Book Description
Hailed as "compelling" by The Washington Post and "stunningly honest" by The San Francisco Chronicle, this memoir has hit bestseller lists and earned critical praise from coast to coast. Rebecca Walker was born in 1969 to author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal, who met and married in the heyday of the Civil Rights movement. But after their divorce, Rebecca was a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds-and trying to figure out where she fit in.
"Masterfully illuminates differences between black and white America...a heartbreaking tale of self-creation." (People )
"Walker skillfully depicts her tangled upbringing, full of disappointment and privilege." (Time)
"Compelling." (The Dallas Morning News)
"A poignant, spare memoir." (Chicago Sun-Times)
"Powerful." (Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia)
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Memoir.......2007-05-30
I discovered how much I like Rebecca Walker's writing, voice and style after reading a forward she wrote for an anthology of mixed race writings. Then I heard her speak and I read "Black, White and Jewish" the next day. I didn't want to put the book down and I was sorry when her memoir ended because I wanted to keep on reading.
And no, at that point it had not yet occurred to me that she was Alice Walker's daughter. Besides, that would not have made any difference to me anyway. Both Alice and Rebecca are excellent authors, but the fact that they are related is not important to me. What matters is that Rebecca has written an excellent memoir.
Thank you Rebecca.
A story to share...........2007-05-07
What caught my eye at first was her last name...Walker. So I said to myself she must have inherited her Mom's way of putting into words her thoughts. Once I started to read the story, I could not put it down. The pain was felt through each chapter, each change of home every two years. What a way to grow up. But grow up she did into a very complex woman who can share her childhood with others who may also have the identity crisis of having not only parents from different racial backgrounds, but also of having the constant shift of "home". The book helped me understand what my daughters have gone through with their Mom being white, their Dad being African American and a military family with the moving every couple of years. Once I was done, I gave the book to my now 24 year old daughter, a mother now of half Honduran and the rest of her children. Thanks for opening her up to others being out there who may share her pain and to open our conversation up more than it already was.
Quick read, Had some insights........2007-02-26
ALthough I enjoyed the writing style and some of the portrayals of her family and multi-racial experiences, I expected this book to be more about the later and her coming of age rather than the attention given to her sexual experiences. This did not seem as important to the book as the themes on racism, black/Jewish relations, etc. I would have liked more of that. It seemed like she had a lot of rebellion against her dad and his wife, but they seemed more there for her than her mom. I found this book very interesting and I would like to read more by this author and on this topic.
Rebecca Walker is a Schlemiel and a Putz........2007-01-26
What do Lenny Kravitz, Craig David, Derek Jeter, Hale Berry, Barak Obama, Rain Pryor, Keanu Reeves, and The Rock all have in common? They're successfull bi-racial Americans of politics, arts, and athletics. Unfortunately, Rebecca Walker Leventhal doesn't measure up. She feels sorry for herself because she's half-white, and she's angry at her father for making her half-Jewish. Poor thing.
Leventhal's life is nowhere near as bad as she wants us to believe. Her father cared about her very much, and her stepmom sounds okay to me, but she writes about her father like he was neglectful. She's angry at him for moving the family to a suburb, but was that such a bad thing? What's wrong with wanting to live in a good area with great schools? She felt alienated from her white Jewish friends, but that was self-imposed. All these Jewish people WANTED to be her friend, but the suburbs just weren't good enough for her.
Her next complaint is her teen years. She acts like it was all pain and guilt, but from what I read, she had a great time. She had lots of interesting boyfriends, and spent a summer on the set of "The Color Purple." She graduated from high school, went to an Ivy League college, and that doesn't sound bad.
Walker's problem is her MOTHER. Alice Walker was a terrible parent. What kind of mother refuses to take her daugher to meet her principal? What kind of mother refuses to be involved in her daughter's life. I think the reason she complains so much is that she's realy angry at her mother, but seems guilty accusing her. After all, Alice Walker is black, and she can't accuse her black mother of anything. Her Jewish father is an easier target.
Leventhal (or Walker, whatever she calls herself) should stop thinking of herself as a victim and a mutant, and start thinking of herself as the product of two wonderful things. Lenny Kravitz was another Black Jewish American, and he had his lumps, including his parents' divorce. But being Black and Jewish didn't hold him back, it kept him going. Rain Pryor was a Black jew, and her dad was a cokehead, but she writes about her life with strength and humor.
At first I didn't think Rebecca had the wisdom commonly associated with American Jews. But then I realized she's one of us. How do I know? Her whining! Read "Born to Kvetch" and you'll learn why Jews are stereotyped as whiners. We're very vocal about things, including our problems. It's one of the ways that we avoid stress and anger, which in other cultures leads to drunkness, temper flashes and wife-beating. But we do other things besides complain, and that's all she does. Complain.
Thank You Rebecca !.......2006-11-30
While I believe you were more privileged than I was, thank you for telling the Jewish community what it needed to hear as opposed to what it wanted to hear.
As a fellow multiracial Jew, your assertions about the Jewish community were unfortunately more accurate than many would like to admit. Rebecca distanced herself from a community that didn't accept her. While I still express my Judaism at home and attend synagogue on the HHD, I don't attend schul due to racism myself. I got tired of being mistaken for the janitor, maid, or nanny. I deserve more respect than that, I'm a human being. She's getting a lot of criticism from people who want to believe in the "Jews never have race problems" crowd. Sorry guys, but its an issue.
