Secret Life of Bees

Rating:
Summary: Great book especially for women
Review: I would reccomend this book to everyone. I think teenage girls would get a lot of excellent life lessons from it as well as enjoying the read!
I love a great book!

Rating:
Summary: Deeply psychological, spiritual story
Review: The 14 year old protagonist is healed from her traumatic past by an intuitive leap that brings her to a nurturing mother figure, a feminized version of (far-fetched) Catholicism, honey, and the metaphor of beehive dynamics. Delicious diction and teenage romance add spice. The civil-rights coming-of-age-in-America backdrop may suggest healing at the macro-level as well. This is a book for any reader who needs to find and affirm her own mother within. If you shed some tears, you may well have started that journey. (See books by Kate Cohen-Posey)

Rating:
Summary: Be cautious
Review: This is an interesting, well-written book with finely-drawn characters. Ms Kidd portrays this troubled time in US history honestly. At times the book is beautiful, especially when it shows how women can be nurturing and protective of other women. One does get the sense though, that someone, either the author or perhaps Lily, sees all women as all-good and the majority of men as all-bad.
What concerns me is the current of "theology" humming through this book. It often times masquerades as Christianity, and more specifically Catholicism. But it is not Catholicism! It is some New Age cafeteria blend of Catholicism, nature worship, Gnosticism, female worship and narcissicism. If you are weak or vulnerable in your faith, or your faith is not grounded on sure knowledge, this book may lead you into error. This may sound overly melodramatic, but I don't believe in taking chances with one's salvation.
If you decide to read this book, keep in mind that even though Ms. Kidd got a lot of things right in this story, all contained therein is not truth. And sometimes error can be insidious, sliding in when we aren't even aware of it...an extreme example: do you think those of the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana knew they were in error?

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Dumb compared to my novel
Review: Hey who care about bees -- secret life or otherwise -- if I were you I'd purchase my novel about the most interesting person who ever lived -- MYSELF! Read MY FRACTURED LIFE, read MY FRACTURED LIFE, read MY FRACTURED LIFE

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: The Secret Life of Bees is what I definitely consider a Must Read book. It is on that level that is almost hypnotic to read, that kind of extraordinary experience that makes certain books not just enjoyable but somehow special to read. It is on the same level as The Time Traveler's Wife, My Fractured Life, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Middlesex, and Life of Pi.

Rating:
Summary: BitterSweet
Review: This book was very sad yet extremely moving. It was also a little bit happy, in a quirky kind of way. READ IT!!!!!!!!!!

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Summary: Fast, funny, endearing and memorable!
Review: It is simply a beautiful little book. Read it. It is one of our book clubs top 3 in over 36 total so far! My favorite.

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Summary: An exquisite coming-of-age tale for all women
Review: Sue Monk Kidd reveals extraordinary insight into a young woman's coming of age. In the process, she links her young protagonist's search for a mother figure to every person's search for something both divine and maternal. Ms. Kidd builds her compelling tale with lovely language that approaches the poetic without dripping in it.

"Secret Life" reaches deeply into something essential not only to women but hopefully to everyone--a search for nurturing and affirmation interwoven with a search for spirituality.

Every woman I've talked with has been deeply moved by "The Secret Life of Bees."

Rating:
Summary: A Great Critic's Pick
Review: Overall "The Secret Life of Bees" is a book that will find favor with avid readers of well crafted stories (to qualify this statement, I refer to "well crafted stories" to mean more commonly accepted "good books," critic's picks, and book club selections like "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", "The Amateur Marriage", "My Fractured Life", and "The Time Traveler's Wife.")

This is not a Hollywood, high concept shoot 'em up. It is quaint.

The civil rights era plot is right on target - interesting but not over blown. The accessible characters are easy to relate to and bond with. And, the dialogue is genuine and gratifying.

I for one am certainly glad when I come across a piece of just good writing (interesting plot, interesting characters, periods at the ends of sentences), and "The Secret Life of Bees" fits that criteria splendidly.

Rating:
Summary: Richly Rewarding
Review: Secret Life of Bees is a richly rewarding books appropriate for most any age. Setting it apart from pure fiction, Secret Life of Bees blends certain life lessons of self-reliance, racial equality, and empowerment. The writing is flowered with beauty and meaning. In pure enjoyment, it holds its place with any contemporary novel in any genre - from The Five People You Meet in Heaven to The Time Traveler's Wife to Life of Pi to My Fractured Life. It is a pleasurable and fanciful literary delight.