Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Penguin Books (2013), Edition: Reprint, 336 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolinaâ??a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to co… (more)
Media reviews
Lily is a wonderfully petulant and self-absorbed adolescent, and Kidd deftly portrays her sense of injustice as it expands to accommodate broader social evils. At the same time, the political aspects of Lily's growth never threaten to overwhelm the personal.
User reviews
LibraryThing member southernbooklady
I am often asked for books, not by title or author, but by subject. Do you have any stories about fishing? Can you recommend any novels about Afghanistan? Or, as happened last week- can you suggest something set in South Carolina? Questions like these make it interesting to be in the book business,
A kind of local bias makes me convinced that the Tarheel state has its southern neighbor beat when it comes to the quantity and the quality of writers. But when I was asked about novels from south of the border, I had just finished a great story by Charleston native Sue Monk Kidd.
The Secret Life of Bees is the story of young Lily Owens, who has lived nearly the whole of her fourteen years obsessed with the fragmented memory of the death of her mother. Her father is an angry and unloving. Her life is constrained to working on his peach farm and being shunned at school. The only kindness she has known has been from Rosaleen, the black woman her father took from the orchards to take care of her.
It is 1964 and the Civil Rights act has been passed, and Rosaleen goes to town to register to vote. But things go wrong almost at once- the resentment of some of the townsfolk turns violent and Rosaleen ends up in jail. Lily suddenly realizes that they have to escape, or they may both be killed by their various demons. She and Rosaleen break away from a mob of angry men and head towards the town of Tiburon, which Lily found written on the back of a picture in her mother’s things.
They have to hitchhike. They have no food and almost no money. But by the grace of God, they are taken in by three unusual sisters- black beekeepers named August, June and May. Lily calls them the calendar sisters, and their Black Madonna honey is in demand all over the country.
Lily learns many things that summer as she helps August with her bees. She learns how to lie and when to admit the truth. She falls in love, and learns how to let the impossible go. She learns about the secret workings of bee colonies and human families. And of course, she learns much more about her self than she is comfortable knowing.
The Secret Life of Bees is Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel, although the author is well known for her spiritual memoir The Dance of the Dissent Daughter. Readers familiar with that book will see the dissident daughter honored in Lily and each of the calendar sisters. And Kidd’s unusual vision of feminine spiritualilty is beautifully brought forth in the black Virgin Mary, who is more than just a symbol for August, May and June to sell honey. Lily’s voice is fresh and funny, full of unconscious one-liners without being too eccentric or cute. August is as wise as a grandmother, and Rosaleen is as constant as Lily’s real mother is absent.
It all makes for special story, sweet enough to be in real danger of being turned into a Hallmark movie. It is a story about girls and their mothers, the real definition of family, and the indomitable nature of love that crosses all lines- religion, race, even the past and (possibly) the future. By the time the summer is over, Lily and the reader are both initiates into the secret life of bees and the workings of the human heart.
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since as a rule I tend to see the world shelved alphabetically by author, not grouped into the odd interests that vary from person to person. But it is endearing to me that people are always certain that a book exists for whatever they wish to read about. I could at least answer that last person’s question- the one about South Carolina.A kind of local bias makes me convinced that the Tarheel state has its southern neighbor beat when it comes to the quantity and the quality of writers. But when I was asked about novels from south of the border, I had just finished a great story by Charleston native Sue Monk Kidd.
The Secret Life of Bees is the story of young Lily Owens, who has lived nearly the whole of her fourteen years obsessed with the fragmented memory of the death of her mother. Her father is an angry and unloving. Her life is constrained to working on his peach farm and being shunned at school. The only kindness she has known has been from Rosaleen, the black woman her father took from the orchards to take care of her.
It is 1964 and the Civil Rights act has been passed, and Rosaleen goes to town to register to vote. But things go wrong almost at once- the resentment of some of the townsfolk turns violent and Rosaleen ends up in jail. Lily suddenly realizes that they have to escape, or they may both be killed by their various demons. She and Rosaleen break away from a mob of angry men and head towards the town of Tiburon, which Lily found written on the back of a picture in her mother’s things.
They have to hitchhike. They have no food and almost no money. But by the grace of God, they are taken in by three unusual sisters- black beekeepers named August, June and May. Lily calls them the calendar sisters, and their Black Madonna honey is in demand all over the country.