The intercallary style of the book may annoy certain readers, but I felt they were a welcome literary device to evoke her deepest emotions. I believe she may be a bit self-indulgent at times, but I think she does display how many mixed people (and mixed Jews for that matter) feel about their communities. However, Rebecca's downward spiral into self destructive behaviors is more of a symptom of bad parenting than a community that rejects her.
I honestly don't think Rebecca is ashamed of her Jewish heritage. What Rebecca IS ashamed of how she was treated by her family and others. How would you feel about a community that doesn't consider you Jewish enough? Even worse, the same people tell you that you're not taking enough pride in your heritage, although it rejects you.
Guess what guys, the problem is mostly you, not Rebecca.
Book Description
The lives of the talented Aubrey children have long been clouded by their father?s genius for instability, but his new job in the London suburbs promises, for a time at least, reprieve from scandal and the threat of ruin. Mrs. Aubrey, a former concert pianist, struggles to keep the family afloat, but then she is something of a high-strung eccentric herself, as is all too clear to her daughter Rose, through whose loving but sometimes cruel eyes events are seen. Still, living on the edge holds the promise of the unexpected, and the Aubreys, who encounter furious poltergeists, turn up hidden masterpieces, and come to the aid of a murderess, will find that they have adventure to spare.
In The Fountain Overflows, a 1957 best seller, Rebecca West transmuted her own volatile childhood into enduring art. This is an unvarnished but affectionate picture of an extraordinary family, in which a remarkable stylist and powerful intelligence surveys the elusive boundaries of childhood and adulthood, freedom and dependency, the ordinary and the occult.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing characters, sparkling writing.......2007-08-11
This was my first encounter with Dame Rebecca West's writing, but it won't be my last. Nearly every paragraph stood alone, as a description to savor or an emotion remarkably described. The characters linger long after the book is closed. I believe that someone has suggested that they are somewhat Dickensian, with which I would agree. The plot conveys to the reader a deep understanding of the frustrations encountered by women whose lives are held in thrall by men who are indifferent to their wellbeing.
The only thing that keeps this book from being 5-stars in my mind are occasional spots where you want it to move more quickly. Its subtlety and richness make it a book well worth revisiting.
A general comment about the Classics series of the New York Review of Books. I am particularly pleased to have discovered this series for two reasons. First, because of the beauty of the books themselves; the cover art is of a very high quality and the paper, printing and binding is as well. The books themselves are pleasurable to experience. Second, the series is introducing me to literature that I would otherwise have never read. I just finished "A High Wind in Jamaica," have begun "Indian Summer" by William Dean Howells (and my middle-school introduction to "The Rise of Silas Lapham" would have predicted that I would never have picked up a book by Howells again, which would have been my loss - I might even tackle Silas Lapham again), and have ordered a few more. I recommend that readers explore some of these treasures.
Once Of My Favorite Books.......2006-11-07
to be savored - a real treasure.
This book is hard to classify because it is both densely written, and yet, it is like cotten candy. If you like to be transported to another place and time, and enjoy writers who know how to use the English language, this is a book for you!
My favorite novel of all time--and I've read thousands..........2005-01-10
The header says it all. If pressed, I will have to admit that this is my absolute favorite novel of all time. There is something so haunting and so human and so memorable about this book, I can't stay away from it--I must have read it 20 times, and I never grow tired of it.
Quite Simply One of the Best Books in English Literature.......2003-08-16
I had heard of author Rebecca West, mainly as the young woman who had a long term affair with a much older H.G. Wells and produced a child out of wedlock, back when things like this were considered shocking. I stumbled across a copy of this book and decided it might make an interesting read.
I never imagined that I had found a true classic, a book that uses the English language to a degree unsurpassed by any other author I have ever read. The story of is simple, that of a down on their luck family, living in London during the early 1900's. Their trials and tribulations are faithfully described, as are the multitude of characters they befriend. Actually to describe the plot, one might assume that not much really happens and to be honest, the plot is not the main attribute of this novel. But the language! I have often thought that I would some day like to write a novel but after reading this book, I would not even attempt it! This is how language should be used...clear and concise but also able to convey atmosphere and emotions. Page after page of luscious words, all combining together to create an unforgettable reading experience. If, like me, you wanted to read more, please note that the sequel, This Real Night is almost as good. A third book, Cousin Rosamund is much weaker since it was not completed at the time of the author's death.
Please do yourself a favor and read this book. I think this ranks with Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights as books which define the best that the English language can offer.
Beautiful, wise, witty, and, yes, you guessed it, timeless.......2003-03-27
About two pages into this I realized I'd come across a sublimely intelligent and aware narrative voice -- that of a 12-yr-old girl in turn-of-the-century London -- and from that point on I read the rest of the novel in a page-turning fever of delight and pleasure. A fictionalized account of Rebecca West's real family, the story follows the lives of the narrator, Rose Aubrey and her twin sister Mary (both of whom are prodigies on the piano), their older sister Cordelia, who apparently stinks at the piano, but doesn't realize it (much to the chagrine of the rest of the family), their thoroughly unflappable and adored younger brother, Richard, a flautist, and their ragged, heroic mother who tries to keep the family above water while the father, a brilliant essayist and pamphleteer who is completely lacking in all matters of practicality, loses one job after another. It's a brilliant cast brought unforgettably to life by West's flawless prose and the intelligence, generosity, imagination and wit poured into it. When you close the book, you feel as if you had just remembered moments from a real family you'd known while growing up, but who you lost touch with because your family moved away. Truly wonderful. Please, if you love beautiful things, read this.
