can in this life and hope for the best! Take part in the life of Sidda, Teensy, Caro, Necie, and Vivi dahlin. Forgive and comfort Vivi along with Sidda, love Sidda along with Vivi, tell Sidda to "marry him" along with everyone! I hope that Rebecca Wells will continue to mature as an author and organize her thoughts well when she writes, as she did when she wrote this very enjoyable book!
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Summary: Ya Ya, Ha Ha
Review: It took me a while, but I finally jumped on the Ya Ya bandwagon. I am very fond of Southern Literature and this book is one of the reasons why. The characters were both hilarious and sad, cultured and classless. The writing conjured up vivid images of the characters and surroundings. I lent it to my mother but warned her not to read it on the train as I knew she would make a scene from laughing out loud. Fun, funny and heartwarming.
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Summary: An inspirational book
Review: This novel, is simply more than that, it is incredible. The emotions that pour out of this book are endless. Wells captures the true essence of the mother/daughter relationship. I recommend this novel to every reader out there
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Summary: For mothers and daughters
Review: This is a book for anyone who is a mother and anyone who is a daughter. It's about insight and perspective, love and forgiveness, and ultimately, about the redemptive (life-giving) nature of the relationships between mother and daughter and women friends. Even if we didn't have it as bad as Vivi or SiddaLee, most off us mothers have screwed up and hurt our kids without meaning to, and many of us know what it feels like to have a mother whose own pain sometimes gets in the way of her ability to be a "good" mother. What Wells has given us is a poignant, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous portrait of the journey between the way it is between Vivi and SiddaLee and the way they want it to be. This is also a book about friendship, about continuity over time, and the truth of women's lives. It's about friends who share joy, responsibility and their shame with each other. I loved every moment of reading this book. You will too -
Rating: 
Summary: A male takes a look at the Ya-Yas
Review: A couple of months ago, my sister called to inform me of a novel set in our hometown of Alexandria, La.; so unaware of anything ever written about good ol' Alex, I had to get a copy of the book and start reading. Somebody, somewhere, reviewing this book said that, "the only prerequisite to fall in love with this book is to be female ... and it helps to be Southern, too." Well, I'm a Southerner, but the last time I looked, a male, and since my reaction is vastly different,that reviewer must be only half correct. Although I admit that there were some powerful sections in the novel, for the most part I found it to be predictable, trite, and boring. I liked Vivi, but for the most part, the rest of the characters (especially Sidda and her pre-menopausal angst) never came to life. Hmmmm. Maybe she deserved all that abuse. And the men? As long as they remained single, they were handsome, intelligent, sensitive -- the perfect male specimen. But once matrimony entered the picture, the male species disintegrated and the husbands (with the possible exception of Chick) became lazy, irresponsible, insenstive and/or Gay. The question that was in my mind as I finished the novel was: will the demigod, Connor McGill (love that name), follow the other males into ignominy? But what really upset me about the novel was the way in which the author repeatedly "Harlequinized" her story which left me wondering when a Fabio-like character was going to make an entrance. I think that Wells is too good a writer to make these cheap excursions into sentimentality and feminine melodrama. Did I like anything about the novel? Yes. I did enjoy revisiting my hometown (although I would have liked to have spent more time there), remembering the tast of crawfish etouffee (no respectable Cajun would ever call in crayfish) and games of bourree. And if any of you Ya-Yas out there ever wondered what is so special about Community Coffee, well be advised, Ms. Wells got that one right.
Rating:
Summary: Divinely hilarious!
Review: The spicy aroma of Creole and Cajun cooking wafts through the air as four young friends, Caro, Necie, Teensy, and Vivi, all connected by their divine sisterhood, swing on the porch of a grand Southern home. Years later and half way across the country, Siddalee, Vivi's daughter, sits on another porch deep in the Northwest rainforest and so their stories begin. Wells' novel explores the complex personal relationships that we all experience in our lives. Throughout the book, Wells' reveals the lives and memories of both Siddalee and her mother, Vivi . Descriptions of the characters are quite vivid and stay with you long after the book is read. You become a part of the sisterhood with Wells' storytelling. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood tells a wonderful account of growing up in the South. We read of deep-rooted friendships, the complexity of being in love, and mother-daughter relations. The unconditional love amongst girlfriends is the most wonderful you'll ever read about. Mix a mint-julep and enjoy your trip to bayou country.
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Summary: Y'ALL MUST READ THIS BOOK!
Review: Being an inhabitant of the loosely fictionalized "Thornton, Louisiana" myself, I can tell you all that this book has caused a stir in this city. The abra-cadabra liquor store actually exists on Lee Street and is really the hocus-pocus liquor store. No matter, this book is a prize winner no matter how you look at it. The characters steal your heart and tickle your funny bone. I love a book that makes me laugh and cry and this one fills the bill. Vivi could very well have been my own mama and I really related to her and to Sidda. Wonderful, touching story of a mother and daughter and the liberating power of forgiveness and understanding in a family.
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