Lily learns many things that summer as she helps August with her bees. She learns how to lie and when to admit the truth. She falls in love, and learns how to let the impossible go. She learns about the secret workings of bee colonies and human families. And of course, she learns much more about her self than she is comfortable knowing.
The Secret Life of Bees is Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel, although the author is well known for her spiritual memoir The Dance of the Dissent Daughter. Readers familiar with that book will see the dissident daughter honored in Lily and each of the calendar sisters. And Kidd’s unusual vision of feminine spiritualilty is beautifully brought forth in the black Virgin Mary, who is more than just a symbol for August, May and June to sell honey. Lily’s voice is fresh and funny, full of unconscious one-liners without being too eccentric or cute. August is as wise as a grandmother, and Rosaleen is as constant as Lily’s real mother is absent.
It all makes for special story, sweet enough to be in real danger of being turned into a Hallmark movie. It is a story about girls and their mothers, the real definition of family, and the indomitable nature of love that crosses all lines- religion, race, even the past and (possibly) the future. By the time the summer is over, Lily and the reader are both initiates into the secret life of bees and the workings of the human heart.
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LibraryThing member MorganGMac
An easy leisure read that has some good heart and a curious combination of race, honey, and the Virgin Mary. While the plot is your basic girl-with-a-messed-up-home-life-must-leave-home-and-be-confused-for-a-while-in-a-strange-place-until-she-finds-herself type story, the unconventional details
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enrich the story. The white girl, Lily, and her nanny, Rosaleen, are fatefully drawn to a house of black sisters who keep bees and an unorthodox, though oddly inspiring, devotional to the Virgin Mary. While I would certainly recommend Kidd's novel, the protagonist's final revelations were not so earth-shaking that I would give the book more than three stars. Good but not great. Creative but not astonishingly so. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
This is fairly well-written in a line-by-line sense but never engaged me. I kept making comparisons in my mind to similar books and found it wanting, and as pages passed this felt more and more contrived and implausible, too many questions piled up.
This is the first person story of Lily Owen, a
The initial incident is supposed to happen in a small town of 3,100 people and that's what caused me no end of questions. Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers had been assassinated the year before and Freedom Riders Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner just the month before. Rosaleen had said she was going to a black church to be registered--an event planned for that day. So, a black woman is arrested that day involving a racial incident. No one in the church, her friends, her family learns what happened and goes to help her? The police who arrested her don't pursue her after she escapes? A fourteen year old girl runs away with her. Okay, the novel paints her father as neglectful and uncaring. Still, no one does anything? No neighbors or extended family at all? Neither Rosaleen or Lily worry that with her already charged with assault that aiding and abetting a minor running from home won't bite her? The black sisters take them in even though they're unknown to them and the eldest senses Lily's story about why they're there is a flagrant lie? In 1964 South Carolina no one has objections to this white girl living with blacks? A black boy openly rides around in a car with a white girl and it doesn't cause any repercussions?
Then on top of all these implausibilities, wafted about like smoke, is all this mystical stuff about bees, feminist spirituality and the Black Madonna--all of it with a sentimentality more cloyingly sweet than honey. Truth is, there are plenty of coming of age stories with young first-person narrators set in the Jim Crow South dealing with racial relations such as To Kill a Mockingbird. This just isn't one of the stronger ones. And after reading plenty of books lately suffused with magical realism and feminist spirituality by authors such as Alice Hoffman and Joanne Harris... Well, what those authors have in common is prose that is itself magical. For me Kidd just doesn't make the cut. Mind you, I seem to be in the minority on this, and two of my favorite authors on Goodreads (Sharon Kay Penman and Jacqueline Carey) rated it highly. But no, this just didn't do it for me.
