This book surprised me. When I started it, I kept reading because it seemed like something I would enjoy, but I never would have thought that I would feel as deeply as I did during this story. It was a book that portrayed grief through someone who didn't even realize she needed to process and grieve, and that was so beautiful to me. Lily, the main character, grew and matured and healed throughout these pages and it was refreshing to see her embrace her authentic feelings, even when she didn't want to. Anger, sadness, joy, [real, "I choose you in your mess"] love, infatuation, grief, belonging, emptiness, persistence, and so many more real and raw feelings were so beautifully written down on paper and I just absolutely loved it.

One of my favorite quotes that I can't seem to stop thinking about is pasted below. Lily was talking about the hurt you go through in life and her ponderings were thought provoking it me:

"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?" ( )

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 Carolina--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 women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come. ( )

a very good book about love and the relationship with daughters and mothers. How each of us is not perfect and trying to find a way to love each other anyway. a very good read. ( )

Review to follow ( )

I started reading it and didn't like it at all.. per my Grandmother's advice, I found that the book on tape was way more enjoyable. ( )

It's been over a month since I read this, and I didn't make notes. I remember being incredulous that a white teen could leave home & live with a black woman in the 1960's of the South. Maybe I've just been conditioned by too many tales of the KKK, maybe there were areas of the South where people were not so aggressive. And the story line as a whole is pretty unreal.[return]However, excepting that, I liked the book. As a new beekeeper I lapped up every detail about beekeeping and the relationship of August to the bees. I did not like how simple Rosaleen was made out to be.[return]I marked a number of passages that gave me pause: "It was the oldest sound there was. Souls flying away."(p. 213) "I am in the center of the universe, where everything is sung to life."(p. 286) ( )

Everyone else I know loved this book, and I really wanted to love it. But at best, I felt like it was "ok". Maybe it's because I'm reading it much later, in a very different political climate? I don't know. But I found myself not really enjoying it. ( )

The only thing that keeps me from giving this book 5 stars is that I thought the ending felt rushed. Other than that, this book was wonderful. There's even quite a few little tidbits of wisdom from August throughout the pages that are worth remembering. ( )

Child?s life in female household who raised bees. Excellent story

I used this book for tutoring a few years ago and the main thing I remember is that we called it SLoB. I also remember a horrible scene where the main character had to kneel on grits. Also, I remember it being about a family of Black women in the American South.

As I think I said in my review of [book:Tangerine], I always feel a little uncomfortable reading books about a white character inhabiting a non-white world for the sake of that character learning about life. It's not that these kinds of books are always bad reads, it's just that the convention seems really worn out and can be...what's the word? Exoticising? Other-ing? If I were still taking undergard American Lit classes, I would maybe tackle this subject. But as I am now a Library School student, I will just say that I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend it. ( )

Grieving over the loss of her mother and the relentless abuse of her father, Lily goes in search of clues about her mother, hoping to find answers in a place she thinks her mother may have been connected with. During her quest, she finds herself having to examine her attitudes about interracial relationships. She learns about beekeeping and the black Madonna, both bodies of knowledge that contribute to her understanding of key roles that females play in the social order ( )

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't hard at all to learn the background and the characters. I was fascinated with the topic of bees, and how a whole story was built around bees, their habits, and their honey. But, the story was way more than just about bees. It covered secrets, prejudice, harsh times, and how ultimately how friendship can help heal even deep wounds. This book was definitely worth reading. I loved the fact that the setting was in SC. I wondered if the average reader, however, would have known that by mentioning Bull Street in the story, that was where the psychiatric patients in SC were kept. And, I smiled at the peanut in Coke reference. That sure was down-home country to me. It's a great book to learn what it was like to live during the 60's, to live in SC, and to make a living out of raising bees for honey. I highly recommend it! ( )

Huck Finn meets To Kill a Mockingbird. I enjoyed every page of this book and can't wait for the movie to come out. ( )

Sooo sweet, and the reader was brilliant. Really enjoyed this production. ( )

I had a hard time getting into this one - I found myself just not caring about the characters much at the beginning. After the first 50 to 100 pages it did start to pick up and I enjoyed the remainder of the book. ( )

I was a little surprised that I enjoyed this one. It is pretty rare for me to like a book I have to read for English class. I really did enjoy it though.
There were a few moments that dragged on a little bit, but over all the story was engaging and interesting.
I enjoyed the sisterhood aspect. Most books focus on the romance, not the friendships.
I highly recommend reading this book. ( )

The story begins in Sylvan, South Carolina, in 1964, at the height of racial tensions as blacks are finally legalized to vote. Lily Owens, 14 years old, is played by Dakota Fanning who does an outsounding job in her performance in the movie. (She is who I pictured while reading this book, which did not stray much from the movie at all, so may have had big part in high star rating...I'm not sure now. I LOVED THE MOVIE!) Her parents had a brutal marriage that drove her mom into great depression and she left her with her abusive father for three months when she was only 4 years old. When she recovered enough to care for Lily, she returned to take her away with her to Tiburon. But, when her mother returned and her father began throwing her around again and screaming and hollering, her mother grabbed the gun. T-Ray knocked it out of her hand where it fell to the floor. Lily picked it up and accidentally shot and killed her mother. After 14 years of abuse, Lily and her black nanny ran away to Tiburon, a town written on back of the little black virgin Mary wooden statue she had found in the attic that once belonged to her mother.

