Rating: 
Summary: Strong Women, Weak Plot
Review: What holds this novel up is the Southern Black women that the narrator, Lily, encounters during her travels to find the truth about her dead mother. Because of "Tiburon" scribbled on the back of a black Madonna picture, Lily and her black housekeeper set off for this unknown town after some trouble with the law. They finally encounter the "summer sisters", and eventually Lily learns about her mother and past. If it weren't for these strong older women that Lily mets, everything would crumble: Lily, her plans, and the novel itself. I would have been more intrigued and given this a five star rating if we learned more about August, May, and June.The setting and time make this novel workable: 1964 in the Atlantic south in the midst of the Civil Rights Era.
Rating: 
Summary: Sappy and Full of Cliche's
Review: I simply cannot understand what anyone likes about this book. It reads like an after-school special and is so loaded with cliches that you'd think the author invented the "write by numbers" method. African Americans should be particularly nauseated by the stereotypes resurrected here. All the black women are named something goofy like Queenie or Sugar Mama. They all wear outrageously colorful clothes and big hats with feathers and fruit on them. Big surprise here...the white girl falls for the black boy.. which, gasp!, causes racial tension on the town. LIke all good southern dramas, someone is a little mentally off, but never violent or annoying to rest of the family. Of course, she comes to a tragic end. Who would have guessed??? In the end, everything tidies up neatly with marriages, father-daughter reconcilation and love, love, love all around. There wasn't an orignial though in the book. Very disappointing. I was going to give it one star, but I did learn a bit about bees which was interesting, so I threw in the extra star for educational value.
Rating: 
Summary: Book for the Whole Family
Review: Perhaps not as much of a page-turner as "The Da Vinci Code" and not as flowery as "Middlesex," but a finely written book that the whole family can feel comfortable reading. Like "My Fractured Life," Sue Monk Kidd shows off a journalist's attention to detail with her descriptions and a soft touch for the pains of adolescents like in "Life of Pi." Not the fiery race on the edge of "My Fractured Life" or "Vernon God Little," but a lovely walk in the park or canoe down the river that left me totally at ease and at peace.
Rating:
Summary: You Can Judge This Book by Its Cover
Review: As an African American woman who grew up in a segregated, rural community I had my doubts about "The Secret Life of Bees" thus I just read it, though it was released several years ago. I was pleasantly surprised by the way Sue Monk Kidd handled both the characters and the topic. There is no predictability in "The Secret Life of Bees." This is a unique picture of an eclectic group of people living in an unusual time of flux and change in America. Just as there is a beautifully realized, sumptuous painting on the cover of the book, there is a simularly lush story contained within the covers. Americans, Black, White, Red, Yellow or Tan are individuals first and we don't require cookie-cutter treatment in works of fiction. I was drawn into the curious world of the Boatwright sisters and like the main character Lily, I didn't want to leave. I am a specialist in alternative beliefs, woman's spirituality, African traditional beliefs and African diasporic folklore. While for the most part I was completely unfamiliar with the rites, rituals, ceremonies and observances portrayed in "The Secret Life of Bees," I applaud Sue Monk Kidd for using her creative gift to make it all plausible. Africans all across the diaspora have creatively blended beliefs from organized religion, be it Islamic, Catholic, Protestant or even Jewish faith into what was retained from their villages in Africa. I found the curious blend of Gnostic Catholicism and Gullah traditions to be as creative and innovative as I know my people have been, all across the globe, throughout history. Another enjoyable feature of "The Secret Life of Bees" is that it is a book that works well as family reading. I have heartily recommended "The Secret Life of Bees" to my children, their friends and my husband--there aren't many books that I would feel comfortable recommending in this way. Sue Monk Kidd is a surprising, creative, gifted writer who brings life in the South, during the 60s into our collective consciousness, regardless of where we currently reside. I look forward to the film version of the book--it is so richly textured and sensual that it screams--film!
Rating:
Summary: The Secret Life of Bees
Review: This was a very good book. I read it a month or 2 ago and I already want to read it again!
Well, the story is about Lily Owens. She's a 14-year-old white girl living in South Carolina in 1964 with her abusive father, T-Ray. Her mother died when she was four and since Rosaleen, a black woman who's worked on Lily's father's peach farm for years, has been like a mother to her. One day Lily and Rosaleen walk to town so Rosaleen can register to vote. After three of the town's biggest racists insult Rosaleen, she spits on their shoes and ends up in jail, beaten and bruised. Lily decides to rescue her and they run away to Tiburon, SC. "Why Tiburon?" you ask. She found the name of the town on the back of a picture of the Virgin Mary her mother left her. Lily see's the same picture on a jar of honey in a store in Tiburon and goes to the place the honey comes from. It turns out to be the home of August, May and June Boatwright, three middle-aged black sisters who think honey can cure anything. The "Calendar sisters" put Lily and Rosaleen to work in their honey house where she meets Zach, a young, handsome black boy also working for the sisters.
Will Lily's father find them? Or will she stay with the sisters? Will she fall madly in love with Zach? You'll have to read the book to find out!