Customer Reviews:
A good first half .......2007-02-15
This story of a German born academic Eva Mueller in the American university world has its main energy and interest in the first part of the book. Goldstein is very good at integrating 'intellectual material' into the story and makes a convincing picture of her heroine in that way. The story of her love - affair with an embittered and cruel Jewish intellectual whose parents are survivors is strong and interesting. The main story however relates to a time years after this affair when the post- menopausal heroine becomes fascinated with a young Californian- born student of hers who works in his spare - time as a radio D. J. . This young man has two sides, one that of budding series intellectual and the other of Dionysian lover of pleasures of life in the moment. Eve who believes she has long lost her need for human connection in love discovers in her tutorials with the student that she has not gone beyond passionate desire. This part of the book is quite interesting. But just as we move to the critical moment Goldstein steers us for the second half of the book into a long tale about Eva's background. Her father was a music scholar who wrote a treatise which served the Nazi regime. This long digression is quite boring and when there is a return to the central affair of the novel Goldstein appears to have run out of steam.
For those however who like Philosophy with their novels , and especially those who would like to know more about Plato's and Spinoza's respective philosophies of Love and Freedom this book should be a real pleasure.
Great for the Goldstein fan, but not her best.......2005-08-07
This little novel is the sort of book one can spend a magical, beautiful afternoon reading. Goldstein's prose is beyond compare... her writing is precise and beautiful. She has the remarkable ability to explain the inner life of an intellectual woman in an authentic and detailed manner.
This book chronicles the awakening of a philosophy professor to the world of pleasure. In short, the conversion from the life of the mind to the life of the body. It is a sensual book, but by no means erotic, at least not in any explicit way. The beauty of the story is that the reader gets to watch the changes within the mind of the main character.
However, this book, despite the beautiful writing, is far from perfect. Unfortunately, Goldstein tried to incorporate flashbacks of the main character's childhood in wartime Germany, and this absolutely does not work. If the flashbacks had been merely alternating chapters, it might have succeeded; however, Goldstein lets the entire novel go off track for far too long. The main character's background is fascinating, and would have made a fine novel in itself, but it severely hampers the style and plot of the rest of the book.
For a Goldstein fan, this is a must-read, but if you've never read Goldstein, you'd do better to start elsewhere.
Irresistable language, resistable story.......2004-09-21
Since "The Mind-Body Problem" by Rebecca Goldstein delighted me so much with both its clever style and original story, I could hardly wait to read the author's second novel "The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind". My sense of disappointment, however, was evident about half way through the book. I liked the set-up, and I recognized Goldsteins playful descriptions and otherwise vivid language; however, the story just loses focus and its nerve. The first part of the book is the best - when Eva Mueller, the popular and eccentric philosophy professor, befriends her student, Michael Miller, the eager philosophy groupie, disc jockey and swimmer. The attraction is actually quite believable between the mature scholar, who has dismissed the notion of romantic love, and the young student, who is attracted to "the human condition" with both its good and bad consequences. However, when the story leaves the budding relationship and flips to Eva Mueller's childhood in Germany and her parents' involvement in the third reich, the story suffers. Don't get me wrong, that part of the book is also fascinating, but not in this book! Or, at least, the transition leaves the reader straining to assume renewed interest in the story. I still give the book 3 stars because I delight in Goldstein's writing style and the way she makes her characters so impossible not to care about. Overall, a decent book, but if you are reading Goldstein for the first time, choose her superb "Mind-Body Problem"!
Amazon.com
Wells is a Louisiana-born Seattle actress and playwright; her loopy saga of a 40-year-old player in Seattle's hot theater scene who must come to terms with her mama's past in steamy Thornton City, Louisiana, reads like a lengthy episode of Designing Women written under the influence of mint juleps and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!. The Ya-Yas are the wild circle of girls who swirl around the narrator Siddalee's mama, Vivi, whose vivid voice is "part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah." The Ya-Yas broke the no-booze rule at the cotillion, skinny-dipped their way to jail in the town water tower, disrupted the Shirley Temple look-alike contest, and bonded for life because, as one says, "It's so much fun being a bad girl!"
Siddalee must repair her busted relationship with Vivi by reading a half-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's packet of "Divine Secrets." It's a contrived premise, but the secrets are really fun to learn.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Performed, not read, by the author is the key here. This highly spirited interpretation of the cult classic is, like the book, full of humor and surprises. It captures with ease the powerful lifelong friendship between four Southern women, the Ya-Ya's: Vivi, Teensy, Caro, and Necie. The author endows each of her charming characters with an inimitable Southern accent, from a low rumble for the aging oxygen-tank-carrying Caro, to the fresh innocent voice of Vivi as a child. The story moves back and forth from present to past when Vivi's daughter, Sidda, is faced with a crisis and is given the golden opportunity to explore the history of these devoted pals through her mother's secret scrapbook. Her journey is sprinkled with her own memories of her irrepressible and irresistible mother, and she is rewarded with glimpses of true love and loyalty against an often hilarious and poignant backdrop of life in the rural South.
Some favorite scenes, anecdotes, and the rich bayou background are not included on this abridged audiocassette, but fans of this special sisterhood will nonetheless enjoy listening to the author's take on the world of Thornton, Louisiana, and the female friendships she created there. (Running time: 3 hours, 2 cassettes) --Anne Depue
Book Description
Now, four years after her award-winning, underground bestseller,
Little Altars Everywhere, praised by Pat Conroy as "a splendid first novel," Rebecca Wells returns with a masterfully written novel that brims with insight, humor and compassion.
