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Summary: Motherless daughter reviews 'Secret LIfe of Bees'
Review: Author, Sue Monk Kidd goes inside the mind and depth of yearning a motherless adolescent girl feels. I know, I too lost my mother when I was a year older than Lily. I was 5 and the year was 1959. My mother died of lupus (SLE) not violently by my own hand as in this story. I used to imagine my mother...that she wasn't really gone.....what my life would have been like if I'd have had a mother like the rest of my friends and classmates did. I BECAME the mother I imagined. But to this day at 50 years of age, I still yearn for her and miss her. It IS like August says, "You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside."This is a beautiful constructed, intricately thought out and naturally told, a book you can and want to read quickly, then share with your good friends. You will grow in knowledge and understanding (emotional intelligence) in reading and being open to absorbing the lessons skillfully told in "The Secret Life of Bees". I highly recommend it, a very enjoyable read.
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Summary: Nice prose but 100% predictable
Review: Lily runs away from her ornery pa with her sassy black nanny and finds herself at a hot pink house where three sisters live. One sister is the master beekeeper; she is the oldest and the wisest. The next sister is a talented cellist but is inexplicably mean to Lily. She was jilted once when she was young, but she has had a devoted suitor following her around for years whom she obviously loves but keeps rejecting because she is proud. The last sister is a wonderful cook but somewhat simple-minded, and she feels the grief of others as if it were her own. Oh, and there's a teenage guy who comes by to help with the bees and who is black, handsome, and just about Lily's age. Pop quiz: What happens to each of these characters? If you honestly don't know, then go ahead and read this book; I'm sure you will find it life-affirming and touching and powerful and it will make you want to call your mother and tell her you love her. Fine. But if you've ever read an Oprah book or seen a made-for-TV movie or read a Hallmark card, you know exactly what will happen to each character two or three pages into meeting him or her. This book has some beautiful prose and it's a quick read, but really, I would have loved to have seen a drop of originality. Instead, I found myself rolling my eyes whenever yet another character succumbed to his or her totally predictable fate.
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Summary: Stung by the relationships of life
Review: The focus of The Secret Life of Bees was narrated around the culture of bees, more so than the relationship between woman young and seasoned, which was truly what this book was about. After the death of her mother her abusive father neglected Lily. The only salvation under his roof for Lily was her African American nanny named Rosaleen. Out of spite her father tells Lily the reason him and her mother were arguing on that fatal day her mother died; was because she was running away from her. That lie set the stage for The Secret Life of Bees. Amongst her mothers belongings Lily Owens clings to a picture of a black Madonna with the words "Tiburon South Carolina" across the back. In Lilys youthful mind she and Rosaleen will start their journey for answers about her mother and the nature of her death. The lessons Lily learn about race, class and relationships comforts and confuses her. Sue Monk Kidd had an excellent idea but the delivery and the theme she chooses to go with were weak. Missy
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Summary: Lovely writing, but somewhat UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Review: First. let me say that I am a little slow on the uptake!I KNEW it was a BESTSELLER, but just got around to reading it!! I was disappointed!!! The beautiful writing of the author just could NOT cut through my feeling of "this could NOT happen in the South in 1964!!" There is NOT a WAY IN H--- that a 14 year old girl would have been allowed to remain with Negro people (as they were known then) in SC in 1964! And not at the END!! From the time the town KNEW she was THERE!! It was a beautiful story!! And Ms. Kidd's writing is something I have not had the pleasure of reading for a long time!!! Her descriptions of the South in the summer made me very homesick!! Perhaps, this story will be read by future students as an "allegory", a story of symbolism, and a study of "the way it might have been". But as a child of the late 50's-early 60's in the racially-torn South, I found this truly hard to believe - no matter how much I WANTED to!! However, I must say, that because of Ms. Kidd's superb use of words, I can see this book being used in English classrooms much the same as A SEPARATE PEACE and CATCHER IN THE RYE!! A true coming-of-age story even if a bit "skewed"!
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Summary: Bzzzzzz...Excellent for Book Group with a Specialized Slant.
