Being from the South, I am quite familiar with the whole "Southern girl coming of age" genre. I have read many of these books, and the best are framed with nuanced, real characters that raise the book from cliche (Bastard Out of Carolina is a good example of this). This was not one of those books.

I am not totally blasting this book--much of it was written well, and parts were almost enjoyable. Lily was (most of the time) a pretty likable character, and I actually cared about her during the book. I also liked Rosaleen's character, although I thought she was a bit oversimplified, and I really wanted to hear more about that husband of hers...

But this book was just really cliche. Despite the good writing in sections, the characters were unable to overcome the very simplistic treatment they were given. August, for example, was a character who could have been strong, yet ended up feeling very one-dimensional. She was never shown to have any real faults--was she even human? Even Lily suffered from a lack of little human touches--we know she had a cuticle problem (like most girls in Southern coming of age stories for some reason), but nothing really drew her as a complicated person except for her relationship with her mother and father.

And one thing just irked me the whole book. Why did T Ray have her kneel on grits? Yeah, it would probably be painful, but how many bags of grits was this guy wasting by doing this? Maybe I'm not an expert on middle 20th century Southern farmers, but I imagine he would be a bit more economical than this.

Overall, I barely got through this one, and I complained about it the whole time.

While blood might be thicker than water, sometimes it's the family we choose to belong to whose ties can't be broken.

The story revolves around 14 year old Lily Owens and is at times, dark. But as Lily tries to make sense of her life and tries to find another way, she meets some amazingly strong and loving women who show her what a real family is about.

The Secret Life of Bees is a well written story that flows seamlessly. The characters are people who charm their way into your heart with their quirky personalities, their deep sense of honor, traditions and values, and the keen ability to see the truth in all things.

My Rating: 4.75/5

This was my second book by this author and once again, Sue Monk Kidd did not disappoint.

This coming of age story follows Lily Owens as she grows up in 1964 South Carolina and searches for closure and meaning after her mother is killed.

Lily is met with the harsh realities of segregation and racism from that time, but also with love and life lessons from her new "chosen family".

I can see why this book has been so popular over the last 20 years (since it first came out). Connecting this story to the Life of Bees was also really well done and rather clever.

The narration was perfection and aside from a few slower moments, this book was beautifully written and incredibly powerful.

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 Tiburon where they end up living with the Boatwright sisters who produce honey......

This is a beautifully written coming of age story in which eventually Lily finds both peace and love and equally importantly, a real home. I really like how central to the storytelling, apart from the magic of bees, is the power of women, not just the Boatwright sisters and Rosaleen but their friends in the Daughters of Mary. This links to another important theme of spirituality through the Black Madonna. August Boatwright is a wonderful character of great wisdom and patience as she shows Lily the way through her pain and loss. There are several instances where there is tension, in particular racial tension, with several characters experiencing horrific racist treatment which breaks your heart. The book captures the times extremely well as Lily realises the significance that some people attach to skin pigment. Lily’s relationship with her father is very difficult and although T.Ray is a horrible character she comes to appreciate that he has lost much too. This does not forgive him his appalling treatment of her or his lack of love. Lily is intriguing, she’s very complex, an accomplished liar who doesn’t know when to stop over egging the pudding but she is also creative, very brave and loyal to Rosaleen. The secret life of bees element produces some fabulous images and demonstrates what incredibly wise insects they are which August reflects on and demonstrates.

Overall, this is touching and emotional in places and tense and heartbreaking at others covering harsh issues but giving strong messages about love and it’s healing power.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline:Tinder Press for the copy in return for an honest review.

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 here like I do in a lot of fiction. In reading most fiction, I can almost hear the writer thinking. I guess it's because I write and my intimate knowledge of the craft allows me to see a lot before it comes. Kind of like an actor who you know is just acting. But Kidd's writing is like Will Smith in Ali or Jamie Fox in Ray. In Ali there is no Smith and in Ray there is no Fox. Art works best when it's done by the talented who tap into the moment so right, so purely it stops being art and becomes real. Bees is real.