When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser," the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.
In 1932, Vivi and the Ya-Yas were disqualified from a Shirley Temple Look-Alike Contest for unladylike behavior. Sixty years later, they're "bucking seventy" and still making waves. They persuade Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of girlhood mementos titled "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."
With the scrapbook in hand, Sidda retreats to a cabin on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, tormented by fear and uncertainty about the future, and intent on discovering the key to the tangle of anger and tenderness she feels toward her mother. But Vivi's album reveals more questions than answers and leads Sidda to encounter the legacy of imperfect love and the unknowable mystery of life.
With passion and a rare gift for language, Rebecca Wells moves from present to past, unraveling Vivi's life, her enduring friendships with the Ya-Yas and the reverberations of Siddalee. The collective power of the Ya-Yas, each of them totally individual and authentic, permeates this story of a tribe of Louisiana wild women who are impossible to tame.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood calls to mind The Joy Luck Club in its exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters; in its unearthing of family secrets, it evokes The Prince of Tides. Ultimately, in its aching longing, in its deep humor, in its heartbreaking fun and in its joy and forgiveness, Rebecca Wells has created a big, original, incandescent novel whose Louisiana landscape and indelible characters radiate with grace, wit and love.
When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a "tap-dancing child abuser." Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." As Sidda struggles to analyze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty of imperfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may call to mind Prince of Tides in its unearthing of family darkness; in its unforgettable heroines and irrepressible humor and female loyalty, it echoes Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Download Description
"
Siddalee Walker won't forgive her mother Vivi for her painful Louisiana childhood. But Vivi's lifelong friends -- the Ya-Yas -- have other ideas.. Locked in a cabin, they present Siddalee with a scrapbook of their childhood mementos, and reveal the secrets of a tangled, emotional relationship between a mother and her daughter. Companion to the beloved bestseller Little Alters Everywhere.
When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a ""tap-dancing child abuser."" Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called ""Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."" As Sidda struggles to analyze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty of imperfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may call to mind Prince of Tides in its unearthing of family darkness; in its unforgettable heroines and irrepressible humor and female loyalty, it echoes Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
"
Customer Reviews:
It's Pretty Good.......2007-09-26
I rarely read abridged books of anything, but I chose to do it this time and I am
glad that I did. The reason why I chose to "listen to" the abridged version is
because I find a southern accent quickly grating. I can only listen
to about one half of one disc at a time and then must give it a rest.
It is hard to tell how good the original book is with so much chopped out. But it
wasn't a bad read just the same. The sisterhood did have a penchant for nudity which I thought was a bit overblown, but maybe if I had read the entire book it would not have been so noticeable. I cannot imagine that many of the experiences
of the young women were anything like those of my mother who also came of age
around the time of the war, or mine either for that matter. But I wasn't expecting
realism when I chose it, so that was not a particular disappointment.
I did find it interesting enough to check out the movie, which is next on my list.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.......2007-06-05
ISBN 0060928336 - A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Divine Secrets proves, yet again, that marketing can make a mountain out of any molehill. I really WANTED to like this book even half as much as the marketing told me I should, but I just couldn't work up that much enthusiasm about it.
Sidda is engaged and the wedding date nears when she freaks out, realizing she doesn't "know how to love" and runs off to contemplate her belly button. Blaming her lack of "knowing how to love" on her mother, Vivi, who Sidda recently offended - in the New York Times, no less! - Sidda finds herself adrift without the anchor that Vivi and her mother's friends had been for most of her life. Believing that the answer lies with these women, Sidda is fortunate when her mother relents just enough to send her a scrapbook of Ya-Ya-rablia. Sadly, little scraps don't tell the whole story and Sidda can't piece it together without help.
After the introduction of each scrap, Wells puts it in context for the reader, telling the story of Teensy, Caro, Necie and Vivi - the Ya-Yas. Sidda is NOT aware of these stories, except in rare instances when a character talks TO her or it is her own memory, which makes for some mild confusion. Sidda has to wade through the mess in her head and the scraps in the book in order to feel that she can love - and be loved.
Wells felt the need to subtly point to the fact that Sidda's fiance looks like Vivi's one true love, Jack, several times, but it is never clearly said and therefore seems pointless - most especially since the only person who doesn't seem to remark upon it is Sidda. Oddly, the only thing about the book that sticks in my head after finally finishing it is that every exaggeration was "eighty four thousand" - "saw it eighty four thousand times", "dyeing eighty four thousand eggs", etc.
Fans of chick-lit will like this book. Others, like me, will find themselves referring to it as "the blah-blah sisterhood". The story of the Ya-Yas themselves, without a character like Sidda in the way, might have been more interesting. On the up side for me, I did rather enjoy seeing religion portrayed as one of the worst evils in the story. Not awful, just not worth more than the current used price of one penny (plus shipping).
What's the fuss?.......2007-03-30
I really tried to like this book. It was given to me by my Mother who loved it, and after a couple of attempts, and struggling to about half way, I finally decided that I found the book extremely boring and gave it up.
I even watched the movie to try and spark my interest, and although I found the movie OK, it did nothing to make me want to pick up the book and finish it. I don't often put down books, I will usually persevere, and I tend to be a fairly easy critic, but this one just had nothing for me.