Review: There are some books I read once and then turn right around and read through again. "The Secret Life of Bees" is one of those books. Sue Monk Kidd writes with beauty, texture and with a voice the reader can climb into and receive a good sized dose of care and comfort. With messages on several different levels, the reader is treated to an excellent story, pages filled with characters you get to know and care about personally and deeper meaning within all of it which does not clunk the reader over the head like a frying pan: it sort of simmers and boils as the story unfolds. I fell in love with Lily Owens, the 14 year old protagonist in this story of South Carolina in the 60's. I found myself wishing I had been as strong as she was at her young age and at the same time, from her story being grateful for my story as I recognized the beauty of the fabric that all our lives are woven into as one. As a mother of an eleven-year-old daughter who is just starting to read "adult books", I can't wait for her schedule to be cleared enough so that she can really dig into this book so we can talk about it together: in fact, I am thinking it would be a great summer Mother-Daughter book club read. See how inspiring "The Secret Life of Bees" is? Even writing a review enlivens possibilities!
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Summary: Coming of Age in the 60s in the South
Review: This coming of age story by Sue Monk Kidd, is more than that. An well written book about a young girl's struggle to find redemption after a lifetime of abuse by a father who can't seem to forgive. Although white, Lily seems to fit right in with the other members of the black Boatwright family. Her quest to find her mother's past and learn about her own future is the point in this lovely book. Interspersed with the raising of bees for honey, there appear the struggles of the blacks in the 1960s and Lily's father a typical southern male adds to the mess with his warped mental attitude. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others who like coming of age or finding yourself type books.
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Summary: Absolutely Wonderful
Review: First of all, I wish I could give "The Secret Life of Bees" more than five stars, because it deserves a thousand. Sue Monk Kidd has created a profound novel about love, coming of age, and sisterhood. She's wonderful with words and sentence flow - no matter what she's writing about, you always want to keep turning the pages. The book takes place in the South during the Civil War. The narrator, Lily Owens, is a fourteen-year-old girl who lost her mother when she was young. She lives on a peach farm with her father, who mistreats her. Lily longs for motherly love, but all she has is Rosaleen, her black stand-in mother. When Lily and Rosaleen escape to Tiburon, a town that Lily knows is somehow connected to her mother, they are taken in by three black sisters, who will give them more than just love.
All the characters in this book are described so vividly that you'll miss them when you finish reading. The story unfolds beautifully, while still keeping you on the edge of your seat. It may not grab your attention from the bookshelf, but every female on this earth should read it. Bravo, Ms. Kidd!
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Summary: buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Review: could have had better chaceter delvp. But all in all, a good story. Not a page turner, She really let the rednecks off easy. and living in the south in the 60's, white folks would never have let that child stay with them and considering the climate when this was written, they would have had to keep her hidden to keep her there. So not super believible, but it was a decent feel good story.
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Summary: Oh to be a Daughter of Mary...
Review: I listened to the audiobook. The voice of the book is Lily Owen, a fourteen year old and the reader sounded like a teenager. I thought that was a nice touch for the audiobook. I read a portion of it and it does lose that southern drawl/young sound of the "voice." Rather than finding it hard to put the book down, I often spent several minutes in the parking lot or in my driveway, just trying to come to a place where I could stop the tape. It was a very enjoyable book with characters you would like to have as your friends. Set in the mid-60s, it incorporates world events (civil rights movement, the space program) into the lives of small town people. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, I can relate to many of the issues of racial tension and separation. I would love to have a sequel follow the characters lives further. Although, I enjoy imagining how their lives turn out myself. My only disappointment in the book is the rapid resolution of Lily's relationship with her father. I kept wondering how it would be resolved, and in the blink of an eye, the perhaps-a-bit-too-perfect solution was found. I didn't doubt the book would end as it did (well, I was a little bit worried), but the path seemed to be a shortcut. I can't believe it's 320 pages long. I only knew that at 6 audiotapes, it's a pretty short "read." Yet, the author is able to develop the characters and describe the place and time so well that you can actually taste the honey.
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Summary: Buzzes to a great pitch!
Review: This wonderful story set in the South during the sixties buzzes to a great pitch when fourteen-year-old Owen, fed up with her father's abuse and neglect, sets out to find answers to her mother's dark and poignant death. All she possesses is the image of a Black Madonna -- a gift from her mother. What transpires is a beautiful coming-of-age story that captures the reader's heart. I love this book. The characters are extraordinarily vivid -- timeless and alive -- especially the beekeeping sisters. Also, the backdrop of the South is insightful and exquisite. Southern fiction has scarcely been this good! This is a tale by a master storyteller, without the tiresome formula that accompanies most of today's popular fiction. I didn't want this book to end, and savored the final few pages. I consider myself quite fortunate to have discovered it, and will read everything else by this skilled author...
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