Rating: 
Summary: Well written but odd plot points distracted from main story
Review: I picked this book up on my wife's recommendation and I was able to see from the beginning what she liked about the book. Ms. Kidd's writing style draws you into the story immediately. Her strong and authentic voice for a young white girl in the south strikes a true chord and allows the reader to truly project themselves into the story. This despite the fact that I found the story to be lacking in suspense or drama. The portions of the story that did have dramatic elements were strong enough but very brief and not terribly essential to the story other than to make the main character take up an otherwise unlikely journey. I also felt that the symbolism of the bees was overplayed a bit. So while I was able to enjoy the book and greatly enjoyed the writing style, I believe the story should have been stronger. Some of the ritualistic aspects of the Black Madonna sisters seemed unlikely and frankly jarring to my suspension of disbelief. My recommendation is this book is a pleasant read but not a must read. If you go into the story with that understanding you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely overrated
Review: I gave this book two stars because it started out well and Sue Monk Kidd is a very good writer. However, while she has a way with words, she doesn't seem to know what to do to sustain a story. This book would have done well as a short story, or a 95 page novells--which would have spared Kidd the burden of having to develop her characters or develop a solid plot line. Basically, this is a silly little book, chock full of stereotypes, tired metaphors, pop-psych words of wisdom, and so saturated in honey sweetness that you're ready to barf. If the middle of the book hasn't put you to sleep, that is. If you're into finding the "mother within" then you might like this book. If you want to enter a world where all black people are wise, wonderful, and stereotyped beyond comprehension, then this is your book. It is interesting how weak, nasty, and non-descript all of the white characters are. The main problem with this book is that it went nowhere. The beginning started out well, and then faded into a "we did this, and then we went here, and we got a ride, and we found the house, etc." There was no plot tension, no twists, no conflict, nothing. The middle of the book is this huge vat of plodding descriptions, metaphors about bees, honey, and mothers, along with a unique form of Catholicism, and just filler, really. The ending is really silly, and Kidd's version of racism in 1960s small town South is pure fantasy (like a white girl and black boy riding around together and no one bats an eye.) I can't believe the press this book got, and how some are already saying its a classic, great southern literature, and so on. Please. This book is severely overhyped.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: The Secret Life of Bees is one of those heart warming stories that gives us hope for a better future. Sue Monk Kidd weaves just enough pathos and humor to keep it real. I highly recommend this book for your reading pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Great Tale For Women of Any Age
Review: Have you ever had the need to share something with maybe a close friend or perhaps someone you love The Secret Life of Bees is one of those things. It has many perspectives and ideas that you truly think you understand after reading this book.
It's a heartfelt yea gritty story about about a a young girl named, Lily owens who grew up as a motherless child, due to a fatal accident Lily made when she was young, now she is growing up with her hard father T. Ray, which she calls him because in her own words calling him Daddy never felt right. THe only real female she has to look toward is, Rosaleen her housekeeper who often kept Lily and her father in order. Lily realizes what she is a motherless, mysterious unpopular girl, who is also confused about where she stand on the race factor being a maloto person.But sees her life as something hidden as the secret lives of bees. This is very much so a heartfelt novel, about finding your trueself, and realizing how to let go, and realize the truth. Many analogies are used in this book such as the references to the hidden bees in Lily's room. It shows you how powerful your memories can truly be to you, can how important it is to seek the truth and move on once you find what it is that you saught. This novel will move and touch you in such ways that you never thought words could it will move mountains in your heart and blow winds across your soul. It will also make you realize the truth and sometimes mysteries of everyone's life. Which makes you appreciate your own so much more. It is all you could look for in a book love, heart, soul, and finding. You should go read this book to cure the common cold your heart gets sometimes.
Rating:
Summary: Honey without the bee sting
Review: Anyone who appreciates good reading will like this book. It's miles ahead of every other book on the market at this time, with the exception of one or two others. There's actually poetry in this well-crafted tale, though it does have its implausible moments. Told through the eyes of a child narrator-a popular device; think Huck Finn, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird-we are taken into the world of Tiburon, South Carolina by a sweet, somewhat precocious, good-natured girl named Lily. Taken by the hand is a more accurate description as the narrator slowly brings us into her secret world of bees, black women, abusive fathers, and first sexual awakenings. At times I felt as though I was Boo Radley, just discovered behind the bedroom door, with Scout leading me out into the room to pet Jem. The effect was similar in the way Kidd gently takes us by the hand. And her book is no less magical, but a modern day Mockingbird it is not. Rather, it stands on its own; with its own style, pacing, and characters. There were some elements to the story that bothered me. In particular, the actions of blacks to whites during the civil rights era. True, there were times when blacks stood up to whites, but it was almost always in large groups or when there was some hope of coming out alive. The scene where Rosaleen dumps spittle on the shoes of several of the town's most racist white men, on a half-deserted street, in the middle of the day, simply wouldn't have happened. Not black person in their right mind would have done anything remotely resembling this. The other troubling element of the story includes a black woman who plays the cello-one of the Boatwright sisters. While African-American classical musicians do exist, even by today's standards they are rare. In the sixties, in the South, they were non-existent. The cello seems to have no real significance in this story, and Kidd could have easily substituted the piano as the instrument of choice and been better off. It's obvious she was trying to stretch our imaginations with her portrayal of the three black sisters that take in Lily and Rosaleen, but by doing so she stripped away the "color" (pardon) that would have made them truly wonderful. In her attempt to avoid stereotyping blacks, she went to the point of making them almost virtually transparent. And what a shame this was. African-Americans, both then and now, have always had wonderful attributes that made them stand out. How much more interesting it would have been for Kidd to show us what the world of three genuine black women was like instead of this sanitized, politically correct one. Overall the writing in Bees is excellent and my misgivings about the directions the author chose to take are simply my own opinions. Decide for yourself. Of all the books on the bestseller list now, this is one of the few that deserves to be there.
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