Great Narrative Voice.......2007-02-18
What I love about well-written Southern books is the clever setting descriptions and wonderful wordplay characterizations and Rebecca Wells delivers on both nicely. She's a fantastic writer and here's why:
I hated the story of discovery. I hated the travel through a coming of age decades-come-late. I hated the little organization of friends who support and encourage each other through understandable secrets and hard life's lessons. I hated all of it, yet I kept reading the book and the reason I kept reading the book is because Ms. Wells is just that good of a writer. I even asked myself, "Why are you reading this book?" and my answer was, "I want to write that cleverly."
For someone who loves intricate stories of women's lives and motivations, this book is going to be heaven. For someone who doesn't, this book is a lesson in how to do it right - or how to do it write. I recommend on either count.
- CV Rick
An Easy Read Fly-Weight.......2006-10-08
Sidda is forty, engaged to be married, and a theatrical director who has recently hit the popular and critical jackpot in her staging of a New York play. She has also managed to give an interview that has fractured her already strained relationship with mother Vivi, and her reflections on her mother and her Lousiana childhood have led her to an emotional crossroads: can she reconcile with her mother, the past, and indeed her own life?
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD was tremendously successful when first published, and many professional reviewers commented that it was the sort of novel that would make you cry and laugh at the same time. It is quite true that the book has much to offer: it contains several very memorable characters, and author Wells does indeed manage to capture a sense of the bonds of friendship as well as a uniquely Louisiana way of life. But I can't say that I found the book laugh-out-loud funny or that it made my eyes water, much less shed tears.
Simply put, DIVINE SECRETS reads very much as if Wells and a host of marketing men sat down together and premeditated a book that would be an easy-read best seller. It is well written, but I never quite believed in the characters or the situations they faced; as such I never found any of it greatly funny or even slightly moving. At absolute best, the novel is an easy way to pass an otherwise empty afternoon, enjoyable in an utterly mindless sort of way. I recommend it on that basis alone.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Average customer rating:
- TERRIBLE
- Wilted...
- cool stuff
- Reviewed by Diane Kasperski
- Ya, Ya, Yea, Yes!
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Ya-Yas in Bloom: A Novel
Rebecca Wells
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
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ASIN: 0060953659
Release Date: 2006-04-11 |
Book Description
Rebecca Wells's wonderful third book in her Ya-Ya trilogy, which includes Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, is sure to provide reading that makes you laugh and cry, a book that will break your heart and mend it again.
Ya-Yas in Bloom reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s, following Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie through sixty years of marriage, child-raising, and hair-raising family secrets.
When four-year-old Teensy Whitman prisses one time too many and stuffs a big old pecan up her nose, she sets off the chain of events that lead Vivi, Teensy, Caro, and Necie to become true sister-friends. Using as narration the alternating voices of Vivi and the Petite Ya-Yas, Siddalee and Baylor Walker, as well as other denizens of Thornton, Louisiana, Wells show us the Ya-Yas in love and at war with convention. Through crises of faith and hilarious lapses of parenting skills, brushes with alcoholism and glimpses of the dark reality of racial bigotry, the Ya-Ya values of unconditional loyalty, high style, and Louisiana sass shine through.
But in the Ya-Yas' inimitable way, these four remarkable women also teach their children about the Mysteries: the wonder of snow in the deep South, the possibility that humans are made of stars, and the belief that miracles do happen. And they need a miracle when old grudges and wounded psyches lead to a heartbreaking crime...and the dynamic web of sisterhood is the only safety net strong enough to hold families together and endure.
After two bestsellers and a blockbuster movie, the Ya-Yas have become part of American culture -- icons for the power of women's friendship. Ya-Yas in Bloom continues the saga, giving us more Ya-Ya lore, spun out in the rich patois of the Louisiana bayou country and brim full of the Ya-Ya message to embrace life and each other with joy.
Customer Reviews:
TERRIBLE.......2007-07-17
I loved the first YaYa book, enjoyed the second, and hated this one. It had no story, it resembled a book of short stories but not enjoyable ones. Clearly the author just wanted to make some quick money or something, I can't think of another reason why she would have written this. I had liked and cared about the characters, and in this book I couldn't stand any of them.
Wilted..........2007-04-26
This is Louisiana native, Rebecca Wells' third installment into the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Saga. Wells, who is also an actor and playwright, has been riding high on the success of the bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood which has been translated into 23 languages since its release in 1996.
If you are not familiar with the Ya-Yas, they are four Louisiana women who've been friends since childhood (as young as 4) in the 1930s. Once a Ya-Ya, always a Ya-Ya. It even gets passed down through lineage producing Petite Ya-Yas (their children) and Tres Petites Ya-Yas (their grandchildren). Ya-Yas hold friendship and family at the top of their list of values along with "unconditional loyalty, high-style and southern sass".
Ya-Yas in Bloom starts off with family tree diagrams for each Ya-Ya, Vivi, Caro, Teensy and Necie. As I continued to read I found them to be a definite asset, having to refer to them numerous times. The following chapters are divided into four sections titled: Sowing Sisterhood Seeds, Tending Young Buds, Bruised Plantings, and A Bountiful Garden.
Ya-Yas in Bloom continues to languish on the emotional ties present amongst women and the bond of "true sister-friends". At page three I decided I was going to like this book because of the voice. The opening story was narrated by Vivi who's 68 going on 49. Unfortunately this feeling didn't hold until the end. More than half way through it began to feel like a bunch of leftover vignettes thrown together. There are just too many narrators: Vivi, Sidda, Baylor and even the occasional omnipresent voice take the reins. Ya-Yas in Bloom reads like the special features on a DVD giving some background on the well-loved characters.
