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Summary: The Secret Life of Bees
Review: Excellent read--Oprahesk. Old south plain folk charm with a base in the reality of racism. This fine story made me laugh out loud and weep. It is a story you want all your women friends to read to feel the warmth of shared motherhood--whether you've been a mother or not is unimportant. I am also a beekeeper. The love and art of beekeeping are true--Sue Monk Kidd knows bees, and people and the heart.
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Summary: Deserves MORE Stars
Review: This book was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I only write reviews about books I feel very strongly about. This one captures you from the first chapter and draws you in deeper and deeper as you read. You can empathize with all the characters, even those you don't like. The Secret Life of Bees could be an Oprah book, except that it is too wonderful! The vivid descriptions, characters with depth - this book has it all!! I only hope that Sue Monk Kidd will come out with a sequel, as I feel there is more of the story to tell.
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Summary: Honey anyone???
Review: I work in a book store, and this is my pick of the year!!! I am giving it to all my oldest & dearest friends this year for their birthdays, with a jar of honey, of course. This book is original, soulful and beautifully written. It captured my heart, and I could not put it down. This book read true-to-life. It told the story of a girl coming of age, who inspite of her torment, was big enough to admit and recognize her own imperfections, which made you love her character more. It also told of unconditional love, the kind that makes you want to be a better person.
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Summary: SOUTHERN WRITING AT ITS BEST
Review: This novel is a real page turner. I read a lot and I found this book to be the best I have read this month. The author brings us right into the story and made me feel as if I knew these lovable characters. A very thoughtful forgiving story. Makes us realize that a family is not always the one you are born into. Hope Sue Monk Kidd writes many more novels.....I will read all of them
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Summary: An amazing allegory.
Review: Even though occasionally I found the metaphor and symbolism a bit heavy-handed, almost overwhelming, this is a unique and lovely book. Readers who appreciate the richness and power of figurative language will enjoy this lyrical story from a gifted new writer.
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Summary: Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Lives of Bees"
Review: I bought this book because of a review I read and because I like Sue Monk Kidd, but it surpassed my expectations. She did such a great job of describing Lily Owens, her father, the desire for love from a mother who may have left her and how she found love in the most unusual way. Ms. Kidd touched so many aspects of hidden feelings in the various people. To use black people honoring Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also a real twist. I loved it and could hardly put the book down and have recommended it for my local book club to read.
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Summary: Not a secret any more
Review: It has been a long time since I have found myself making time to filnish a book. Sue Monk Kidd is to be congratulated on her ability to put the reader in the thick of the action. This was a spellbinding novel with wonderful discriptors that drew you in right with the opening paragraph. I only hope we can look forward to many more such beautiful pieces from a very gifted author.
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Summary: "Bee" Sure To Read This Book
Review: Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, is a lovely story. Lily, a fourteen year old girl growing up in South Carolina in the sixties, escapes the abuse of her father and ends up living with the Boatwright sisters. The story of beekeeping and how it relates to our lives is fascinating. Lily is searching for her mother's past, a mother who was shot and killed when Lily was only four years old. August Boatwright offers Lily a place to be safe. August's sisters, May and June, provide an interesting background to the story along with Lily's fugitive housekeeper, Rosaleen. I thoroughly enjoyed the southern side to this story, a behind the scenes look at what might have happened when the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964. This book is appropriate for all ages of women, from teen-agers on up. It teaches us so many lessons about race, religion, and the strength we all have within us but may not recognize without some guidance. A side note - the cover of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is exquisite. I would love to have a poster of this cover on a wall in my home.
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Summary: Absolutely charming, this will enchant you and transport you
Review: Fleeing an unloving home, Lily is headed to Tiburon, S.C., drawn by the image of a black Virgin Mary found among her late mother's belongings. With her is Rosaleen, the black housekeeper who has provided what love and stability has been unavailable from her abusive father T.Ray. Rosaleen is fleeing an arrest and beating which occur on the dawn of the signing of the Civil Rights Act. An unlikely jailbreak orchestrated by Lily send these two on a road trip to Tiburon, searching for some kind of home and the healing of a deeply wounded heart.
The two make it to Tiburon and find a safe haven with the Calander sisters, August, June, and May Boatwright, middle-aged black sisters who ironically own and operate Black Madonna Honey. They offer Lily and Rosaleen work and a place to stay and to sort out all the turmoil in their lives. Lily is plagued with images of her long dead mother, the flashes of her last day of life and her part in her mother's death, as well as trying to find a loveable part of herself. The sisters are not completely in agreement about giving refuge to a 14 year old white runaway (Lily tells them she is an orphan on her way to stay with an aunt). As Lily assumes responsibilities on the honey farm she also begins to seek and find the part in herself that she feared she did not have, that made her unloveable, she seeks the "mother" that is inside. Sadly, life continues to bring the cycle of loss and renewal, and a great loss forces Lily to look at the inequality in the differences between the treatment of blacks and whites. She also confronts the father she fled and the loss of her mother and her part in that day. And in that healing time August;the queen bee,who has provided Lily with safe refuge all these months and has not forced her to disclose her secrets, reveals the circle that brought Lily to Tiburon, as it brought another lost young woman years ago. A tale of love and forgiveness and redemption and renewal. We truly do find our homes with the people we love , not always the people we were first born to. This is a first time novel that I could not put down. It has such a clarity of writing and heart tugging imagery that I was transfixed and found I was unwilling to see it come to an end. A real gem that joins the women beekeepers that have made a home in my heart...like the beekeeper in Fried Green Tomatoes.
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Summary: A Delicious Read!
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed the journey I took with Lily Owens. Lily is 14 the summer her world changes. She lost her mother at four in a terrible accident that she can't remember more than as a blur. Her father T Ray is a hard and manipulating man who shows no love for his daughter. Lily has been raised by Rosaleen, a black woman has been Lily's surrogate mother. Bees are a focal part of Lily's young life. She hears them in the walls at night and her father laughs at her but Lily knows they are there. One day in town Rosaleen insults 3 racists and Lily knows it is finally time to leave and go in search of the mother she lost so long ago. Her journey takes her to the town of Tiburon. A name her mother wrote on the back of a picture of a black madonna. There Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by 3 black sisters, May, June and August. The sisters are beekeepers. So begins the summer of Lily finding herself and what really happened to her mother. This is a wonderful story of life. About mothers and daughters and relationships with women who become our true mothers.
I really enjoyed this book. It brought back memories of the soul searching that is involved with the loss of one's mother. It takes time but with time peace can be found. I look forward to Sue Monk Kidd's next book of fiction.
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