This is a coming of age story about Lily trying to find peace and her place in life. The secret lives of bees parallel her own life full of secrets as she finds refuge with the three black Boatwright sisters, August, June, and May, in the big pink pepto-bismol honey house in Tiburon. This divine intervention of God, led her to this house which she later learned, August, the oldest of the sisters, had been her own mother's nanny growing up.

Sue Monk Kidd is one of those unusually gifted writers, and I will be looking into reading more from her.
----------
THE MOVIE -
The Secret Life of Bees (2008) - One of my favorite movies of all time. Dakota Fanning does an outstanding job as Lily. In fact, she had me bawling when she has a breakdown as she approaches the black virgin Mary statue and places her hand over the red heart. The book did not draw this emotion from me. Queen Latifa, who I usually don't like as an actress, was perfect for her part as August, full of patience, independent, calm, loving, and nonjudgemental...a caregiver to anyone in need. Alicia Keyes played June. Just a super great cast of actors and actresses.

( )

What a wonderful read - colorful, interesting, compelling and moving. Highly recommend to any reader. ( )

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a unique, historical fiction that will take you back in time and allow you to learn about bees.

This book was weird for me. I would go a few chapters and be totally immersed and obsessed with it, and then a few more chapters I'd be bored, sad or just uninterested. I'm not sure why either. Sue's writing is lovely and can transport you away. I feel like the problem with this book is that it's a bit of a coming of age story mixed with historical fiction mixed with a potential YA romance. There were times the book drifted away from a story of a girl learning about her past and herself to a bit of a wannabe romance. That little part stood out to me because it felt like it didn't belong. It took me out of the story.

I really wanted to read a historical fiction book and people kept talking about it, so I grabbed this one. I also heard it was a movie so I figured, read the book first? Why not?

The best parts about this book tends to be about the bees or May, June and August. I was intrigued by their characters and was really hurt by some of the endings for them. Those women were unique and had an interesting story to tell. There's a part of me that wanted the girl's tale and the women's tales separate. There was just too much going on and too many stories that needed to be told.

I think this book is going to be really niche for some readers. Some people will love it and some people will absolutely hate it. There is charm there, but you need to like certain forms of writing to really dig it. I like fast paced books with lots of meaning and not as much random. This book didn't fit my normal read. I'm glad I read it because I do think it was a good story with lots of cool parts, but it just wasn't a good fit for me! Hopefully the next reader who picks up my copy will enjoy it!

Two out of five stars. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "A great story of women, and their amazing capabilities. Lots of fastinating bee information thrown in as a bonus! " 2023 note - I still remember the scene of the abusive father making his daughter (the heroine) kneel on uncooked grits as punishment, and how much I enjoyed learning about bees. ( )

This is one of my all time favorite books. I first read this book in 2013 and fell in love with the story. In my opinion this book is a must read. The story is compelling and demonstrates the will power of overcoming obstacles and never giving up. ( )

Lily Owens lives with her father, T-Ray, on his peach farm, and Lily has grown up believing that she killed her mother, since that's what T-Ray has always told her. She only has vague memories of her mother hurriedly packing a bag and telling Lily to be quick to get ready to leave, then her father entering the room, some shouting, a gun, and a loud blast as it goes off. Her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, the black woman who comes into clean house for T-Ray, decides one day to walk into town and register to vote. This goes over about as well as you think it would in 1960s South Carolina. Rosaleen and Lily both end up in jail, and when T-Ray bails out only Lily, she fears both for her own safety and Rosaleen's, breaks her friend/surrogate momma out of the clink, and they both hit the road south. With only an old sticker of a black virgin Mary to guide her, Lily heads to a town she's convinced her mother knew in search of answers. What she finds is a new if unconventional family, one that helps her work through more questions than she knew she had.

On the surface I loved the story and the characters. And the writing is gorgeous. But the more I think about it, the more issues I see. Lily's age doesn't seem well defined, for one; we learn at some point that she's 14, but she really doesn't seem that old in her thoughts and actions, which makes her relationship with Zach - a high school boy - seem off. But more importantly, the black sisters with whom Lily and Rosaleen stay (and Rosaleen herself), although it seems obvious that we're meant to see them as Strong Black Women in a time when SBW were not safe in the South, come off more as a modern version of the Noble Savage, glorified caricatures of the Mammy type, old, wise for their hardships, but still safely quirky and living at the margins of Real Society. So in the end I both loved and kinda loathed the novel. It has lovely moments, but ultimately the main character is a white girl benefiting from nurturing of black women while not really understanding them or their lives. ( )

A beautifully written story that engages us emotionally and spiritually. Ms. Kidd is a great storyteller using descriptive elements and emotions that touch us deeply while inspiring possibility. I plan on reading her other books hoping they're nearly as good or better than "Bees". ( )

CW: Suicide ( )

The tears just keep coming.... But my heart is happy. I couldn't put this one down. Monk is now my favourite author. She makes me feel and sense everything..... It's just that simple. My soul feels every bit of pain, confusion, love and happiness. My hands feel the sticky honey, the red wooden heart and the whale pin. I can see the wailing wall, the moon, the pink house, the black Madonna. I can smell the soil, the river, the honey house. I can hear the bees humming, the cello music and the Daughters of Mary. I can taste the honey cakes, sweet tea and bananas. This story is amazing, sad and beautiful. Read it.... You'll see what I mean. ( )