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Dec 17, 2009

Dolly rated it:

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 More...

11 comments like (63 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kerry rated it:

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 happen More...

8 comments like (76 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Sammy rated it:

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 c More...

8 comments like (46 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Elaine rated it:

A coming-to-age novel set in South Carolina at the height of desegregation. Lily is a lovable pre-teen who'd grown up believing she killed her mother (accidentally) and is trying to escape a brutal, abusive father. Filled with a cast of eccentric characters, Lily runs away with Rosaleen, a black servant, and finds herself in a beekeeper's sanctuary, where secrets come spilling out of the closet for a cymbal-clashing ending. Although rendered very close to the voice of a believable pre-teen, More...

10 comments like (21 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2007

A.K. added it

Read this in a couple of hours while I was babysitting. Not always a good sign; particularly when the reason I am looking for material is that the only other house options are natural health and yoga magazines, as I am a dedicated chainsmoker with terrible posture.

Some of the ideas patly blurbed on the back seemed compelling. Mary definitely wasn't a WASP, so that's interesting; beekeeping is fertile for extended metaphor; and tough runaway girlchildren are a favorite, chixploitatio More...

12 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Red rated it:

I'm picking this up again out of desperation. it's pretty bad. the pacing is terrible, the characterization is spotty, cliched, and rarely believeable, and there is so much shlocky dime-store 'wisdom' stuffed into the pages that it's a wonder anything ever actually happens, plot-wise. writing from the point of view of a child or adolescent is hard, and authors rarely get it right. this book certainly doesn't.

oh god, and the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter are so hit- More...

1 comment like (22 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2010

Tee rated it:

I actually liked this book. I only read the reviews afterwards and noticed that a lot of people complain of the stereotyping, and embarrassingly - I was so in love with the characters that it didn't phase me, I'm ashamed. I did notice that the African Americans were all painted as stereotypes but I figured that the author was just using a voice that kept with the times - back then, that's how everything was seen. But now I feel a little conflicted because god damn, I hate stereotypes and I'm usu More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Jeffrey rated it:

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 o More...

10 comments like (27 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Anna rated it:

It was ironic that I read most of this book on Mother's Day. At the core, this book isn't about race relations, the Virgin Mary, or even beekeeping, though those are all interesting parts of the story. It's a book about mothers. Mothers who are imperfect, mothers who make mistakes, and women who become mothers because they see people who need to be loved. I can't readily connect to most of those other topics, but everyone on the planet knows what it's like to have--or need--a mother in their More...

0 comments like (21 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2008

Mayla rated it:

The Secret Life Of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd

Penguin Group, 2003, $14.00, 336 pgs.
ISBN 9-78-014200-1

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” (Kidd 148). The Secret Life Of Bees allows us to discover more about creatures we think less of. Bees – what do they do? Disgusting and small, how complicated can things be for them? All they do is make honey and buzz, being s More...

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rae rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

Adam rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2007

Leah added it

Leah Gerber
Mrs. Ebarvia
Honors World Lit
11/26/07
Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees
What is more enjoyable than a good book? The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the best book I have read in a long time. Holding the reader’s interest is a key part of writing a good book and I could not put it down. Kidd has written many other novels such as The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and The Mermaid Chair. The story starts out with Lily Owens isolated on a farm, forc More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Nov 26, 2007

Hannah rated it:

Reading the Secret Life of Bees is like meeting the best friend of your childhood within the confines of 302 pages of prose. Lily Owens is a 14-year-old girl who only wants a place to belong after running away from her miserable father with her black nursemaid Rosaleen. With nowhere else to go, Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three eccentric sisters: black beekeepers who hold the clues to Lily’s past, and quite possibly her future. Expertly set in 1964 in the heart of the American South, Lily More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2010

UniquelyMoi *~*Dhestiny*~* rated it:

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 int More...

9 comments like (14 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2008

Nikki rated it:

One of my favorites. I didn't want to put it away and was sad when it was over.

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2011

Zeek rated it:

I finished reading The Secret Life of Bees in one night. Good story!

It seemed to me to be a cross between Fried Green Tomatoes and To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, as I read, I questioned if the author wasn't inspired by Fried Green Tomatoes.

Fourteen year old Lily lost her mother when she was four to a tragic accident, one in which she's always felt guilty about.

She is raised by her mostly abusive father, T-Ray, and a black woman named Rosaleen. When Rosaleen More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2008

Sandi rated it:

To me, the difference between is a good book and a great book is whether you have to suspend disbelief or whether you just believe. I became curious about “The Secret Life of Bees” when I saw the preview for the upcoming movie in the theater. It looked mildly interesting and overly sugary. You know, one of those feel good stories about people coming together despite racial differences. It’s been done a gazillion times and the stories are usually trite and maudlin. (I will say that the movie More...

