This one has the movie tie-in cover.

From the back cover...

"A big, blowsy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes trying to survive marriage, motherhood and pain, relying always on their love for each other...A novel of wide reach and lots of colors; fun in a breathless sort of way."

I recommend reading Little Altars Everywhere before reading this, I haven't seen the movie, but I understand the movie incorporates both books into one so you get a much bigger look at the Ya-Ya's history than just from this book alone. I enjoyed both books for their sense of family bonds.

Sending to bc'er juffie in The Netherlands.

Happy Mother's Day.

Found the book in the mail today! Thank you cestmoi! I'll give my comments later, after reading and then it is going to be sent away to another bookcrosser and later on to several others. So, cestmoi, without knowing it, you started a sort of bookring! I'm very much looking forward to reading the book. I have to start soon, because it has got to be on it's way before the end of June.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It's all about disturbed mother-daughter relationship (to that aspect you ask yourself :Why? Grow up!) but the story of the friendship of the four Ya-Ya's is fabulous and heartwarming and hilarious at the same time. I'll miss them; they are going to Rubyblue in a bag.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!

This book came popping through the mail slot in my front door today. Great timing.... I just finished "The Vine of Desire" last night, so I'll be starting this one tonight. Thanks, juffie.

I'm making a new journal entry, rather than a release note, since I made a "controlled" release by mail today to nrrdgrrl. I must say that after hearing so much about the book I found it a bit disappointing.... The first few pages I thought were a bit overwritten (I made notes, but since I'm in a rush at the moment, and really should be packing to leave for the States tomorrow, I'm not going to go look for them--I may get back to fix up this entry later--much later). I remember thinking there was not enough dialogue in the first part of the book--and then thinking in the last part that there was too much dialogue. I did, though, get into reading the mother's story...and but found the daughter's present-time interruptions a bit lame. Anyway, I suppose my favorite line from the whole book came in the afterword, as I remember it, where the author mentions that dog IS, you know god spelled backwards.... Not sorry I read the book, but my lasting impression is after all the hype, "enh" (accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders).

aaaah, that's just what i needed on a sunny but otherwise bleak day. big red bus stops in front of my house (i happen to be working in the living room today), acne-affected youngster rolls out, gets package out of bus belly, looks suspiciously at package, swiftly puts it in letterbox.

i find a festively wrapped book, a sizeable volume, movie edition, full of cards and notes and newspaper clippings. it's a matryushka book :o) thanks!

tbr right after my current bookring book.

btw i couldn't find the bookray order anywhere but in the book, and find it handy when it's here. other people on the list are:
zeldesse
esta75
dutch-flybaby

and for those of you interested in the movie cestmoi mentioned above: imdb

finished the book today in a race against the clock, as i wanted to be at the post office in time. the unability to plan makes a life interesting... but one does learn; last week i went to the p.o. in vain as they are closed on saturday :o(

this week's experience not much better. the ya-ya's are a very thick pocket. according to the p.o. lady it won't fit in anyone's mail slot (oh? how about rubyblue's entry above?) and the postage should be as much as for the entire bookbox we sent around the country.
poor ya-ya's. no lady would be happy to have her size 10 being called a size 18!

those of you abroad may not be aware that the dutch have a reputation as bad as the scots... zeldesse, next on the list, lives a mere 22km (some 14m) from my place and i'll personally wring the ya-ya's through her front door to prove the extortionists wrong!


[will write my review later tonight]

it would have been a big surprise if hollywood had *not* been interested in the ya-ya's. the book is very much like a film script; as if it was written after the movie came out.

the story is smoothly swifting from now to flashback to recent history to future. emotions are securely distributed - extremes in the beginning, the crying bits more towards the end, with a few more extremes to heat up the tears. there's the necessary outrageous inequality, there's humour, sadness, whatnot. neatly portioned out to acquire the appropriate effect. very skilled, but also very ehm... distant. the reader gets to be thrown in a pool of emotions so big, so in-your-face; at the end of the day it's like having read a harlequin book.

kinda irritating to me was the extensive scene-setting. creating a mood is very helpful and it's a difficult skill to master. wells starts out fine but lets herself get carried away. i have never seen so many cd's played in a book. wells must dislike silence. she must hate a reader being mistaken about exactly what the intended atmosphere is. just a couple times too often we hear what people wear. on and on she goes with endless and repetitive descriptions of washington forest and the exact spot where the protagonist is staying. more than once i wasn't really sure if accidentally the script was bound instead of the book.

on one hand i admire wells' skill. she does her thing well. it's impossible not to be swept away. on the other hand i feel manipulated. much. there's no room left for my own interpretations. i'm not the kind of reader that considers this a comforting circumstance.


one thing that did surprise me in this smooth story is the nature of the big secret (won't spoil it here). i'd expected it to be in the line of the earlier developments, but found it was not. not at all. as if wells had a separate story left, one that is very "dear" to her, and hence just had to be put in the book. it's the only flaw in this carefully laid out rollercoaster ride. not because of its place in the story, but simply because it's the kind of unlogic that only happens in real life - not in an overdirected book.

seven stars for wells' skill and hours of entertainment; star eight not given because of patronizing the reader.

Release planned for Sunday, July 20, 2003 at controlled release in Utrecht, Utrecht Netherlands.

to zeldesse. i admit, i had to insist somewhat, but pushing it through the mail slot was easy enough. that's why people are stubborn - usually it's rewarding :o)

apologies for the boring packaging. it has to do with the above hurrying.
enjoy! the weather certainly is louisiana-ish enough - hot and humid.

Heee, dat is leuk. Ik was net met allerlei BC-dingetjes bezig, komt er op zondag een boek door de brievenbus! Top, ben zeer benieuwd.

Wat een verrassing! Ik was helemaal vergeten dat ik dit boek nog kon verwachten.
Ik ben erg benieuwd wat ik van het boek vind, want de film vond ik matig.
Dit wordt dus nog vervolgd.....