Since her Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood became a publishing phenomenon that shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 68 weeks, Rebecca Wells has become one of the most beloved contemporary writers. Her ability to show that joy and pain, humor and pathos are inextricably linked has drawn readers worldwide to her stories that break their hearts and then heal them again. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny, and heartbreaking journey of Calla’s life set against the Louisiana that Wells knows so intimately. Born in La Luna, Louisiana, a small river town on Wells’s fictional landscape, Calla Lily bursts into life, a force of nature, all luminous and inspiring like the flower she was named for. Bathed in the loving light of the Moon Lady, the protective feminine force that guides Calla throughout the book, Calla is also blessed by an earthly mother, the town’s beautician, who encourages her daughter to sing and dance in the magic of a