Some readers on Goodreads and Amazon had trouble with such things as the bee quotes at the start of each chapter being a bit obvious, the religious theme (didn't state but I'm sure it has to do with the women eating cake as the body of Mary), the triteness of a coming of age story and some of the characterization (ie: stereotypical African / American women) and so forth, but I believe these are more personal problems than problems with the story. In the overall scheme of analysis, these issues were cosmetic, superficial at best. Most liked it: In my class. At Goodreads. On Amazon.

I find it humorous that many of the pseudo-reviewers / intellectuals (if I throw in some over priced words, I'm a big-time reviewer) love to sling review-speak but have no or little experience in hands-on experience: writing. Maybe it's writer-wanna-be frustration or other personal issues. There’s a lot to be said for freeing oneself of inhibiting characteristics / weaknesses and the success and release of open-mindedness. Nevertheless . . .

Bottom line, I was impressed and I've read a lot of stories and written many myself. I know the difficulties involved in making a story work, making is real, and connecting to readers. This book does all that and more. Highly recommended.

4.5 stars, such a heart warming book.

A heartwarming story, based on true events.

“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 book simply has everything I love in a historical fiction book, plus, I mean, bees. Aren't they the most amazing, fascinating and incredibly complex animal? So strong and hard-working, but also surviving thanks to the most fragile balance - like women and mothers. Like them, they are fierce to attack who threatens them and their offspring; but are capable of creating the sweetest gift to nourish those who respect, love, and need them.

There are three main reasons why I loved this book: Mother Mary, the bees, and August. A sweet young woman, lost, virtually orphan and burdened with guilt; finds love in the most unlikely of families: a group of sisters of a different skin colour, thousands of hard-working bees, and the heart of the Black Madonna. This story is both wholesome and heartbreaking.



If you love southern literature, strong women who survive abuse and overcome the greatest difficulties for a better life, voices against racism and inequality and families (blood-bound or not), this book is definitely for you!

I am so happy to start my reading year with a 5 star review!!! I loved this book and I already know it's going to be a 2020 favourite. Yay! :)

The use of simile and metaphor in this book, the author's voice, all of it was just astounding. So glad I read it!

Coming of age story of a fourteen-year-old girl living in South Carolina in 1964. Lily Owens lives with her abusive father. Her mother died in a tragic accident ten years ago. She longs for her mother and feels responsible for her death. Her nanny, Rosaleen, tries to register to vote, but gets beaten by local bigots, and they flee the area. The seek refuge in another town where Lily believes she will find connections to her mother’s past. She finds a group black woman who keep bees and run a honey business. The storyline follows Lily’s search for a safe haven where she can feel loved.

The characters are vividly drawn. It was easy to picture these women living in their pink house. I looked forward to picking this book up. It is worth mentioning that there is an element of Christian religion in this book, as the main characters have created their own rituals around the Virgin Mary, represented by a Black Madonna. Themes include female kinship, atypical family bonds, racial harmony, and finding one’s inner voice. It is a book both adults and young adults can appreciate.

This is a book that just about every woman (and quite a few men) has read. So it is my turn. As is often the case when I am coming late to a best seller, I really don’t know much about the book other than it is a must read. The first allusion is to bees swarming and death. We have the maternal black woman substituting for the dead white mother caring for the plain young girl with a much to be desired father.

The young girl, Lily, has an imagination from the get go.

I used to have daydreams in which she was white and married to T. Ray, and became my real mother. Other times I was a Negro orphan she found in a cornfield and adopted. Once in a while I had us living in a foreign country like New York, where she could adopt me and we could both stay our natural color.

The Secret Life of Bees is not a complicated book. It just tells you straight out what you need to know to get the message.

I hadn’t been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called “bee yard etiquette.” She reminded me that the world was really one big bee yard, and the same rules worked fine in both places: Don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and long pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.

