Okay, hear me out. This is SO not the kind of book I normally read. It's the kind of book my mother reads. You know the type I'm talking about: "Reviving Ophelia", "Not Without My Daughter"...mother-y books. It was, in fact, my mother who demanded I read this book, because she read it in her book club. DOUBLE red flag. That is when I normally drop the book and run as fast as possible away from her, screaming and flailing my arms. But when she gave me this book I happened to have a lot of time on...

Ahhh! *gasp* *choke* *stammer* I can barely find the words to say how much I loved this book. Honestly, The Secret Life of Bees has to be one of the best books I've read in a while. I just want to give it several A+'s and a kiss!It was touching, well-written, beautiful, full of expression, insightful, anything you could want in a book and then some. It started off with a bang, that wasn't a bang... it grabbed you, but didn't startle you so much that the rest of the book was dull in comparison. T...

Sue Monk Kidd - image from her FB pagesThe Secret Life of Bees is a lovely tale. It tells of Lily, a South Carolina 14 year old. She lives, unhappily, with her crusty father T. Ray and Rosaleen, the woman who raised her after her mother died when Lily was 4. It is a coming of age tale set against the civil rights issues of the early 60’s. It is certainly no coincidence that Lily (as in white) spends most of the book in the company of earth-mother black people. Rosaleen attempts to register to vo...

Read it. Enjoyed it. Any day now I expect to be entirely swallowed up by my own home-grown vagina. If you've read The Help, you don't need to read this. One contemporary coming of age book about a white southern girl amongst black women discovering life in 1960s is plenty. Sue Monk Kidd's explosively popular (I'm going to go out on a very sturdy limb and guess that this was an Oprah book) The Secret Life of Bees is a perfectly enjoyable read that any mother would love. Oh the imagery, the ambian...

“Every little thing wants to be loved.”Not sure what to say about this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I never had a desire to pick it up. I read it. It was fine. I won’t read it again.A big issue with “The Secret Life of Bees” is that it is emotionally manipulative. I do not mind that, but be good at manipulating me. This novel is excessively obvious about it.However, the text has moments of nice insight and thought. Some examples:“The problem is they know what matters, but they don’t choose it...

I hesitantly picked up this book based upon numerous recommendations; frankly, the back of the book blurb just didn't sound like my sort of thing. Historical coming of age drama type stuff is just not me. That said, however, Sue Monk Kidd completely made me change my tune. While this book isn't perfect, I was completely enchanted by the writing, the pacing, and the careful observation. As a Virginian well-versed in humid Southern summers and Southern cooking, I thought Kidd did a fantastic job o...

The Secret Life of Bees is a cliched soap opera, the sort of book that would provoke rave responses at book clubs composed of mostly bored housewifes. It's a pretty formulaic tale of a young, southern girl whose daddy abuses her, so she decides to run away with her black servant and find solace in an unlikely place.The story is a reversal of Huck Finn's tale, which results in a schmaltzy schlock. The novel is full of stereotypes - 99% of the white male figures are abusive bastards, the girl's fa...

I confess to being a little hesitant going into this book. It is, after all, that most cliched and irritating of literati faves: a coming-of-age story set in the American South. Lily, a motherless 14-year-old girl lives with her bigoted abusive father on a peach farm in South Carolina. Her goals involve befriending black people and finding information about her long-dead mother. Just summarizing this thing inspires the eye-rolling.But the book does have some saving graces. First, the writing is

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk KiddThe Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd. Published: November 8th 2001. The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl, Lily Melissa Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. She lives in a house with her abusive father, whom she refers to as T. Ray. They have a no-nonsense maid, Rosaleen, who acts as a surrogate mother for Lily. The book opens with Lily's discove...

This was a harmless, heart warming book that did not change my life or enrich my thinking in any large way - except perhaps that I am slightly less afraid of bees. One thing that is a slight pet peeve with me is the healing power apparently inherent in the culture of the 'other'. Here is the formula: 1 caucasian person, hurt and broken by the world they live in, be it by family, work or environment + 1 minority culture (black or asian is fine) = that one caucasian person finding the true wonders...

I surveyed my class and 80% gave it two thumbs up: 5 stars. That's 28 out of 35 students. The rest of the class gave it an OK: 3 or 4 stars. So my giving it 5 stars has been backed by research into the general public's taste. ;=) Now, I'm not much for spending time on fiction. I don't need entertainment, I need information. But as a story teller, occasional writing class instructor, I like to keep up with some of the new fiction. Bees is pretty good. I don't get a sense of the forced or trite he...

4+I have no idea why I didn’t read this years ago so it’s a case of better late than never. The year is 1964, the place is South Carolina and President Johnson has just granted the Civil Rights Act which ‘tears things open further’. Lily Owens mother Deborah died when she was four, her ‘onery’ father T. Ray blames her and the only real affection she gets is from their maid Rosaleen. After an incident when Rosaleen goes to try to register to vote, the pair have to leave town quickly and head for

This was such a sweet story not my usual type but nice nonetheless. I wasn’t fully invested in it sadly, I still enjoyed it but not enough to raise my rating to 4 stars. I wanted to review this book but weeks went by and I didn’t get the chance. However, upon reflection, I realised that I have nothing to say beyond the first 2 sentences.. it’s not a memorable book at all nor left an impression on me. It’s one of those that I’ll eventually only remember reading because of the title and the fact t...