The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough by Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer group faces its toughest challenges yet. From white supremacy groups to interracial churches, lottery money to unplanned pregnancies, the group still manages to find time to get together and pray over all the hot issues in their lives. Heavy and serious topics are discussed making the reader feel like they are watching their evening news. Just be prepared to laugh, cry, get angry..just get ready to feel any emotion you have while reading this book.

I felt this book had the strongest message and dealt with the most serious issues discussed in the series so far. I really hate seeing the words of the Bible twisted and used to discriminate against others. How people can actually believe the lies told by these groups is beyond me. This was the first book in the series where I felt that everyone reacted realistically. With the group being so diverse, the race issue was bound to be brought up. It's also amazing how just by being Christians they were able to handle these issues in dignified manners. There is no one saying, "If you trust in God, then you shouldn't worry." While I believe that God will give you peace in stressful situations, it is not realistic to not worry in a time of crisis. Once again Jodi's reactions echo my own, although at one point she felt that she was being selfish for worrying about the safety of her own family instead of worrying about Noni and Mark. I felt that this is not a wrong feeling because your own family should always come first. I also liked seeing the churches come together, and the tension from each side being unwilling to unite is very apparent in society. You don't think about racism happening inside church because everyone is supposed to love each other no matter what. Once again this book really makes you think and pushes your beliefs and faith. With each Yada Yada book I feel more connected to the women and get drawn further and further into the story.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real by Neta Jackson

I have just finished this book tonight. It is the third one in a series. I think Yada Yada Gets Real was my favorite! As a matter of fact, I actually cried at the end.

The title and cover almost gives the impression that these novels are "fluff" and sort of....lighthearted? But, nothing could be further from the truth! I find Jackson really has done an excellent job of developing the characters and creating a life that seems real. In fact, I keep catching myself thinking these women really exist somewhere in Chicago! I want to meet them!

I have loved and enjoyed these novels and I am highly recommending them to my friends, however they had better not ask to borrow my copies of the books, because I don't want to give them up!!

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down by Neta Jackson

I opened THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP GETS DOWN eagerly since I had enjoyed the first book so thoroughly and wanted to see what Jackson would explore here. Sure I had some trepidations about this second novel since I am all too familiar with the sophomore slump that many authors experience. Looking at the cover I saw the new shot of dancing feet that was much like the delightful line of feet in brightly colored socks on the cover of the first book. This screamed to me that the books were being packaged together. I then had concerns that Jodi Baxter, the protagonist of this "package," would therefore wind up as a packaged person, whose quirks and flaws would become frozen in time.

I should have trusted more in Jackson's God-given talent and inspiration, because she has delivered a second novel that builds on the first and, in some ways, surpasses it.

As it opens, Jodi and her family are in the midst of a steamy city summer. Their home, or "two-flat," in downtown Chicago is about as far from the Gold Coast as you can get, and unlike many characters in Christian fiction who seem to be effortlessly upper-middle-class, the teaching couple struggles for money (Denny still doesn't know whether or not his contract for the upcoming year will come through) and participates actively in their local culture.

The members of Yada Yada, as fans will know, are an eclectic bunch both ethnically and sociologically, including an elegant South African faculty wife, a very young ex-con baker, a middle-aged Messianic Jewish bubbe, and a permanently indignant African-American salon owner. It's the latter's aging mother whose troubled past provokes a rift in the prayer group, and it is this rift that forces Jody and Denny to confront their present-day beliefs.

Those beliefs affect their daughter, their son, and Jodi's quiet Iowa parents, as well as the Yada Yada members, their families, and an unwelcome new acquaintance, Becky Wallace. But what makes this book work is not necessarily this brand-new action, but the interactions of Jodi and her sisters in Christ as they get to know one another for better and for worse. Jodi is not a perfectly cheerful cardboard Christian --- she doesn't always cook with love, she holds grudges, and she argues with her husband. Instead, she's a struggling, contemporary woman of faith whose life reflects her most cherished beliefs.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group

The Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson

The "Yada Yada Prayer Group" is a diverse group of women thrown together to pray during the Chicago Women's conference. But when one of the women's sons is shot while they are still at the conference, they band together to pray round the clock. When the conference comes to a close they discover that they don't want their prayer group to end. While at first they try to keep it going via email, they soon find it is worth the extra effort to meet in person.

The variety of worship & prayer styles represented in these women was a wonderful reminder not to judge those that worship differently than I do. And a wonderful encouragment to pray the Word more. There are no cardboard characters here. As in real life, each woman has strengths & weaknesses not always evident at first sight.