This is the first person story of Lily Owen, a
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fourteen-year-old white girl in 1964 South Carolina, just as the landmark Civil Rights bill has passed. Lily's black housekeeper and "stand-in mother" Rosaleen goes into town to register to vote. When three racist thugs hurl racial epithets at her, she taunts them with that fact, tells them she just stole fans from the church, and spits chewed tobacco over their shoes--inciting them to assault her and causing her arrest. (If this behavior is typical, it amazes me Rosaleen survived to reach adulthood. If it isn't, Kidd sure didn't do anything to indicate that or explain why Rosaleen acted that way.) Lily breaks her out and she and Rosaleen flee to a nearby town and are taken in by three black sister beekeepers. The initial incident is supposed to happen in a small town of 3,100 people and that's what caused me no end of questions. Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers had been assassinated the year before and Freedom Riders Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner just the month before. Rosaleen had said she was going to a black church to be registered--an event planned for that day. So, a black woman is arrested that day involving a racial incident. No one in the church, her friends, her family learns what happened and goes to help her? The police who arrested her don't pursue her after she escapes? A fourteen year old girl runs away with her. Okay, the novel paints her father as neglectful and uncaring. Still, no one does anything? No neighbors or extended family at all? Neither Rosaleen or Lily worry that with her already charged with assault that aiding and abetting a minor running from home won't bite her? The black sisters take them in even though they're unknown to them and the eldest senses Lily's story about why they're there is a flagrant lie? In 1964 South Carolina no one has objections to this white girl living with blacks? A black boy openly rides around in a car with a white girl and it doesn't cause any repercussions?
Then on top of all these implausibilities, wafted about like smoke, is all this mystical stuff about bees, feminist spirituality and the Black Madonna--all of it with a sentimentality more cloyingly sweet than honey. Truth is, there are plenty of coming of age stories with young first-person narrators set in the Jim Crow South dealing with racial relations such as To Kill a Mockingbird. This just isn't one of the stronger ones. And after reading plenty of books lately suffused with magical realism and feminist spirituality by authors such as Alice Hoffman and Joanne Harris... Well, what those authors have in common is prose that is itself magical. For me Kidd just doesn't make the cut. Mind you, I seem to be in the minority on this, and two of my favorite authors on Goodreads (Sharon Kay Penman and Jacqueline Carey) rated it highly. But no, this just didn't do it for me.
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LibraryThing member SimoneA
I am not one of the people who fell in love with this book. The story is nice and the writing style is pleasant, but the characters feel more like caricatures to me. There were bits of the story were I forgot about that though, and I enjoyed those. In the end, this is not a book I want to reread
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again, but I can see why many people like it. Show Less
LibraryThing member karieh
I know I am very late to the party when it comes to “The Secret Life of Bees”. It was at a second hand store, and was the best of what was available, so I picked it up. The words and images in this novel set in 1964 South Carolina in 1964 were very evocative…when Kidd describes the oppressive
There were sections when Lily reflects on the mother she’s lost and the father she never really had that touched my heart. This young girl’s voice comes through so strong and clear that sometimes I forgot the loss she’d experienced. And then I would read something like this.
“That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my other in paradise. I would meet her saying, “Mother, forgive. Please forgive,” and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years.”
Anyone who has ever been either a parent or a child (!) couldn’t help but be touched by the pain and loneliness behind those words.
Lily is a girl full of pain, hungering for the slightest bit of affection, and fueled by anger. And yet, I didn’t get a sense that she wanted anyone to pity her – she just wanted the smallest chance at a normal life, the tiniest sign that someone valued her as a person, could recognize the hurt she felt.
“Did this mean that if I told May about T. Ray’s mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing my mother – that hearing it, she would feel everything I did? I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?”
This book was an interesting mix of racial tension, Southern life, 1960’s politics and the mysteries of female relationships. With so many intertwining issues, it was difficult for me to focus on the underlying message, but I did take an image from here, a message from there. And sometimes I just enjoyed the writing.
“The first week at August’s was a consolation, a pure relief. The world will give you that once in a while, a brief time-out; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”
At other times, I found my cynicism rising – sometimes, (and I understand how ironic this will sound in a story of girl whose mother dies and whose father does not love her) sometimes the events unfolding struck me as “too good to be true”. Or more accurately, to coincidental to be believable.
In the end, though, this book has many lovely parts, many small windows into a world and time and life I will never know.
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heat – I can practically taste that hot, dusty air.There were sections when Lily reflects on the mother she’s lost and the father she never really had that touched my heart. This young girl’s voice comes through so strong and clear that sometimes I forgot the loss she’d experienced. And then I would read something like this.
“That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my other in paradise. I would meet her saying, “Mother, forgive. Please forgive,” and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years.”
Anyone who has ever been either a parent or a child (!) couldn’t help but be touched by the pain and loneliness behind those words.
Lily is a girl full of pain, hungering for the slightest bit of affection, and fueled by anger. And yet, I didn’t get a sense that she wanted anyone to pity her – she just wanted the smallest chance at a normal life, the tiniest sign that someone valued her as a person, could recognize the hurt she felt.
