• Little Altars Everywhere

  • By: Rebecca Wells
  • Narrated by: Judith Ivey
  • Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (258 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Little Altars Everywhere  By  cover art

Little Altars Everywhere

By: Rebecca Wells
Narrated by: Judith Ivey
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Little Altars Everywhere is the New York Times best-selling companion to Rebecca Wells' celebrated novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Told in the alternating voices of Vivi and her husband, Big Shep, along with Sidda, her siblings Little Shep, Lulu, and Baylor, as well as the almost-but-not-quite family Cheney and Willetta, Wells embraces nearly 30 years of life on their plantation in Thornton, Louisiana, where the cloying air of the bayou and a web of family secrets at once shelters, traps, and defines an utterly original community of souls.

Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transforming 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

Critic reviews

"Rebecca Wells has written a funny, eloquent and sad novel that easily leaps regional bounds." ( Washington Post)
"A hilarious and heartbreaking first novel." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Little Altars Everywhere

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    169
  • 4 Stars
    46
  • 3 Stars
    30
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    162
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    135
  • 4 Stars
    40
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

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!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A pre-quil to divine secrets book

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, quirky characters but wrong narrator

I had previously read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I figured I'd enjoy listening to it as well. But this narrator was way off. Somehow she makes the Louisiana accent sound hickish for every character. And she butchers the time to Ooh My Soul right off the bat....she shoulda googled it or something. Very distracting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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 .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Vivi Walker Child Molester

I'm appalled that the same human ( is she ,) that penned the Divine secrets of the YaYa sisterhood actually tricked readers into believing Vivi Walker was a troubled but good person
she actually molested her kids !
Who enjoyed reading this ??

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Narration hurts my head

I have tried, endlessly, to listen to this. The story is annoyingly trite, but the narrators accent is just too much. I cannot finish this. Whatever the story, it is too awful to listen to this. Certainly, this is a disservice to southern society. Why would anyone want to sound stupid and low class?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!