What I enjoyed most about Bloom is the loyalty of the characters to one another and to one another's family. I enjoyed reading about Ya-Ya parties and how everyone prepared for the events; even the children who often hid watching in awe of their Ya-Ya parents. And comical moments which I could relate to, like the chapter on snow in the South when Little Shep was so excited about seeing snow for the first time he ran into the glass pane of a patio door and knocked himself unconscious.
While individually, some of these stories are heart warming as a whole they don't connect into a cohesive novel. If you're an obsessive Ya-Ya fan who just can't get enough or want more background then this book is for you. Otherwise, it's too flat for popular consumption. Reviewed by M. E. Wood.
cool stuff.......2007-03-27
Loved the story...very entertaining. The copy I purchased is in excellent condition. Thanks to my seller!
Reviewed by Diane Kasperski.......2007-02-10
Meet the Ya Ya Sisterhood in their younger days. Ya Yas in Bloom starts in 1930 with Teensy being taken to the doctor because she has shoved a pecan up her nose. She meets Vivi there and her pecan becomes immortalized for all patients to see in the years to come.
Then Teensy and Vivi plot to meet Necie because they are sure she is the famed Coco Robichaux that Genevieve, Teensy's mother, tells them about all the time. Caro is brought into the group and The Ya Ya Sisterhood is born and will remain true to each other through good times, some wild times and tough times for 60 some years.
The main focus is of the YaYa's as young mothers. The reader feels as if the author is reminiscing even though parts are from a third person's perspective rather than personal memory. However, there are parts that are Sidda's or Baylor's personal memories of events in their lives, too.
All-in-all even, though the telling through the years is somewhat disjointed - it all seems to gel into a charming, sometimes funny, sometimes sad story of life in Louisiana for the Ya Yas and their families. There are parts where the reader laughs out loud at the antics of Teensy and Vivi growing up and then gets amused at their handling of the nuns at the Catholic school when their children get into trouble.
Ms. Well's main characters are sharp witted, confident in themselves and have attitude. Throughout all, no matter what happens good or bad, they are all family and will stick together through thick and thin.
Ya, Ya, Yea, Yes!.......2007-01-07
Fun and easy reading. I have read all the "Ya Ya" books. The cover of this latest book looks like it is for or about children; it's not. The Ya Ya books follow a group of very Southern girls who are friends and relatives as they grow through the years. They tell about the fun things they do and the way they deal with each other and life in the South. They are crazy and loveable at the same time, crying, laughing, and doing outrageous things full of Southern comfort - life and drink. This latest book is about the Ya Ya's as mature women who continue to share the best times with family and each other. I smiled through every Ya Ya book, and look forward to reading more from Rebecca Wells.
Customer Reviews:
Touching story that gives hope to others searching for somebody missing.......2005-10-05
The romance isn't too great in the book between Maggie Macfarland and Jake Halsey but what made it great was a touching story about reuniting a family that has been searching for 26 years for their daughter. This story was inspired by the events with Elizabeth Smart and the author does a great job of instilling hope to families out there still waiting for their missing loved ones to come home. This remains one of my favorites and I hope it inspires more children to be found
exciting thriller .......2005-06-14
An on the job injury probably means the end of field work for CIA Agent Jake Halsey. Still he is highly regarded so no final decision has been made as his superior wants to allow Jake time to heal before they reassess.
Jake goes to Salt Lake City to recover, but is irate that he must recuperate when his stepmother is missing and probably in deep trouble. To pass time he works as a genealogist. Attorney Maggie McFarland, CEO of the Kathryn McFarland National Foundation that has recovered thousands of missing children, hires Jake to track her younger sister Kathryn, abducted over two decades ago as an infant. Jake feels in his element with the only new ingredient being that he is falling in love with his client who reciprocates though she feels guilty by doing so when her now adult sibling remains lost.
This exciting thriller highlights the impact even years after of an abduction of a beloved; Maggie has more than just dedicated her life to the memory of the incident as she attempts to find her sister; she gave up her own life until Jake enters the scene. The story line is a fabulous investigative romance starring two individuals with scars that have not healed. THE DAUGHTER'S RETURN is Rebecca Winters at her best, which mean contemporary readers will want to peruse this one sitting thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
Teens in love, teens in lust, and teens in distress! Suburban housewife Rebecca serves up another heaping helping of luscious pencil drawings in only the way she can do it. This time around the teens are being influenced by mom in their lust for the perfect orgasm. Teens in love, teens in lust, and teens in distress. Sometimes mom is shocked at the teens behavior and other time mom is part of the action. Hot moms and hot teens hard at it and all packaged in a beautiful volume of exquisite drawings from Rebecca.
Book Description
Mazel means luck in Yiddish, and luck is the guiding force in this magical and mesmerizing novel that spans three generations. Sasha Saunders is the daughter of a Polish rabbi who abandons the shtetl and wins renown as a Yiddish actress in Warsaw and New York. Her daughter Chloe becomes a professor of classics at Columbia. Chloe’s daughter Phoebe grows up to become a mathematician who is drawn to traditional Judaism and the sort of domestic life her mother and grandmother rejected.