“Did this mean that if I told May about T. Ray’s mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing my mother – that hearing it, she would feel everything I did? I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?”
This book was an interesting mix of racial tension, Southern life, 1960’s politics and the mysteries of female relationships. With so many intertwining issues, it was difficult for me to focus on the underlying message, but I did take an image from here, a message from there. And sometimes I just enjoyed the writing.
“The first week at August’s was a consolation, a pure relief. The world will give you that once in a while, a brief time-out; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”
At other times, I found my cynicism rising – sometimes, (and I understand how ironic this will sound in a story of girl whose mother dies and whose father does not love her) sometimes the events unfolding struck me as “too good to be true”. Or more accurately, to coincidental to be believable.
In the end, though, this book has many lovely parts, many small windows into a world and time and life I will never know.
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LibraryThing member kellyoliva
I love the characters in this book. From the calendar sisters to Rosaleen to the Sisters of Mary, Sue Monk Kidd has created a delightful fantasy land (complete with a Pepto-Bismol pink house) that I found easy to visualize. Lily, the story's protagonist, rescues her nanny from jail and leads
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Rosaleen on a hunt for answers about Lily's past and a place where the two women belong. The characters in The Secret Life of Bees made a lasting impression on me, and I found this book to be full of spirit, kindness, and friendship. It is a refreshing read; very wholesome. Show Less
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
I really didn't remember very much about this novel from my previous reading. This time around I thought the story dealt very well with coming to accept reality. I kept trying to see how bees related to the events in the characters' lives. One thing I thought is that just like bees, what you see is
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just the surface - there's a lot underneath that you might never really understand. Another thing I liked about this novel was watching Lily come to terms with the facts of her mother and in the process finding other women who could stand in the place of her mother. There are interesting historical elements - particularly regarding race relations in the South during the early days of the Civil Rights movement. But I found them mostly interesting as a catalyst for Lily to start viewing the world from a less childlike perspective. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanaMBurnett
Not a big fan of this book. The story is good, but the pacing was just all off in my opinion.
LibraryThing member lildrafire
A wonderful descent into the Divine Feminine--more than just a plot and a bunch of characters...it will touch you. The adventures of Lily Owens--a young girl who escapes her abusive father to find love with a group of sisters.
LibraryThing member Bianca0_0
6 word review: Life: Not only black and white?
LibraryThing member kchapman2
this book was very sad but throughout the story as lily grows to know more about her mother she finds out more about herself as a person and who she wants to be. i found this story heart warming and i liked it alot. this story is about friendship love and hope although it may not seem like it at
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first, and thats what i like about it. from the very begining of the book you can get a feel of hee hardships its not a slow book at all in my opinion. Show Less
LibraryThing member citygirl
The indelible voice of young Lily Owens is both plainspoken and lyrical, with an unmistakeable Southern accent, putting one in mind of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Lily relates her story of aching motherlessness through the metaphor of beekeeping, which is
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not something you might expect to find fascinating, but the beauty of the bees and their gift to us is wound through and around the always-interesting characters. You have the regal August Boatwright, beekeeper extraordinaire and priestess of Mary, her tightly-wound cellist sister June, and her sweet and "touched" other sister, May. With these women Lily learns to seek the mother in herself and to appreciate the grace of feminine divinity. Nice story. Show Less
LibraryThing member porch_reader
Each month this year, I'm planning to re-read a favorite book, and this was my selection for May. I read this book with my book club about 14 years ago. I remember, even though that was before I was keeping lists, because I was pregnant with my first child. When we gathered for discussion, I was
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bess tells the story of Lily who lives with her father T. Ray after a tragedy takes her mother's life. Rosaleen, a black woman who worked for T. Ray in the peach orchards, has been brought to the house to take care of Lily, but Rosaleen and Lily get into some trouble when Rosaleen attempts to register to vote. They flee to Tiburon, SC in search of safety and some answers about Lily's mother. There they find three sisters, August, May, and June, who provide Lily and Rosaleen with much more than shelter. Lily learns the art of beekeeping from August and finds support when she needs it most. This is a story about the power of connections, even those connections that seem unlikely. Here's just one passage that let's us inside Lily's head:
"The whole time we worked, I marveled at how mixed up people got when it came to love. I myself, for instance. It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes out of every hour, Zach, who was an impossibility. That's what I told myself five hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."
