Little Altars Everywhere

De: Rebecca Wells

Narrado por: Judith Ivey

“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.

©1992 Rebecca Wells; (P)2002 HarperCollins Publishers

Deeper look.

A deeper look into stories told in The Devine Secrets. pulling you further into this tantalizing tale. Judith Ivey does a brilliant job bringing the stories and characters to life. Making you not want it to end.

Ya Ya Gumbo!

What did you love best about Little Altars Everywhere?

I read this book several years ago and enjoyed it immensely. Listening to Judith Ivey read it and doing all the characters help the book to come to life.

What other book might you compare Little Altars Everywhere to and why?

Don't know that I would compare it to any other book, except Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and, maybe, Ya Ya's in Bloom.

What about Judith Ivey’s performance did you like?

Judity Ivey has always been a favorite actress of mine. She gets it just right with the accents and just makes the book come alive.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

It was already made into a movie (Part of "The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood).

Any additional comments?

I am a fan of Rebecca Wells. She knows her Southern women and she is not afraid to pull punches. This book is one that will make you laugh; make you cry. And maybe, examine your relationships with your mother and your own friends.

Loved Loved Loved !!!

I love Judith's voice its soothing and perfect.this book takes me back to my childhood. I will love it forever .

PROFOUND AND ENDEARING

I just finished listening to Little Alters... and had that sinking feeling in my heart having to part with it's characters, it's stories, the narrator, the author. This very profound and touching storyline is presented in a dynamic yet very subtle way. The narrator's rendition is heavenly and perfectly complements the theme. I have also loved Lily Ponder and will definitely download other titles from the Wells/Ivey team! You should too!

Why would they ruin this entire story

I hate how they make Vivianne a child molester and never touch on it again. It ruined the book and the previous book for me. This would have been an incredible second book if they would have decided against it. It felt out of place and thoughtless.

A pre-quil to divine secrets book

Loved it! ❤ Narration so good and the voices of characters got me lost in the story.

Addiction

This novel is as delicious as the gumbo and fried shrimp prepared in this novel. The character become like family, recognizing the landmarks, rivers, and bayous. Spring creek's water and all its surrounding are exceptionally described by Ms. Rebecca Wells. Being from Central Louisiana myself made this story is exceptional precious to me. Thank you Ms. Rebecca Wells for creating such descriptive words, you are an inspiration.

Biased Review

I love the characters and setting of the story but, full disclosure, I am from the small town in which this story takes place and I am the great nephew of Teensy Walker(both names were repurposed by the author in her novels). So all that being said, I am fairly certain that I would have loved the book no matter what. The stories are profound but light hearted and the characters are complicated, neither all good or all bad making them feel very authentic. The author forces you to empathize with her characters so deeply that in some of them I felt myself wanting to just skip past the conflict. Moments like those make me realize what a powerful storyteller that the author is and this book is fairly replete with them.

Because I am from such a small town I can't tell if my experience will translate to an urban audience, but listening to these stories was like listening to my father's stories of his childhood. The nostalgia is delicious.

Now to the narrator. The first 20 minutes of the book were fairly painful because of the weird emphasis of 'Ooh my lord' as another reviewer pointed out, and the weird warbling that the narrator layered into her southern accent. I was thinking, "here we go again, this narrator is going to make southerners sound like a pack of imbeciles.' But as the story progressed, she seemed to catch her rhythm and became much more palatable. Her accent is a bit camp, but women of that generation did speak with a very stereotypical southern accent. The accents down here are considerably more subdued these days, although I don't necessarily consider that a good thing. Ivey's cajun accent is just atrocious, but she can be forgiven for this as cajun accents are extremely hard to mimic. And other than a few difficult to pronounce words like Natchitoches, the narrator does a pretty good job at pronunciation. Her use of many different voices is impressive.

Entertaining and heartfelt

What made the experience of listening to Little Altars Everywhere the most enjoyable?

I find tales of southern life entertaining and captivating.

What did you like best about this story?

Each character's view of the story line.

Which scene was your favorite?

Lil' Shep's opinion on dogs and his antics with Buggy's dog.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laughed, cried and related!

Any additional comments?

I wish this book had been narrated by the author instead of Judith Ivy.

Great story & great narration!

Rebecca Wells wrote a wonderfully entertaining and touching story. I have read other books by her and loved them. However I think I need to get the audiobooks, if they are read by Judith Ivey. Iveys voice characterizations are perfect and made a great story, great to listen to.