What is it that people say? This is not rocket science? I read so many books where the message is not clear to me. My reaction to this plain message is with some anxiety. Maybe it is not quite so simple? And, if it is so simple, what is the point of finding simple in a complex world? Must be a trick.

The story is set in the South with the background of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. History was being made and some of it is recorded in The Secret Life of Bees .

“I’ll write this all down for you, [Lily] said. “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.

Black history and women’s history are woven into the story. The story is enlarged by the inclusion of that history and lore.

Lily learns who the Black Madonna is almost immediately upon arriving in Tiburon, but this knowledge only involves her in greater mysteries. The figure of Mary that August Boatwright and her sisters call Our Lady of Chains was originally a masthead, washed up, according to their legend, from an unknown ship near a plantation on the South Carolina coast in the days of slavery. It communicated in secret with the slaves of the plantation, exhorting them to furtive acts of flight and resistance. Amazingly, under its own power it repeatedly escaped the chains the plantation owner used to lock it in the barn. Shrouded in myth, Our Lady of Chains comes to represent, over the course of the novel, the mysteries Kidd portrays as the most powerful of all: those of the human heart.
Source: http://www.enotes.com/topics/secret-l...

People who regularly read my reviews know that I am not keen on religion most of the time. I’d normally just as soon leave it out of a story unless it’s legitimately the bad guy. Well, this story has some folk religion and I don’t mind it too much. Probably because it is folk rather than anything high church. There is May’s Wailing Wall. There is the black Madonna. There is everything to do with Mary Day and the Daughters of Mary, the traditions of the women. Black folk religion is so down to earth that I just mostly let it slip on by. It is just a feeling and I am not perfect in my spiritual anathema. To tell you the truth, I am probably marking this book down a half star due to the relatively large quantity of folksy religion. The story would be missing something important if you took it out. But don’t expect me to sit in church with a prayer fan too long!

There is a fast current just below the gentle surface of this book. I think that this is strangely a book more about the Malcolm X’s than about the Uncle Tom’s.

He stared at the water. “Sometimes, Lily, I’m so angry I wanna kill something.”

Sometimes I think that if I would have been black, I would not have lived through the 1960s. I would have been too angry and would have been a black revolutionary rather than a white pacifist. This book reminds me of that.

My rule is that if a book makes me cry, it gets five stars. And these are tears. (Not running down my cheeks but definitely dampness.) But you remember I am going to take off a half star due to the overdone religion. So, now what? Well, this is definitely a rounding up type of book so the five wins out in the end.

My daughter is eleven. I should probably keep this book around so she can read about fourteen year old Lily in a few years.

3.5 stars rounded down

This feel-good, inspirational novel about bees, native Catholicism (the kind the Vatican hates) and a little girl's attempt to come to terms with her hateful family and environment, is a pleasant, if somewhat superficial, read.

Themes: bees and beekeeping, race relations in the South of the US in the 1960s, the many facets of love, humanity's spiritual nature, grassroots religious beliefs, child and spouse abuse, forgiveness, and the ties between mothers and their children.

The voice of the 1st person narrator, Lily, is the best thing about this novel. It's disarmingly candid, utterly natural and bursting with personality. The way she describes things is often a joy to read and there are plenty of sentence/description gems scattered throughout the entire story.

The second best thing is all the information about bee culture and beekeeping. Really interesting and you can tell Ms Kidd did her homework, but the details are too sharp to seem natural. Its more like excerpts from a scholarly work on bees that have been inserted into appropriate places. In other words: far too many graceful info dumps.

Unfortunately, I'm getting tired of feel-good stories being advertised as regular fiction (they aren't, they're cotton candy for the soul) and especially feel-good stories about just insanely amazing mommies who have the power to turn anybody's life from cold pricklies to warm fuzzies. And I do mean anybody's life.

If feel-good with some current-topic sauce of the evils of racism is your thing, then you'll love "The Secret Life of Bees". It's a very well done example, but I could have done without the final 50 pages.