The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Written by Deesha Philyaw
Narrated by Janina Edwards
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher's wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta's "same time next year" arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.
With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.
Deesha Philyaw
Deesha Philyaw is an American author, columnist and public speaker. Her debut book, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. It is currently being adapted for television by HBO Max. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
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Reviews for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
929 ratings48 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A quick read, chock-full of Southern Black lady goodness in the form of witty sayings, bucket loads of shade, and the occasional Bible verse. Some stories will have you clutching your pearls, but I loved this book so much! There are a lot of strong Black female characters. I didn't even realise it was a short story collection until I reached the 3rd story.
My favourite was "How to Make Love to a Physicist" just 'cause I love cheesy romantic stories. I also really liked "Dear Sister" because you could just imagine the real-life sisters with their different personalities.
One of the quotes that I noted from the book is "...a family of women and we had the worst time with men! The good men died young, and the terrible ones stayed just long enough to make you wish they would die, God forgive me" (I culled the quote from the audiobook, so the punctuation might be off).2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best books I read this year. It is a compilation of well crafted stories with writing that held serious emotional impact. The author truly deserves all the awards she's getting for this book.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Full of beautiful stories. Short stories. I would have loved to read more about each and every single one of them, but, well... They would each need their own book, which is not a bad idea ?
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing read from start to finish. Most of the stories featured sounded so familiar, the tales of black woman. I will definitely recommend this to everyone I know.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I was not able to get into this book, it left a lot to be desired.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I'm lost on what this book was about. I never found a plot. I love the narrator's voice. But I don't get what this book was about. The title didn't really help.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Interesting. There's a huge gap in time from chapters 1-7 and 8-9. The ending was just that, the end. No lead into it was ending.
I was also expecting more stories of church ladies. Not just one.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clutching my pearls throughout this book. The 1st story was clearly Eula deluding herself about the the relationship she had with Caroletta. That last remark at the end of the story made me blush. Not Daniel was a lesson in guilt trips. Dear Sister reminded me of a song lyric “Papa was a rolling stone, wherever he laid his hat was is home….”. Peach Cobbler was tragically sad and a situation I have seen in real life. I didn’t get Snowfall. How to Make Love to a Physicist was a lesson on how to shoot your self in the foot. Zael was the most disturbing- really
Scary young chick. The Baker made me wonder if this was the girl from Peach Cobbler. The way she lays down the law, truly demonstrates she has past trauma to be so cold. This is actually my favorite. Tony is the best listener reminded me of a book by Tamara Prosper called The Elders. All in all typical holy rollers.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow, what a ride! I was captivated from beginning to end.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book.it will make you laugh & cry. Read it two days
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Short-stories about black church-women depicting clashes between their faith, the church structures and the lives they lead.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book covered so much in such a short amount of time & gave dignity to the genre of trauma unique queer black girls. This was a much needed read & I will most certainly recommend it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5refreshing new stories and perspectives love the way it was written.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Each story captivated me so much! The emotions were so palpable and often relatable and many characters felt comfortingly familiar. I only wish it were longer because I was sad to say goodbye!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book. ! The audio was amazing !!! So happy Some women in my book club started reading it !! Wow. The stories was so good. & the woman reading made it seem as if I was watching it on tv ! Great job.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So good and funny but poignant and a quick read
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book so much listened to it all in a day. I think it’s great how religion and beliefs are questioned by sexuality and desire in the book! I would definitely recommend it, and well done to the audiobook narrator too.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tea was especially delectable. Didn’t want this audiobook to end.
Sequel,? - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Easy. Refreshing.My favourite is definitely Peach Cobbler. Beautiful writing! Don’t let the cover put you off, trust me!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing read . Love it so much thanks Scribd ❤️
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved it! Great storytelling. Fantastic narration. Humorous, incisive, and brilliant.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written, funny, and thought provoking. I commend the author and narrator. Great short stories of the lives of "church ladies."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved everything about this book, so real like the stories just come alive off the pages.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is Captivating! Every chapter pulled me in a different direction. Forced me to have conversations with myself about things I've experienced in similar situations. The author was able to reach multiple audiences in my opinion and that's difficult to do often without causing one to lose interest. Cant wait for the next one!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The secret lives of church ladies! Whew ? and boy there were some secrets ? . These ladies had stories to tell in such a short amount of time! Stories that kept me hanging, stories that made me curse, stories that made me laugh. These stories is the real life some people are scared to talk about and Deesha nailed it! I mean she killed it! The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a good time and you sure need to experience the good time!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wow!!! This book was "juicy" from the beginning to the end!! I enjoyed this book to the fullest. Went in not knowing what to expect.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved every story told!! The narration kept me interested.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved these stories, I will be read this again!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great narration! I loved every story. It was easy to follow and kept me hooked. Listened to this audiobook in 3 short days. Couldn’t put it down!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a delight these stories were! I LOVED all of them. Every single one. Such lovely slice of life tales of black women - of all ages and backgrounds. So real and raw.
The narrator of the audiobook is stellar- and I would 100% recommend listening to the audiobook. I’m also going buy a physical copy and re-read all these stories over time. Yes, that’s how much I loved them!