Customer Reviews:
A sane and ordered work.......2006-12-22
This is an intelligently written story of three generations of Jewish women. The major part is given to the Polish born grandmother the flamboyant actress Sasha but the key element in the work is the relationships between the generations. The grandmother abandoned Jewish religious life, the daughter is an introverted classical scholar, and the granddaughter also a professor returns to Jewish religious life.
As Murray Baumgarten parts out in an extended review of the book the narrative - view- point often shifts, and the focus is not so much on one person as on relationships.
The book is interesting and has a 'smartness' about it. The central idea that it is Mazel ( Luck) and not Saychel (Wisdom) that is the main factor in life is elaborated through comparison with Hume's famous analysis showing our ordinary conception of 'causation' in life cannot be proven. i.e. there is not the connection of events which is simple, direct causation but rather their conjoining. Goldstein seems to suggest that this means that Life goes more randomly than lovers of planning and order would like to suggest. My own thought is that this is a bit simplistic, and that a lot depends in life on the 'saychel' we have in dealing with our own 'mazel' and that 'mazel ' too may come of 'saychel'.
One of my very favorite books.......2005-04-01
Even though the characters in the book are very different from my own family, "Mazel" affirmed many of my personal feelings about being Jewish. It brought to mind many of the stories told to me about Eastern Europe by my parents and older relatives, while at the same time opening up my mind to new aspects of Jewish life. And it made me want to find out more about my own family history.
The way the three generations of women view the world and Judaism is fascinating, and totally believable. I have given this book as a present many times, and have reread it more than once.
I wish I could read more about this fascinating collection of women!
One of those books you want to reread as soon as it is over!.......2004-11-02
This is the 4th book I have read of Rebecca Goldstein's, and this was my 2nd favorite (after the superb Mind-Body Problem). I liked the "generational" aspect where we follow Sasha (Sorel) from early childhood in a Schluftchev shtetl to present day USA where she has a grown daughter (Chloe) and a granddaughter just about to get married (Phoebe). I must admit I enjoyed the early childhood and early adult descriptions of Sasha the best - here there is a rich sense of storytelling, and the human characterizations are gripping and vivid. Sasha evetually rejects and leaves behind the old-fashioned Jewish ways of the shtetl and becomes a great stage actress and part of the Jewish intellectual life ("The Enlightenment") in prewar Warsaw.
The story in the present is also good, but I thought Sasha's antics were described with too much cliche and suffered a bit from the "feminine-writer syndrome". In addition, the daughter and granddaughter stay very one-dimensional. Mazel means LUCK in Yiddish, and this book very successfully plays with its meaning throughout someone's life. Finally, Phoebe's decision about going back to traditional Jewish ways is one of the best contrasts in the story...perfectly unimaginable and understandable at the same time!
A Rare Discovery.......2001-04-02
By chance, I found Mazel on the shelf of the tiny library of the small outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia, where I live. How it got there I have no idea. I found the first chapter or two almost impenetrable, which may perhaps be explained by the fact that - as I later learned - it's a sequel to an earlier novel. But the wit, charm and incisiveness of the style lured me on, and once I had sorted out the characters and got used to shuttling through time, I realized I had made a rare discovery. Everything felt so true. An obvious example: the way Sasha's egotism and theatricality had cowed and almost silenced her daughter and granddaughter, yet how they had quietly found their own forms of resistence and assertion. But many a novel and even soap opera can give you that. Far more remarkable was the way Goldstein brought to life the lost world and lost people of prewar Jewish Poland, and embodied in her characters the whole spectrum of ways people can and do respond to the sometimes impossibly difficult dilemmas and limitations into which they are born. You can see how each temperament and each generation arrives at what it thinks to be the best resolution, only to find itself outmoded. Most remarkable of all, I felt I understood considerably more about myself, the world, history, life, etc. when I had finished than when I had begun, and only a masterpiece can do that. Mazel is an extraordinary achievement, and what a pity that it should be out of print.
For grandmothers only.......1999-12-26
After struggling through the first few chapters, I find that this book has appeal only to those readers who are strong-willed grandmothers, or those who always wanted to be so. Totally unrealistic, this book is a strong willed grandmother fantasy come true, but utterly irritating for those of us of the younger generations. Let me explain. This grandmother wears leather pants and is a snob in every way towards her very own granddaughter. The grandmother thinks that Manhattan is the center of the world, and that she is the only person that matters because she was once an actress. She cares more about herself than her own child and grandchild. Her granddaughter and her daughter are unrealistically wishy-washy, passive characters, and they accept their (grand)mother's never-ending bossiness without a second thought, without ever angering an iota. And it isn't as if the story were dealing with this problem, as a theme; it's just the 'backdrop'.
Amazon.com
Daughters of Light by Rebecca Larson is a startling reassessment of the place of women in American colonial history. Larson's story of 18th-century Quaker women describes women's power in popular reform movements of that era, and explores Quaker women's redefinitions of marriage and motherhood. Colonial Quakers, like their contemporary descendants, believed that "the Holy Spirit had been planted in the hearts of all humans to inwardly teach them." Although Quakers had strict rules regarding women's dress, language, and behavior, Quaker women were never denied their claims of a direct connection to God. (Their Puritan sisters, by contrast, practiced a religion that idealized female submission in both the earthly and spiritual realms.) So when Quaker women believed they were called to preach--in meeting houses, courthouses, and private homes; to other Quakers, to Native Americans, and to ecumenical audiences; in the West Indies, England, Europe, and the American colonies--they were given the freedom to do so. All domestic duties were configured to account for divine demands. (The Spirit leading Quaker women, as one wrote, "was to me like a needle of a compass ... for so it pointed where I ought to go.")
