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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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Summary: A banquet for the soul!
Review: Excellent! Fans of Sue Monk Kidd will not be disappointed in this, her first novel. It is a rich, flavorful, and totally satisfying banquet for the soul. I want to tell everyone I know to stop what they are doing and read this book; put it ahead of everything else they are doing. This book speaks to many levels of your being.
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Summary: the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Review: This is the best novel I've read in a long, long time!! I LOVE it! I want all my friends and family to read this book. Kidd's writing flows; her easy style is deceptive, like still quiet water hiding great depth. Treat yourself to enjoyment and read this wonderful book!
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Summary: Parallel Universes of "Bees" and "Geography of Women"
Review: I marvel at this coming-of-age genre that is such a fertile crescent to so many writers with a southern bent. Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes" seems to have revivified a line of story-telling that comes out of Carson McCullers' "Member of the Wedding" and travels into territory that Hollywood eventually loves to film. Sue Monk Kidd taps the genre with aplomb and grace of character and style. The book has "voice" as warm and engaging as another novel in this specific genre, "The Geography of Women," of which Kidd reminded me considerably in the two novels' fast plots, their young white teenage heroines (Lily and Laydia) involved with women of color (Rosaleen and Jessarose) and living with alternative families (May, June, and August in "Bees" and Lulabelle Harms in "Geography"). One day a TV network will be screening all these coming-of-age tales back to back. Until then, the written word will more than do--particularly with a talent such as Kidd exhibits. Great entertainment. Continues the genre beautifully.
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Summary: Outstanding Debut!
Review: This is an outstanding debut by Sue Monk Kidd. The charectors live on long after the book is closed. A must read!
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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: Fabulous book; heartwarming and thought provoking
Review: I absoluty loved this story. I thought the main character Lily was precocious and endearing.I felt her pain while living with her abusive father T.Ray. The only bright light at home is her "housekeeper", Rosealeen. She is an African American woman doing her best to take care of Lily and soften the blow of her father's wrath. The book includes the mystery of Lily's mother's death whioch leads her on a wonderful journey. A series of events that includes Rosealeen spitting tocacco on a white man's shoes causes the pair to run away to a different town where they meet three remarkable African American women who change both their lives. May, August, and June are the women. These women raise bees and make honey. This sounds dull but it turns into an adventure for Lily. They all struggle together to find theri own identities. The process allows them to learn things about themselves and each other that are remarkable and life changing. I read a review by a customer who said that this book was not beleivable. There are certain events that take place that are emotional and seem preventable. I am sure that the writer of this book did her research. She grew up during the time of sixties racial strife. I certainly think she has a good grasp of life in the south during this time. This holds true particularly where she describes the struggles between African Americans and whites. I am sure that even then there were strong African American women who broke the rules all the time regardless of the consquences. Their actions may have seemed stupid or just plain dangerous. I call it courageous. It sure started the change towards a better life and rights for the African American. Every change starts with one small voice and/or action.
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