Rating: 
Summary: WOW!
Review: LOVED this book. My daughter had to read this for school, so I picked it up after her. Was I glad I did! Her story and characters are wonderfully written. Set against the background of South Carolina in 1964, you remembered what is was like for anyone NOT a WASP in the south. And she kept the mystery of the mother's death interesting.
Rating:
Summary: I put off reading this one- Why??? Beyond me-
Review: This book was one of the best books that I have read in a while.The setting is South Carolina in the summer. Lily has an unfortunate tragedy that turns her life completely upside down at the age of two or three. Her father T-Ray is a coward and doesn't know how to handle her, so she runs away with her housekeeper Rosaleen and travels to Tiburon, South Carolina.
She then moves in with the Boatwright sisters who are just wonderful for her. August shows her how to keep bees. This part of the story is very informative in a fun way. These are characters in this book that I wouldn't like to see end. I too hope she writes a sequel, and I look forward to maybe a movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Caricatures not Characters
Review: I had also heard that this book was great, but I found that the story was weak and the characters one-dimensional. In terms of depth it felt more like a book that was written for pre-teens rather than adults, with a melodramatic and unbelievable story line (although given the tough subject matter it's probably not appropriate for a younger audience either). Can't recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Out of the gate lead
Review: Sue Monk Kidd demonstrates a wonderful command of descriptive writing and certainly must be calling from first hand experiences to convey this honey of a novel. Despite the unfortunate fact that it has been labeled a "woman's book", no one should allow that to deter you from reading it. I sopped up every word as if it were precious nectar.
The character developement envelopes the reader to a level of personal connection. Throughout the story the characters stay true to form. Lily and Rosaleen weave a beautifully sweet fabric of life with the beekeeper sisters in a setting so real that you can almost hear the crickets serenading in the moonlit South Carolina summer night.
I can't wait for Ms. Kidd's next work and hope it will be coming soon!
Rating:
Summary: This book is mind candy
Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is one of the best books I have ever read. As a bookworm with tastes ranging from Gunter Grass to John Grisham, this is no small proclamation. The Secret Life of Bees is an easy read, and holds as much stimuli for the brain as it does for the heart. Read it...really.
Rating:
Summary: Romance novel appeal
Review: I had a nagging feeling during this book of reading a fairy tale or a romance novel. I guess superficiality best describes it. Even though it was given historical parameters, the one-dimensional characters were very out of sync with the times: Rosaleen's behaviour with the white men, the black boy who threw the bottle, and Lily and Zach's uncommented-upon public appearances. Rosaleen, as a woman of color without a community until she met August, et al, really disturbed me. My nagging feeling was explained with the author's response to an interviewer: "I conjured most of the novel straight out of my imagination, inventing from scratch...".
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet and Buzzing with Southern Tones
Review: A sweet book beautifully accented by illuminations to the life of bees and the order of their world. Reading this book, you just start to think, I hope they don't ruin this one, because boy it could be one beautiful movie. Lily is a thoughtful, sensitive, loving child who must learn how to mother herself from a very young age. The book is really all about how it may just be a biological phenomenon that we all crave love from our natural mother but real love and nurturing can come from many sources.
Written from the timeframe that it was, it also reminded me of the complexities of race from the recent movie "Far from Heaven." The book was about bravery, love, how we all live from our history and the vows we take in life.
Rating:
Summary: fulfilling.
Review: This richly written novel follows narrator Lily Owen through heartbreak, yearning, love, and eventually, the discovery of a place she can call home. Lily's mother died when she was very young and she is being raised by her uncaring, brute father whom she calls T.Ray as the book opens. Set in the south during the civil rights movement, the book contains many African-American characters including Lily's housekeeper Rosaleen, as well as the women whose honey farm the two of them escape to after Lily breaks Rosaleen out of jail (the honey farm is Lily's only connection to her mother, having found a card with the name of the town and a mysterious Black Madonna). Lily is an extremely brave but still believable character, and the book moved me so much that at times I had to put it down and let the feelings wash through me before continuing. The book is about family wherever you may find it, the acceptance of the self, and spirituality as a force that brings everything together. An excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Empathy for Lily
Review: Anyone who has ever yearned for the acceptance of a parent, or mourned the loss of one, can surely identify with Lily. With an uncaring, cruel father, and yearning for the mother who died when she was four, Lily's hurt tugs at the heart, while her daring, bold actions make you cheer.
Painting an authentic picture of the social and political atmosphere of the sixties (I know, I grew up then, too), you feel the pain and outrage of the black characters, like Rosaleen and Zach, while appreciating the warm atmosphere Lily finds living with the Boatwright sisters. Her desire to find out the truth about the mother she barely knew, coupled with the fear of what she may discover, rings true, and makes Lily a character easily related to. What I like most about this book though, is that it shows that family isn't necessarily blood kin. For Lily, the only blood relation she has is her father, who, it is apparent, doesn't really want her. But with Rosaleen and the Boatwright sisters, Lily comes to realize she does have a family.........even if that family is of a different race. Family can be what you make it. The love she finds with them, even in the midst of the unrest of the Civil Rights movement, is a beacon of hope to all who truly believe that it is the heart, and not the color of skin, that matters the most when choosing who we love. I hope we will hear more from Lily, Rosaleen, and the Boatwright sisters. They are memorable characters, and ones I truly came to care about.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age
Review: I thought that this was a wonderfully written coming of age story. It describes how a 14 year old girl finds inner strength with the help of strong, capable, nurturing women. Lisa's need to know if her now deceased mother loved and nurtured her dominates her life, preventing her from feelings of self worth. Her father constantly diminishes her self esteem, exacerbating her feeling that she in unloved and unlovable. With the help of her nanny and the Calendar Sisters, she finds out about her past and comes to terms with her mother's death. Setting the book in the south of the '60's, in the midst of the struggle for civil rights, adds to the coming of age context. I think it is a terrific book for teen-age girls, as well as adults. I am not certain that it is a man's book.
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