This book carries in its pages the experience of the mid-1960s in the south, but the themes are universal. I love the strength that comes from these relationships and the ways that Lily uses that strength to find her own way through life's challenges.
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surrounded by women who were excited about the baby that was on the way and who were supporting me as I ventured into unfamiliar territory. In a way, I felt a lot like Lily Owens, the young heroine of this coming-of-age novel, when I first read this book. Perhaps that was why it was a favorite then, but it held up beautifully on the re-read as well. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bess tells the story of Lily who lives with her father T. Ray after a tragedy takes her mother's life. Rosaleen, a black woman who worked for T. Ray in the peach orchards, has been brought to the house to take care of Lily, but Rosaleen and Lily get into some trouble when Rosaleen attempts to register to vote. They flee to Tiburon, SC in search of safety and some answers about Lily's mother. There they find three sisters, August, May, and June, who provide Lily and Rosaleen with much more than shelter. Lily learns the art of beekeeping from August and finds support when she needs it most. This is a story about the power of connections, even those connections that seem unlikely. Here's just one passage that let's us inside Lily's head:
"The whole time we worked, I marveled at how mixed up people got when it came to love. I myself, for instance. It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes out of every hour, Zach, who was an impossibility. That's what I told myself five hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."
This book carries in its pages the experience of the mid-1960s in the south, but the themes are universal. I love the strength that comes from these relationships and the ways that Lily uses that strength to find her own way through life's challenges.
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LibraryThing member cat8864
Aside from a few moments of pleasent imagery, there was little about this book I enjoyed. I read it for English class in High school and can honestly say that I would never have touched it otherwise. The book has a sickly sweet tone to it that I found very hard to concentrate on. I will not be
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reading this or other books by Sue Monk Kidd again Show Less
LibraryThing member tandu
I liked it. A good coming of age yarn, similar to Tom Sawyer, but for girls and with a gnostic/mystic twist.
LibraryThing member walkonmyearth
At fourteen year old, Lily experienced the visitation of bees swarming through her room - they were an advent of a year that would change her life.
Jim Crow laws and physical violence against blacks became a personal reality for Lily in 1964. When Rosaleen was her family's housekeeper and as close
Lily defiantly and boldly, without a plan, freed Rosaleen from hospital/jail custody. With her storytelling abilities and the Black Madonna in her mind, Lily fled with Rosaleen toward Tiburon, South Carolina. Tiburon, only a name to Lily, was written on a piece of wood, with a black madonna picture on the reverse side. Lily had found the relic in her mother's few possessions and Lily believed it might fill in Lily's vague memory of her mother who had died tragically when Lily was four.
In Tiburon Lily found the 'Black Madonna'. Eventually Lily's fictions gave way to truths, most already known to the Calendar sisters, August (the Black Madonna), June and May. Though Lily may not have found the answer to her mother's death, in the haven August provided, Lily found acceptance, facts about her mother and her father, secrets of the bees, and her own truths.
A number of people had recommended 'The Secret Life of Bees' as I was working through some organizing frustrations. The timing was perfect, and the message reclaiming. I was reminded that I can't fix everything, and that, as Lily said about Zach, her jailed friend whose immediate future was uncertain:
"I'll write this all down for you...I'll put it in a story. "I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants - for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters." pg.185
Seek the truth, share each other's pain, celebrate the joys, do all you can, and recognize when to step back. Answers come from unexpected sources. Turn off the radio and listen to the bees. Sue Monk Kidd's writing carried me along seamlessly and totally entranced. sh 6/2009
Jim Crow laws and physical violence against blacks became a personal reality for Lily in 1964. When Rosaleen was her family's housekeeper and as close
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to a mother Lily had since her mother had died. On the day that Rosaleen jubilantly made her way into town to register to vote, Lily accompanied her. The same high spirits that carried Rosaleen were to lead to her being jailed and beaten. Lily defiantly and boldly, without a plan, freed Rosaleen from hospital/jail custody. With her storytelling abilities and the Black Madonna in her mind, Lily fled with Rosaleen toward Tiburon, South Carolina. Tiburon, only a name to Lily, was written on a piece of wood, with a black madonna picture on the reverse side. Lily had found the relic in her mother's few possessions and Lily believed it might fill in Lily's vague memory of her mother who had died tragically when Lily was four.
