Rating: 
Summary: Secret Life of Bees
Review: What a wonderfully written book about a young girl and her quest to feel whole. A great book about unconditional love, humanity, and a quest for a better world. I highly recommned taking this journey with Lily and her compassionate cast of characters.
Rating:
Summary: Overcoming prejudice and finding acceptance / companionship
Review: Set in South Carolina, this is the story of young motherless girl Lily who escapes her abusive father. She takes off with her black adult political activist friend Rosaleen, who has the racist law chasing her down for a ridiculous offence that back in those days was nevertheless a very real one. Lily and Rosaleen find haven and are taken in by three wise black sisters. These colored women and their colorful friends introduce Lily and Rosaleen to a wonderful community of acceptance, a sense of belonging, and the art of bee-keeping. This is an extraordinary story of personal courage and healing, written in a pleasing style. David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
Rating:
Summary: A beautifully written book !
Review: Sue Monk Kid has written a book which will find meaning with women who are discovering the mother and power within. I began this journey a few years ago while going through a divorce. The journey and awakenings continue as I continue to grow. Thank you, Sue Monk Kid, for reawakening my questioning as I travel on.
Rating: 
Summary: as slow as a wet week
Review: Sadly, I wasted my time reading this novel through to the bitter-sweet end. Why the author wasted 3/4 of the book letting us know absolutely nothing and drawing the thin storyline out as far as she did is anyone's guess. Aimed at the teenage market perhaps, but most young readers of today would expect more value for their time than is delivered by this book. I can enjoy a slow book if the telling of the story is poetic, so it shouldn't even get a star for that. The best character in the book is Rosaleen, who surprised me by not picking up our little protagonist and throwing her in the nearest river. To the author I yelled "Get on with it!", to Lily "Get over it!".
And by the way, the name Deborah means bee.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated. Don't bother
Review: I had heard of Sue Monk Kidd from articles in Guidposts magazine, and I must say I was surprised with all the goddess-
worship in The Secret Life of Bees. The plot was too derivative, for the same type of setting I suggest the much stronger Nora, Nora by Anne Rivers Siddons. The novel was too long, the black/white confrontations were
naive and unbelievable, as were the great female characters. Also I found Lily's young age to be in doubt, she was too smart
precocious and intuative for her age. Fantasy, not fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The Sweetest Book
Review: It is the 1960a when racism was at its peak. Lily Owens is a 14 year old girl who must come to terms with her mother's death. She blames herself because her father "T-Ray" told her that she shot the gun that killed her mother. He made the accident Lily's fault. Lily is unhappy living with him and with Rosaleen, her black stand-in mother. One day Rosaleen is on her way to register to vote, she comes across and offends one of the town's most racist white man. Lily and Rosaleen together flee to Tiburon, South Carolina - because it is the name on the back of the only remnant Lily has from her mother: A picture of the black madonna. In Tiburon they live with the "calendar sisters" - May, June and August - who resembles the woman in the picture. The three sisters - especially August - show Lily that she can find strength within herself and that even though she doesn't have a biological mother, there are many other forms of mothering. They do this through deliciously described passages in the novel. Lily learns about her mothers life, and the lessons she is taught allow her to accept her mother's death, and to move on with her own life.
Rating:
Summary: i should have known better after seeing the book description
Review: sue monk kidd is a very good writer, but i found the story to be unrealistic. are we really expected to believe that these black women would be allowed to raise a young white girl without facing any kind of repercussion? i also found the whole "black mammy" thing tiresome. like we have nothing better to do than spend our whole lives taking care of the rejects of white folks. contrary to popular opinion and despite what the movies tell you, the overwhelming majority of black women would have been much happier raising and taking care of their OWN families. the description of rosaleen was especially offensive to me. rosaleen displayed a particular strength and personality that i admired. yet lily says she is embarrassed by rosaleen's mannerisms and speech. who is she to be ashamed? rosaleen raised and loved her and stood up for her when no one else would, but lily didn't truly appreciate her. certainly the characters in the novel are on common ground in that they all live on the fringes of society; however, it is once again made clear that black people are unacceptable to white folks, including lily, in any fashion unless we are smilin', singin' and dancin'. anything else, like the anger and disillusionment zach experienced after his release from jail or june's initial mistrust of lily, is incomprehensible. (could it be possible that a white person could inspire anything other than bliss in a black person?) i could go on. but what for?
Rating: 
Summary: A Taste of Honey For The Eyes That Touches The Heart
Review: Actually 3.5 stars Author Sue Monk Kidd delivers a slower pace but enjoyable novel about a young girl Lily Owns who is driven to reconcile the past with a mother she never knew who died under very mysterious circumstances. Escaping a horrific life from her father, T. Ray and with her maid and only mother figure, Rosaleen. Lily and Rosaleen arrive at the Boatwright Sisters (Africian-American sisters who are named by the months of the calendar) May, June, and August. Lily and Rosaleen settle in and set up a home at the Boatwright's Pink House, they learn about the nurturing power of women through the spiritual moving lessons regarding the Black Madonna (also a symbol on the Boatwright Sister's honey jars) and a obviously a little bee keeping in the process as Lilly slowly reconciles her mother's past and sudden mysterious death as ( which the Boatwright sisters hold a key to her past) and welcomes a friendship with a young African-American man, Zach.
Set against a racial tense backdrop of the south (Tiburon, SC?), after the runaway success of "The Da Vinci Code" is it really any surprise that finally readers are acknowledging and celebrating the Divine Feminine ideals? "The Secret Life of Bees" may slowly plod along in spots but the sweetness of it lingers on the tongue long after the last page is turned.
Rating:
Summary: Expected More
Review: This book was okay, but it's NOT great writing as the reviews on the first few pages suggest -- it is, very simply, brain candy. Take it to the beach. If you want a Southern, teenage voice in a work that is truly LITERATURE, read Sheri Joseph's "Bear Me Safely Over" or Heather Sellers' "Georgia Under Water." It's a shame this book has gotten the readership it has, really, when there are so many better, more complex books out there on the same subject.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but too feminist for me!
Review: Passages of this novel are simply poetic in their beauty. It was a joy to allow the imagery and personality of the prose to wash over and sink in as I read. The story is interesting and involving, even for a middle-aged male like I am. However, why do so many female writers seem to feel it necessary to create such unbalanced stories? There's not a single positive adult male in the book. Yes, there are minor male characters--the lawyer, June's boyfriend--but such minor personalities cannot compete with the hateful T. Ray and the racists in both towns. Meanwhile, all the women are flawless in their character. So June is hesitant about accepting two more into her household, she eventually comes around. I wish a talented writer such as Ms Kidd obviously is would turn those talents to presenting more balanced views of the world.
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