6 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Leah rated it:

Though The Secret Life of Bees has the potential to be a heartwarming little novel, it falls flat on many accounts. The characters often feel unoriginal, including a sassy black nanny; a smart, yet under-valued girl who dreams of being a writer; and a roughneck southern farmer. While cliches exist because of a bit of truth in them, I found nothing truthful in the majority of these characters, whose actions,including the two main inciting incidents of the novel, seem completed unmovitated and out More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Lavinia rated it:

It's definitely not the breathtaking kind of book, incredibly written or with stunning narrative, but I enjoyed it anyway. It's got a little bit of everything: family drama, (de)segregation, friendship, romance, religion, beekeeping.

Highly recommended for girls half my age. I'm going to watch the film as well, since Dakota Fanning's acting in it, and Lily's character was absolutely charming.

***
later edit: you can skip the film :)

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2008

Cortney rated it:

I am a sucker for beautiful prose and a story that fleshes out really wonderful characters and relationships. And can I just say it? Long live strong Southern women!

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2012

Tanu rated it:

This book would be absolutely amazing, if there was anything ingenious about this book. It’s a story about Lily, a 14 year old in the racist American South. Sounds familiar? There is more. She is motherless, and is laden with guilt over having accidently killed her mother. Her father is evil. No really, like pure, unadulterated evil , with no redeeming qualities or anything. And, SURPRISE!!! He is abusive! And tortures Lily. Never saw that one coming!

Who was persistently screaming More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2010

Shawn rated it:

No matter how charming this novel could be, it was underpinned by an aura of sadness, of things left on the ground, unraveled.

I was struck immediately by a brave, fourteen-year-old girl acting on her most honest impulses. Bees swarming around her room every night simply activated her imagination. If Lily wanted to strip off her clothes and wade into a river in the middle of the night, that's what she did. Break her nanny out of jail and hitchhike across South Carolina to a town More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2008

Emily rated it:

There are books you read along the way that take your breath away. This was definetly one of them for me. I truly connected with the main character Lily toward the end of the book. On page 278 was when my breath was taken, when tears sprang from my eyes, and I thought this could be me talking at 14 years old. It read .."I wished she'd been smart enough, or loving enough, to realize everybody has burdens that crush them, only they don't give up thier children. In a weird way I must have More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2008

Sara rated it:

I've read this book a while back but forgot to JE it...
I’ve heard a lot about this book and really curious about it, but at the same time afraid of being disappointed after so much talk. Now that I’ve read I can say that I simply adore it!!!
It’s a touching and powerful story, during 1964 – the year of the Civil Rights Act, about a young white girl - Lily, her proud and outspoken African American nanny, a sisterhood of women, and the memory of her mother. It covers a bit of many and d More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2008

Nicole rated it:

My mom asked me how I was liking this book and I blurted out, “I like it, it’s cute”. Then it occurred to me what a thoroughly inaccurate description “cute” was for this book. Think of a time when you struggled to come to terms with a most regretful element of your past, and that more adequately conjures up the tone of this book. That is not to say it is all gloomy. I rather enjoyed the theme of this book—mothers, daughters, women in general and how we nurture each other. I enjoyed the comp More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2008

Krenzel rated it:

"The Secret Lives of Bees" is the simple yet moving story of Lily Owens, a 14-year-old white girl, and her aching search to connect with her mother, who was killed in a terrible accident when Lily was four. Without her mother, Lily was raised by her abusive father T. Ray and a "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, an African-American woman who had previously served as a picker on T. Ray's peach farm. In the summer of 1964, two events serve to alter Lily's life – first, Rosaleen is a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 01, 2008

علی rated it:

Thanks a lot to Sue Monk Kido! It’s true; Words are the most beautiful things existed in the world, but they die as fast as they were born, unless you convert them to act! This is so simple but a fact, as beautiful and strong as life.
This is a large combination of beautiful moments, scenes, words, principles and characters in this, which I loved and enjoyed, such as May, the one sister who “has no walls around her heart”, and the description of “wailing wall” where one deal with her / his More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2008

Lily rated it:

Sue Monk Kidd
"The Secret Life of Bees"
New York; Penguin, 2003
302 PP. $14.00
0-14-200174-0

14 year old Lily Owens is neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm. Lily recalls the times when she was loved by her mother, Deborah, though she barely remembers her. Lily was told by her father that she accidentally shot and killed her mother, and the only memories she has left of her are in a small paper bag. In that bag she keeps a small More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2008

Lena rated it:

Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees
New York: Penguin, 2003
317 pp. $14.00
0 14 20.0174 0

The Secret Life of Bees Unique Spin on Coming of Age Novel

Vivid descriptions of events and the enlightening point of view, from which The Secret Life of Bees is told, transport the reader into a whole new mindset and world. Sue Monk Kidd tells this fictional tale through the eyes of a young and impressionable teenager, Lily Owens, during the tumultuous Civil Ri More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)