"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."

-Shel Silverstein

3.29.2011

LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE


"Told in alternating voices of Vivi and her husband, Big Shep, along with Sidda, her siblings Little Shep, Lulu, Baylor, and Cheney and Willetta — the black couple who impact the Walkers' lives in ways they never fully comprehend — Little Altars embraces nearly thirty years of life on the plantation in Thorton, Louisiana, where the cloying air of the bayou and a web of family secrets at once shelter, trap and define an utterly original community of souls."

they also have a much more in depth summary

This was a really good book and such a quick read! Of course, I love the movie of the Ya-Ya's so I knew that the back story would be equally as interesting, but this book was such a good preface to The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Like the other books I've read recently, it was told from multiple perspective which made it so easy to follow. The book was also divided into two parts which were intertwined different time periods. First, you see Siddalee at home when she's younger with her younger siblings and their family dynamics with both their abusive, alcoholic mother and their maid. You then fastforward into the present day when they are all trying to make it on their own. This book sucks you in and shows you how the children were so greatly impacted by their past and how they were raised. Seeing how each of the children grew from their encounters with their mother and their relationships with the other Ya-Ya's make me so excited to read the Divine Secrets next. I'm about half way done with it and that one is going even quicker than the last!

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