In Tiburon Lily found the 'Black Madonna'. Eventually Lily's fictions gave way to truths, most already known to the Calendar sisters, August (the Black Madonna), June and May. Though Lily may not have found the answer to her mother's death, in the haven August provided, Lily found acceptance, facts about her mother and her father, secrets of the bees, and her own truths.
A number of people had recommended 'The Secret Life of Bees' as I was working through some organizing frustrations. The timing was perfect, and the message reclaiming. I was reminded that I can't fix everything, and that, as Lily said about Zach, her jailed friend whose immediate future was uncertain:
"I'll write this all down for you...I'll put it in a story. "I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants - for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters." pg.185
Seek the truth, share each other's pain, celebrate the joys, do all you can, and recognize when to step back. Answers come from unexpected sources. Turn off the radio and listen to the bees. Sue Monk Kidd's writing carried me along seamlessly and totally entranced. sh 6/2009
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LibraryThing member mckait
I loved this book. I loved each and every character, except for the father in the story. I always enjoy books about strong women and families. This one is among the best. It ended far too soon and begs a sequel as far as I am concerned. I love Lily, and the Boatwright sisters! Even now, long after
This is a story that brings the reader full circle in a family and has you , perhaps, looking at your faith with mew eyes.
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I first read it, I find myself wondering how things are going in their lives. Now that is the kind of story I want to read. One that stays with you .This is a story that brings the reader full circle in a family and has you , perhaps, looking at your faith with mew eyes.
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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
I remember being drawn into watching the film adaptation of this a few years back, so thought I would read the book, but I haven't exactly been blown away by the experience. Like The Help, Sue Monk Kidd's novel is a pleasant, heart-warming, and deeply cheesy story about a self-involved young white
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girl who seeks emotional support and the wisdom of experience from a bunch of black women. Initially, I took to Lily, the fourteen year old narrator, with her wisecracks, bravado and wry outlook on life, but when she travels to Tiburon, South Carolina, to stay with the beekeeping Boatwright sisters, a less than subtle shift in Lily's voice takes over, and she becomes a Troubled Teen before mutating into an ageless, raceless earth mother. All the sentimental, New Age philosophy about 'finding the mother in yourself' and 'sisters are doing it for themselves', or whatever, nearly melted my teeth by the end of the novel, and the ending was hopelessly positive and - quite frankly - unconvincing. Did the author forget which decade she was writing about? A great film to while away an afternoon, but the book was a little overpowering for my taste. Show Less
LibraryThing member chuchotement
It was a quick, easy read that had a few sweet moments...but it was nothing to rave about. It got a little too flowery, for me. It won't change my life.
LibraryThing member msbaba
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of 14-year-old Lily Owen, a poor Southern white girl who lives a sorry existence on an isolated peach farm with T. Ray, her sullen, emotionally neglectful, and physically abusive father, and Rosaleen, her big-hearted and big-bodied black
Lily’s story takes place in the summer of 1964 amid the racial tensions spawned by the signing of the Civil Rights Act. On July 4, 1964, Rosaleen takes off for town to register to vote; she is accompanied by Lily. On the way, the two fall victim to a racial incident that lands both of them in jail. The situation turns dangerous, so Lily engineers an escape in order to protect Rosaleen from further violence and save herself from the inevitability of her father’s punishment.
Eventually, the two women end up in Tiburon, South Carolina, sheltered by an eccentric all-female family of black beekeepers. There both women find not only the love, support, community, and nurturing that they need, but also the answers to many questions about Lily’s mother.
There are an abundance of females in this book, and all make fascinating, fully imagined characters. The writing is solid, captivating, and, at times, lovingly lyrical—in fact, there is an almost fairy-tale quality in the telling. But be forewarned: there are disturbing subthemes of suicide and rape, so this book is not recommended for the very young.
The story is strong on female mythology and sweet in the remembering. It is best appreciated by a female audience; in fact, it is hard to imagine that many men would find this book interesting at all.
Secret Life of Bees is a feel-good book about a down-on-her-luck girl who is redeemed by a loving support group of nurturing, motherly women. The woman support each other and Lily in a wonderful, all-encompassing way, and we, the reader, come away from this novel made stronger and wiser for having known them.
Don’t read this book if you are looking for a story about life in the South during the Civil Rights era. Do read this book if you are looking for a true-to-life story about the power of women’s friendship to give meaning to life.
