“Brilliant. . . . A structural tour de force. . . . A classic Southern tale of dysfunctional and marginal madness. The author’s gift for giving life to so many voices leaves the reader profoundly moved.”— Seattle Weekly The companion novel to Rebecca Wells’s celebrated #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Who can resist the rich cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda—a precocious reader and an eloquent observer of the fault lines that divide her family—leads us into her mischievous adventures at Our Lady of Divine Compassion parochial school and beyond. A Catholic girl of pristine manners, devotion, and provocative ideas, Sidda is the very essence of childhood joy and sorrow. Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transformative power of faith, and a thoroughly fresh chronicle of a family that is as haunted as it is blessed.

The companion to the beloved bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-YaSisterhood, here is the funny, heartbreaking, and powerfully insightful tale that first introduced Siddalee, Vivi, their spirited Walker clan, and the indomitable Ya-Yas.

Friends, family, depression.

Siddalee Walker, a successful New York theater director, takes turns with her family in telling the story of their Louisiana upbringing, their experiences in the classrooms of the Penguins of Our Lady of the Divine Compassion, and the anguishes of childho

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.

“Rebecca Wells has done it again….A new book full of Southern charm and unique characters…impossible to put down.” —Houston Chronicle “Wells weaves that magic spell again.” —New Orleans Times-Picayune For Ya-Ya fans everywhere, New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Wells returns with The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. The creator of the literary sensations Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom delivers an unforgettable new stand-alone novel about the pull of first love, the power of home, and everyday magic. No matter if you already adore the Ya-Yas or haven’t yet entered the miraculous world of Rebecca Wells, you are going to love—and never forget—Calla Lily Ponder.

A special Mother's Day boxed set of Rebecca Wells's two New York Times-bestselling novels of the Ya-Yas and the Walker Clan, including a new Note to the Reader. Both Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, chronicling the touching, funny, beguiling Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana, have been phenomenal critical and popular hits. Little Altars Everywhere, the first book, began life as a small-press, word-of-mouth cult classic in 1992, went on to win the Western States Book Award, and was included in the anthology Five Hundred Great Books by Women (Penguin, 1994). It followed Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood onto the New York Times bestseller list in 1998. The 1996 sequel, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, sparked the creation of Ya-Ya clubs around the country, and inspired Terry McMillan (San Francisco Chronicle) to exclaim, "I read the first two pages and I said, 'I haven't heard a white woman talk like this in literature before.'"