Rating: 
Summary: A classic case of too much adding up to too little.
Review: Actually, I liked the book but found it incredibly disappointing. The problem is this isn't a novel-it's three novels tied together by too tenuous a thread crammed into much too confined a space.There is the story of Eliza, tabbed as "slow" by the school system, who one day achieves well beyond expectations and sets in motion a wholesale recalculation of who she is and what she's capable of on everyone's part. This is the first story line, the one Goldberg tries unsuccessfully to use as the glue to hold the entire novel together. This concept has brilliant possibilities but gets too bogged down in major doses of Jewish mysticism along the way that detract mightily from the core idea. The second story line surrounds Eliza's brother's descent into Krishna. Again, there are strong moments here as well but the story line is too fragmented and overwhelmed by other detail to hold together convincingly. Then there is Eliza's mother's descent into psychosis through kleptomania, again, an interesting story that never really gets told though there are snippets that illustrate what the possibilities were. In the end one can't help but feel somewhat attached to Eliza in a sort of amorphous way. One is left to wonder just how terrific this story could have been if Goldberg had concentrated enough on her story to have revealed her as a fully developed character.
Rating: 
Summary: A really good story, and really good writing
Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. Goldberg writes beautifully and the story is woven together like a rich, colorful tapestry. "Bee Season" is the story of a family that disintegrates as each member seeks individual spiritual enlightenment. The Naumann family is based on a tissue of lies and misconceptions, but manages to maintain a precarious balance until the "average" daughter upsets the equilibrium by unexpectedly winning a spelling bee. Although the daughter, Eliza, is the catalyst that sets drastic changes in motion, they are really the result of the complete self absorption and lack of awareness exhibited by her father Saul. He is a man with a mission, and his single-minded efforts to find divine connection blind him to the chaos all around him. He somehow fails to notice that his wife Miriam is mentally ill and his son Aaron is a total misfit falling under the influence of a cult. He also seems to have conveniently forgotten that Jewish mysticism is serious business. He irresponsibly introduces it to a child--despite long-standing prohibitions against its exploration by any other than mentally stable, educated adults. Saul is completely clueless about the forces in motion in his own household. As disaster follows disaster, he clings to the belief that Eliza will win the national spelling championship, and this will be a sign from God that he is on the right path. Eliza chooses to make sure that her father cannot continue to hide from the truth. If he can ever figure out what happened, he might indeed achieve enlightenment.
Rating: 
Summary: Painful but Captivating
Review: I read this book because my book club selected it. It's not something I would ordinarily have picked up, but I'm glad I read it. I can't say that I "liked" this book, because the subject matter was extremely painful and at times disturbing, but I found the book to be captivating and extremely thought-provoking. The book is definitely worth reading and is filled with topics for discussion. While the characters in this book represent extremes of behavior (how many children secretly become Hare Krishna?), familiar themes and issues are present for everyone to relate to. Who has not at times disappointed their parents' expectations? Who has not at times felt that no one around them understood who they were or what they needed? The book gets off to a bit of a slow start, but you eventually become engrossed in the characters and invested in their lives. My favorite part was the theme of nature v. nurture -- are you smart because you're smart or because people around you decide that you have talent? If Eliza had not won the school spelling bee, she might have lived the rest of her life in obscurity. Instead, she suddenly was tagged as a "smart kid" and given special treatment. If you are a member of a book club, this would be a great selection.
Rating:
Summary: Bee Season
Review: I received this book for Christmas, and found it to be entertaining, and a quick read. Having participated in the National Spelling Bee several times, I was interested to see how the bee was portrayed in this novel, and found that the author did a pretty good job.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! What a great book!
Review: This is the story of a truly disfunctional family. Eliza, the daughter, is a normal, above average student,who is not a rocket scientist. She feels very below average, because she has a very bright (but totally socially maladjusted) brother, and intellectual parents. One day, Eliza learns that she has a gift for spelling. Her indifferent father Saul suddenly switches his limited affections from the brother to Eliza. He really isn't affectionate, he just wants to spend his time making her the nation's best speller. Her despondent brother finds refuge with the Hare Krishna. Eliza's mother, a truly wierd person who sorts clothes with her feet while she files her nails, is the most unsympathetic character I have ever met in a novel and doesn't seem at all comfortable with either of her children. The book comes to a very unexepected climax. I finished this book hoping that Eliza and her brother can lead happier lives than their parents and having faith that they will.
Rating:
Summary: Tries too hard to be Offbeat
Review: I expected this book to be a saga of family values in modern times. However, it became like so many modern novels today where the characters are so over-the-top that it is no longer believable. I guess the point was that a seemingly normal family has all sorts of secret lives. Frankly, I would have preferred a story that was slightly more subtle.
Rating:
Summary: Sucked me right in
Review: I had picked up this book in the bookstore several times, but never quite convinced myself that I wanted to read it. When I finally got it, I wished I'd read it sooner. The story is very twisty, especially the latter half. I read it very quickly, but I was just a little disappointed with the ending. All in all, it was a good read.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read since... a long time. But I'm weird.
Review: Personally, I thought this book was breathtaking, fabulous, everything the publishers would want me to say it was. The characters are intricate and beautiful, as well as human. However, it's not a book for everybody. For those of you who read to escape from complications and darkness, or for those of you who simply want something straightforward, this probably isn't going to be your favorite book. It's not dark, but the ways in which you may identify with the characters could bring you to the realization that there are parts of you you'd rather not explore. The plot line may seem unbelievably strange to some readers, but I didn't see it that way- there are more things than we could ever imagine out there, are there not? If you don't want a book that stretches your mind in strange directions, that's OK. If you do, read this! It's beautiful, completely beautiful!
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, yet strange novel
Review: Bee Season is a very bizarre novel abouta disfunctional Jewish family. It consists of a mix of characters, all very different, with only one thing in common- they are members of the Naumann family.
The Mother of the family, Miriam Nauman says she is a lawyer, yet a thief during the daytime. She steals things from stores all for some psychopathic dream to create a "perfectimundo" all of perfect objects. While doing this, she leads what seems to be the life of any normal mother to outsiders and her family, and has a strange sex life with her husbad, Saul.
Saul is a cantor at synagogue, and strives to teach his son, Aaron of the Jewish faith. The two study together and Aaron seems to be Eliza, Saul and Miriam's daughter.
Eliza is a one of the more normal characters in the book
and not the brightest in school. Yet, she wins the school spelling bee continues until her father realizes she may be a little bit brighter than he thought and taught her about letters from a sacred Jewish Book.
Aaron, while being the favorite at hime, and a bit of a "dork" in school, decides that being a rabbi is not what he wants, so he finds piece of mind in a religion introduced to him by a man named Chali and secretly visits a temple while not with his father.
The book made for an interesting read, but would not be a book everone would like. But, if you are going to read this, try not to stop, because it gets much better towards the end.
Rating:
Summary: Three and a half stars
Review: Myla Goldberg's "Bee Season" begins with the perspective of a girl, Eliza Naumann, previously deemed ungifted, who surprises herself and those around her with her knack for competitive spelling. Gradually however, the novel becomes a portrait of the girl's entire family and their private feelings of inadequacy and displacement from society. Her older brother is experiencing a crisis of religious faith, her mother is teetering on mental instability, and her father is oblivious to how unglued his family is becoming. *** Goldberg is a sensitive and eloquent writer. She gives compassionate consideration to all her characters. Her most poignant and accessible portrait, however, is really of Eliza. The power she gains from consonants and vowels becomes a sacred and spiritual journey and a race to save her family from disintegrating.
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