The tragedy and love these four women shared amongst themselves creates a story that one will cherish forever and after. Each Ya-Ya is a prodigy of drama and humanity, and this cass. is recommended for all lovers of life, friendship, and family.

Sometimes you cry, other times you laugh. Over all , It is a pleasure to hear such a fine preformance by the author. Great for a trip.

Rebecca Wells is excellent in her novel debut! Both books are marvelous and hard to put down. You'll read both of them in a week-guaranteed! Vivi and the Ya-yas will touch you and your life will never be the same!

Many say that you can't understand the intricacies of this book unless you are from the south, but I would disagree. As a transplanted southerner (originally from the Pacific Northwest)I would still put this book high on my list of books that convey what I like to call "universal truths". Through all of the emotion and tradition of the Ya-Ya's the thing that touched me most was the conveyance of true friendship with unconditional love. It also offered insightful perspective to daughters about the need to "ride out" the waves of the mother daughter relationship. After I finished, I immediately sent the box set to my mother and little sister. So, give us notherners and transplanted southerners a little slack...love is love, friendship is friendship and mothers are mothers regardless of location in relation to the Mason-Dixon line, and Wells has done an excellent job of leading us through the journey.

This book deserves to be celebrated in a major way, because it is the best-loved book of the decade. It's a rare event in american literature and will not be forgotten, largely due to the genius that created it! To celebrate and remember the joys and lessons I received from this book I would love to own a Ya Ya Christmas ornament (elephant, leap frog women, cocker spaniel, scrapbook) to hang on my tree, in the vein of Christopher Radko. A scrapbook for our own 'divine secrets' to pass along to our daughters. A Ya Ya talk show, magazine, key chain, sunglasses, perfume, clothing, retreat. I would adore having a set of china figurines. Young Ya-Ya's need a set of dolls (and a convertible to drive off in). But the thing I want most is a make your own Little Altar (how to make one? I tried to but I don't know if I did it right.). Every woman should have one when the kids are whining and life is going wild. Also, I would adore to have a video with the author acting out the roles. I have not had a chance to see her but I hear it is better than anything on Broadway. Ms. Wells has become a cultural icon. She is the Queen of the Ya Yas. Long may she reign supreme.

84,000 blessings (put this on an ornament too)

If you have seen Hallmark's beautiful plates and dishes for Jan Karon, just imagine the ones for the Ya Ya parties!

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!

If you read "Little Altars Everywhere", you will be glad to know that "Divine Secrets" takes a look at the life of Siddalee Walker from the distance of heavily analyzed adulthood. "Divine Secrets" focuses once again on Siddalee, but this time she is a 40-year old successful stage director who is taking some time out from her career and her love life to put to rest some old ghosts.

After having humiliated her mother in national print (a New York Times reporter calls Viviane Walker "a tap dancing child abuser"), Siddalee is gifted with her mother's scrapbook, which, in Vivane Walker's typically outrageous style, has been named "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". Viviane sends Siddalee this volume of personal mementos in an effort to have Siddalee understand her better without having to put any personal effort into the process.

Inside this scrapbook, Siddalee discovers bits and pieces of her mother's past - pictures, newspapaer articles, mementos - but she is not granted the entire story surrounding each of these titilating fragments. The reader is able to learn, through Viviane's own memory, all of the interesting details that Siddalee doesn't get to know.

This, I feel, is the greatest weekness in "Divine Secrets". The reader gets to see Viviane as a child and an adolescent, living in a home where she is abused by her father and openly detested by her mother. We learn about the death in WWII of Viviane's first and only love and the stresses put on her by having four stair-step children and an absentee husband. Siddalee, however, is not privy to any of this information. She reads tantalizing tidbits in newspaper articles, gleans what meaning she can from photographs, party invitations, and mysterious keys, but never knows any of the details the reader does. Because of this, it is difficult for me to believe that in the end of the novel Siddalee can forgive Viviane her many transgressions. It doesn't seem to me that she has enough information to be that magnanimous.

Other than this one flaw, "Divine Secrets" is a beautiful book. The women in this novel are fully realized characters - I recognized each one of these women, and even grew up with some of them (but not all of them together, thank goodness!). The descriptions of Louisiana are rich and detailed, and as much as I hate a crustaceon, I was dreaming of crawfish for days after turning the last page.

"Divine Secrets" is about forgiveness and the power of love. Rebecca Wells is brave to offer up a novel filled with women who are real enough to not always be likable (in fact, Viviane is almost never likable), and she is a talented enough word smith to keep these women sympathetic. "Divine Secrets" is a soothing, redeeming follow up to "Little Altars", and I recommend it. Throw some Zydeco on the stereo and curl up with a cup of java - this one will keep you up all night!

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, the sequel to Little Alters everywhere (both by Rebecca Wells) is humorous, engaging, tear-jerking, and downright entertaining. I recommend it to anyone, young or old. Siddalee Walker is a forty-year-old playwright who left her hometown of Thornton, Lousiana to begin a career in the theater. But after bashing her mother, Vivi, in a New York Times interview, Sidda is plagued by her mother's distrust & hurt, retreating to a Washington vacation home.