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housekeeper. Lily is psychologically crippled by the reality that she accidentally killed her own mother when she was 4—she has vague memories of the event that she frequently revisits. Lily’s story takes place in the summer of 1964 amid the racial tensions spawned by the signing of the Civil Rights Act. On July 4, 1964, Rosaleen takes off for town to register to vote; she is accompanied by Lily. On the way, the two fall victim to a racial incident that lands both of them in jail. The situation turns dangerous, so Lily engineers an escape in order to protect Rosaleen from further violence and save herself from the inevitability of her father’s punishment.
Eventually, the two women end up in Tiburon, South Carolina, sheltered by an eccentric all-female family of black beekeepers. There both women find not only the love, support, community, and nurturing that they need, but also the answers to many questions about Lily’s mother.
There are an abundance of females in this book, and all make fascinating, fully imagined characters. The writing is solid, captivating, and, at times, lovingly lyrical—in fact, there is an almost fairy-tale quality in the telling. But be forewarned: there are disturbing subthemes of suicide and rape, so this book is not recommended for the very young.
The story is strong on female mythology and sweet in the remembering. It is best appreciated by a female audience; in fact, it is hard to imagine that many men would find this book interesting at all.
Secret Life of Bees is a feel-good book about a down-on-her-luck girl who is redeemed by a loving support group of nurturing, motherly women. The woman support each other and Lily in a wonderful, all-encompassing way, and we, the reader, come away from this novel made stronger and wiser for having known them.
Don’t read this book if you are looking for a story about life in the South during the Civil Rights era. Do read this book if you are looking for a true-to-life story about the power of women’s friendship to give meaning to life.
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LibraryThing member trench_wench
It was a good quick summer read, but not life-changingly profound.
LibraryThing member stevedore
This was one of the first books LibraryThing recommended to me. And it kept recommending it the more books I entered. So I went in with very high expectations. Which was probably a bit unfair. the premise and the plot construction were both good, the characters interesting, and the themes worthy.
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But it didn't really capture me. To me it felt a bit like a book that had been written so that it could become a movie (a la Grisham or Dan Brown). And then I found out it was a movie - although not one I have seen obviously. I think the problem was that all the adventure, danger and suspense was over in the first quarter of the book. After that the lead character lived in relative comfort and happiness, with the minor exception of her inability to be honest to the family of sisters. It was a good commendable and reasonable read though. Show Less
LibraryThing member Othemts
We read this for the book club, and it was a sweet (no pun intended) but kind of hokey book. Motherless Lily has a rotten father and through a series of events runs off in search of clues of her mother. She stumbles on the house of the calendar sisters, black women named August, May and June, who
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support themselves by keeping bees and selling honey. The whole book is full of transparent symbolism of the bees and a Lily’s coming of age. There are some oddities such as Lily’s total absence of racism in a racially divided South. Then there’s the religion in which a statue of black Virgin Mary in chains is the center of worship (kind of the idolatry evangelicals tend to accuses Catholics of). The ending is a bit too neat, but the main thrust of the story is Lily’s internal growth not the external events. Show Less
LibraryThing member megannashville
I hated this novel, chock full of stereotypical "southern-isms." What a poor excuse of chick lit. My hairdresser recommended it to me, and after reading it, I was so insulted by her opinion of my taste in books that I changed salons!
LibraryThing member Lisa2013
Loved this story about a motherless girl who finds mother figures in her life. The book is slow moving & exciting and realistic & fable-like. I felt emotionally attached to Lily and some of the other characters in this book and I cared what happened to them. I found it amazing and a bit of a
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stretch that Lily showed the courage and resilience she did, but there are real kids who are like that. I shed some cathartic tears and I was really engaged as I was reading the book, but I admit it wasn’t a book I continued to think about for long after I read it. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2002)
Audie Award (Finalist — 2006)
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Nominee — 2005)
Gateway Readers Award (Nominee — 2005)
Indies Choice Book Award (Honor Book — Adult Fiction — 2003)
Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award (Nominee — 2005)
South Dakota Teen Choice Book Awards (Nominee — 2003)
Colorado Blue Spruce Award (Nominee — 2005)
Southern Book Prize (Winner — Fiction — 2003)
Virginia Readers' Choice (Nominee — High School — 2004)
South Carolina Book Awards (Nominee — Young Adult Book Award — 2006)
Reading Across Rhode Island (2004)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2003)
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award (High School — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
336 p.; 7.72 inches
ISBN
0143124323 / 9780143124320