Daughters of Light begins with a deft summary of Quaker history; it moves on to consider the theological justification for women's preaching, the ways in which women discerned their callings and arranged their journeys, and the effects of these journeys on private life, on Quaker communities abroad, and on the larger culture of colonial America. Larson is best, however, at describing the transformations wrought by these journeys on the women's inner lives. "Thy mother is become very courageous in riding thru deep waters and over rocky mountains beyond what I could expect," one woman wrote to another's child, in 1724. "She says fear is taken away from her and that she is born up by a secret hand, which I am very glad of and thankful to the Lord for." --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
In this pathbreaking book, Rebecca Larson restores a group of remarkable women to the American historical landscape. From Ann Moore, whose religious vision impelled her to preach to the British military during the French and Indian War, advising them to rely not on physical weapons and warfare but upon God; to Mary Weston, whose visit in the 1750s to Charleston, South Carolina, prompted the colonial legislature to adjourn in order to attend the noted preacher's meeting; to the celebrated Rachel Wilson, whose eloquence and piety drew crowds during her ministerial tour of the colonies in 1768 to 1769, Larson broadens our conception of women's activities before the American Revolution.
More than a thousand Quaker women ministers were active in the Anglo-American world during this era, when Quakers formed the third-largest religious group in the colonies. Some circulated throughout British North America; others crossed the Atlantic to deliver their inspired messages. In this astonishing public role, they preached in courthouses, meeting-houses, and private homes to audiences of men and women, to those of other faiths as well as to Quakers, to Native Americans and to slaves. At times they crossed paths with prominent figures such as Patrick Henry and Henry Laurens.
Larson offers striking insights on the ways in which this public, authoritative role for women affected the formation of their identities, their families, and their society. How did these spiritual leaders negotiate the challenges of marriage and childbearing while travelling thousands of miles on religious journeys? Some even traveled during pregnancy, leaving small children at home to be cared for by their husbands or the Quaker community. Through their interweaving narratives we hear long-silenced, forgotten voices that deepen our understanding of the once thriving transatlantic Quaker culture that balanced mysticism with pragmatism, recognizing female as well as male spiritual leaders.
Daughters of Light is an important contribution to the history of women and religion in early America.
Customer Reviews:
Very readable scholarly work.......2000-05-01
Daughters of Light reveals much about 18th Century society and shows how the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) furthered feminism by allowing and encouraging women from all walks of life to preach, although neither the Quakers of the time nor the book focuses mainly on feminism. These women traveled widely and enjoyed freedom of movement that was unheard of for women of other religions. They also had tremendous spiritual authority. The book is illustrated with specimen letters, excerpts from diaries, and pictures.
Average customer rating:
- Her great story
- How I feel about the book and why
- A moving story
- A Great Book By Two Great Role Models
- Inspiring story of mom and daughters relationship and life!!
|
The Home Team: Of Mothers, Daughters, and American Champions
Ruthann Lobo , and
Rebecca Lobo
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1568361998 |
Customer Reviews:
Her great story.......2001-06-09
I was already a huge fan of Rebecca Lobo before reading this book. 'The Home Team' gives you a look into the lives of Rebecca and Ruthann Lobo. It's such a real look at how their lives truly are and how much they love each other. After reading this book I was blown away by the courage both of these amazing women have shown in thier lives.
How I feel about the book and why.......1998-08-29
I really love this book! I did not want to put it down. A couple of reasons I love the book is because now I know she was a normal child once and she did'nt always play basketball. I also liked it because her mom talked about her life. Now I know they had problems just like any other family does.
A moving story.......1998-06-30
This book is a must read for all WNBA fans. Rebecca Lobo's life is revealed in many aspects, that of her point of view and her mother. It talks about many issues such as Ruthanne's struggle with breast cancer and how the family dealt with it. As a 15 year old girl, reading is not one of my favorite pastimes. When I heard of a book about my idol Rebecca Lobo, I decided maybe I should give reading a try. I finished the story in a total of two days and found myself waking up in the middle of the night wanting to know what was going to happen next. It is an extremely moving book in which I fould that it was very easy to relate to. As a basketball player, some of Rebecca Lobo's theories such as playing basketball to relive stress and cope with problems I use also. It gave a new perspective to why I am two different people a hustler and leader on the court and a shy and proscinator off of it. Athlete or not, this book will get you moving. It will leave the message in your heard that anything is possible and it will help you to get out and reach that goal that you have been striving for.
A Great Book By Two Great Role Models.......1998-06-23
I had the opportunity to meet the Lobos at a seminar, and they are as congenial in person as they appear in this fantastic book. Each personal chapter of this narrative made me feel like I was almost a part of the Lobo family. I liked reading about how Rebecca and her brother and sister grew up, what it was like to be part of a team as tight as the Huskies, and how the family dealt with RuthAnn's cancer. I have read this book over and over, and my mother and grandmother both love it as well. It is definitely worth sharing!
Inspiring story of mom and daughters relationship and life!!.......1998-05-01
Very well written and inspiring. Surviving with strength and heart to carry her family, Mrs. Lobo is amazing! Rebecca's tales of life and the heart ache of her moms struggle with breast cancer. They stuck together and beat it out! WAY TO GO MRS. & MS. LOBO!!!
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Meridian