Sidda is sent her mother's journal, the Divine Secrets. Sidda learns of the lives of the "Ya-Yas" before the weights of marriage and children. This book keeps a reader engrossed and entertained, as you read the juicy details of Vivi Walker's memoirs, which are filled with love, humor, and saddening details. The Divine Secrets, is a fabulous novel. Rebecca Wells is absolutely brilliant!

i read divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood first. this book was a little more serious and didn't give me the same feeling of starting in the middle of the story, which was good. i would recommend reading little altars first since it was written first. i would say that rebecca wells is very good at writing about difficult but colorful childhoods, and she manages to do so in such a way that the reader keeps reading instead of getting depressed. she also brings her characters to vivid life. the characters are noisy and engaging. Ms. Wells also does a good job writing from the different children's distinct points of view and showing how the children change and mature over time. all in all, i was impressed by the fast pace of the story and the skillful characterization. i gave little altars four stars and i gave the divine secrets five stars. the only reason i gave little altars four stars instead of five was that little altars didn't have as much closure, but Ms. Wells probably planned it that way because she was writing a series.

Like many people, I read The Divine Secrets first. I loved it - it moved, amused, and even changed me a bit. But having read Little Altars, I don't feel that way about the sequel anymore. The character Vivi is ultimately is too horrendous to excuse, as we are asked to do in Ya-Ya. And the friends we grew to love for their loyalty were nothing more than co-conspirators and enablers. The women that you love in the second book, turn out to be monsters. I find nothing endearing about alcoholism, child abuse and molestation. I find it even more disturbing that Vivi, throughout her entire life, is never able to see the error in her actions and never able to apologize. There is a line in the second book where Siddalee says that her mother "owes" her something. The YaYa friend she is speaking to, says that her mother owes her nothing because she loved them and raised them in style. Um actually not only does she owe her children at least an apology and explanation, she deserves some jail time.

Little Altars is a tragic and haunting novel and is only worth reading because it's author is unbelievably talented. She is the first author who has been able to move me to tears. I hope to see more from her in the future, although hopefully not involving the heinous character Vivi - or her abhorrent friends.

On Friday I stopped on the way home from work to buy "Little Altars Everywhere" by Rebecca Wells. It has been on my wish list for about a year now and I didn't even know it was related to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood until last week!

Anyway like I said I got it on Friday afternoon and finished it by dinnertime on Saturday - it was THAT GOOD.

Each chapter was told in a different characters' point of view. There were several by Sidda and a few from Vivi, but there was also some insight from Big Shep, Willetta, and Sidda's siblings Little Shep, Baylor and Lulu. This format provided better insight into the family's troubles than just Sidda's POV would have.

The story overall is disturbing and sad - especially the chapters with Willetta and Little Shep. Plenty of happy memories are visited throughout the book but they are overshadowed by a dark cloud in every chapter, usually the result of something Vivi has done.

Reading this book helped me to better understand its subsequent "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and I would highly recommend it with FIVE STARS!

... I understand English quite well (well enough to know to capitalize it) and I also know French. However, just because the title is written in French would in no way make it obvious the book is written in French as well. After all, the Ya-Ya's used French in their conversations throughout Ms. Wells' first 2 Ya-Ya books.

It would seem to be a good idea if Amazon and other Web sites would tell the consumers this book is in French.

I find it interesting that the book is in French. It is more of a curiosity as to why Wells would choose to write in French than the plot of the novel. But then again, Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets were published out of sequence, and that didn't hurt anything. Maybe it's just a departure or an experiment. Anyway, I gave it 2 1/2 stars (or three because the pull-down menue does not allow halves). I found it a poor plot, and it would have been a faster read if it were in English.

By the way, it's "translation" not "traslation," and what exactly is "someone doesn't understand enough english to realize the title is in french" supposed to mean anyway? Correct your grammar and your logic. Just because the title is in French, you cannot automatically assume that the text is in French as well.

This is why it's a good idea to use the "look inside" feature when it's available, as it is with this book. That would have cleared up any confusion long before it arrived at the door.

As for the assertion that the Ya-Yas spoke French in "Divine Sisterhood" - not exactly true either. Calling each other and their children "cher" or "bebe," much like we call each other "hon" and "dear" in Texas, is more local slang than another language altogether. The only character in the book who spoke French at any length was Genevieve.

I wouldn't go so far as to insult anyone by suggesting they have a literacy problem in English - that's obviously not true. But I long ago learned that buying something sight unseen, even if you liked a previous book by the same author, is unwise. Do your research - Amazon provides the sample pages for just that reason.

I made the same mistake as a prior reviewer, thinking this author also wrote Little Altars Everywhere. THIS book is a very poor self-help book. To people suffering from illness it advises me to say, "Think positive thoughts" and "God doesn't always choose to heal us, but his plan is best." To someone grieving the loss of a loved one this book says, "Heaven is a better place since your loved one has arrived" and "Experiencing the death of a loved one can enrich our earthly relationship with Christ." It's not all trite and preachy but a lot of it is. If you're already a thoughtful enough person to want to buy a book like this, then you're probably better off following your own instincts than the advice in this book.

This is a lovely book for what it is....a self help book. I was mistaken and thought it was by the author of Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, but alas this is not the same Rebecca Wells. Please be advised and do not make the same mistake. Same name but not the same person.

I preordered this book, thinking it was a continuance of Little Altars and The Divine Secret of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I did not see anything that told what this book was about. I got it this week and was sick when I saw it was in Spanish. I was waiting for another sequal to the others. I was so disappointed. It is on its way back. I would recommend that someone put in the description that this is the Spanish Edition. Certainly someone that reads Spanish would love it. It would save the seller money. I don't think I am the only one that returned it at the seller's expense.

This is a SPANISH translation of DIVINE SECRETS.... The product description for this book or rather the lack of led me to believe that this is a newly written book which it is not. So unless you would like to read a book in SPANISH this one is not for you.