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Summary: "that's life"...the good, the bad, the why and whatfors?
Review: I loved it... a good read...visual....I wonder if it will be made into a movie?? Some scenes were so vivid....I can remember as a teen ager thinking my Mom was so "kool" when she would answer questions my friends, who were "catholic" were too afraid to ask of their mothers....she too, always with the drink in hand, and cigarette! The scene where Vivi "drops the basket"....oh my, I was there....I remember only too well, with four babies, my own experience of very nearly dropping the basket..she was brilliant....and don't we all have a Lawanda experience lurking in the background that gave us the courage to "try to BE" and ride with it...Ms.Wells hits a lot of nerves and takes us to places some of us would rather not go...I think she does it with style and great sensitivity.....and somehow makes it ok for us.
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Summary: THANKSGIVING WISHES
Review: Hello Dahlins--What a year of grace and gifts! It's been like a rainbow: utterly unexpected, unpredictable. And, like a rainbow, it took me by surprise, woke me up, and shot me through with gratefulness. In Louisiana, when I was a girl, everyone used to say "very much obliged" when they wanted to express thanks. Hardly anyone says that anymore. Why not? Is it because we're afraid of being obliged? Because we think we're utterly self-sufficient? As Thanksgiving approaches, I want to let yall know that I AM MUCH OBLIBED to all of you. For sharing the river of gift by reading the books I have written. You've all been with me, swinging out over the deep waters of story, and dropping down into sweet success, made all the sweeter because it is SHARED, writer to reader, reader to writer. So. . . . merci, muy obligato, thank you thank you, thanks you! 84,000 Blessings, Rebecca Wells P.S. I've just completed the audio for LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE. It's now available, along with gift hardbacks of both LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE and DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD. Hope yall enjoy!
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Summary: I cried I laughed, I bought it for all my friends.
Review: This book was so absolutely consumming for me that I could not put it down, and when I was finished I wanted to read it again.
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Summary: Great 'chick' book
Review: I loved the Yayas. Even though I grew up in neighboring Texas, I could hear and smell my childhood in the narrative. The book will not go down in history as a classic nor will it be taught in schools for years to come but you will want to by a copy for your best girlfriend. Like many of us, Siddalee learns to appreciate her mother as she matures.
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Summary: A mixed bag of fun and lies.
Review: I probably wouldn't have read this book if it hadn't been our book club's Pick of the Month, but I'm glad I did. As a writing teacher, I learned more about what makes a story fly or falter. Vivi soars--but only in a small plane and for short distances. She shows us what is wondrous about being young and what hurts about getting older. In the end, she seems merely a grown-up girl, still shallow and completely vested in the values she held as a teenager. But I believed in her as a character. Siddalee, on the other hand, is an argument against writing with an autobiographical agenda. The author seems dishonest about her character (and therefore herself?) because Siddalee comes to us only in waves of cliche and contradiction. Can we really believe that a woman who has made her bones in a cut-throat profession could be irked into postponing her wedding by an irate mother? I don't think so. With a fiance as flaw-free as Connor and a lovers' repartee to rival that of any two sit-com characters, Sidda's romantic "crisis" feels false. Equally contrived are Wells' transparent narrative tools, such as her use of Hueylene to show us what a loving parent Sidda will be when she reaches her predictable decision about marriage. One earlier reviewer was spot-on when she said Wells' editor should have axed the Connor-Sidda subplot. Most worthy of the blue pencil, however, is the scrapbook device, which cripples the entire novel. In perusing the representative bits of her mother's life, Sidda learns nothing. Only we, the readers, are privvy to the detailed exploits of the Ya-Yas. In her isolated retreat, Sidda cannot "hear" the various raconteurs who bring us so many of the novel's genuine pleasures. She can know only what she sees in the scrapbook she holds, and so the resolution of her character's angst is achieved out of thin air. Wells can be forgiven this sin if we chalk it up to the sensory deprivation of a writer immersed in her story, but her editor should be demoted. Although Wells' intricate portrayals of Louisiana men, women, and relationships cannot rescue The Divine Secrets, they do help it float. She gives us lively dialogue, characters who entertain us with their company, and capers sprung from a liberal and happy imagination. The Divine Secrets is worth reading if you crave commerce with a witty, whacky world at the expense of authenticity and mature craft.
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Summary: Every woman should read this book!
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read! Mothers, Daughters, Sisters and Friends will all relate to the characters.
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Summary: Cheap and trashy read
Review: Bluntly, I didn't like the author's style. To much prose and letters, not enough of the details that make a book a great book that stands out in a way to be called a good book. Oh well, maybe I just didn't like the character's looks.
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Summary: *SNORE* another overweight housewife book *SNORE*
Review: This is just exactly the type of novels that make other American writers blush in shame, shaking heads, and hiding behind sheets. A total embarressment to intellectual beings of life. If you are a woman, with overly sensative emotions, you MIGHT want to try this. Another uninvigorating housewife/teenage girls novel, an embarressing book to be seen with.
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Summary: One of the best good reads I have read in a long time!!!!
Review: I loved this book! I did not want this story to stop. Ms. Well's has created illuminous characters in this book. I have recommended this book to all my friends and they are so happy that I have. I envy anyone who has friends like Caro, Teensy, Necie, and ViVi!!!
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Summary: Definitely a book to give to your best girl friends!
Review: I could not put this book down. Reading about the Ya-Ya's and their seemingly perfect life was truely interesting. I love the way Wells gives us both Vivi and Sidda's perspective. You can actually feel for the both of them. Emotional, true, funny, and above all, very entertaining and mesmerizing. I highly recommend this book to everyone!
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