Rating: 
Summary: Great book to listen to
Review: I spend an hour a day driving to and from work so I recently decided to spend it listening to books. I chose this one because a review on the back of audio version said it was even better to hear this book than to read it. Well, I haven't read it so I can't attest to how good that would be, but I do agree that it was a beautiful book to listen to. I'm very selective about southern fiction because I find too many of them patronizing; but Kidd did an excellent job of staying true to the characters without making them cartoon-like. The reader was believably southern, but did not push the accent too far. Her adjustments in voice for different characters was consistent and as her voice changed even slightly, I knew which character was beginning to speak. As I listened, I felt like I was sitting in a theater with Lily telling me her story from the stage. It is a wonderful story, well written, with very endearing characters.
Rating:
Summary: I could not put this book down!
Review: I thoughly enjoyed "The Secret Life of Bees". Sue Monk is a gifted writer. I laughed, I cried, I felt as though I began to know these wonderful women. I'm looking forword to reading more of her work! I highly recommend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay.
Review: Disappointed. I found the first 20-30 pages of this book to be riveting and deeply touching. Then I perceived the story to become very predictable, preachy, cliched. By the end, I was merely enduring and looking forward to the last page. I found it bothersome that the Southern white characters were largely portrayed as being one dimensional, dimwitted bigots while the black Southern characters were universally portrayed as long-suffering, flawless, uplifting people. A bit sophomoric and simplistic, no? And the author strained too hard to make the connection between bee and human behavior. The author seemed to start with a premise--the similarities between bees and humans--and would often go to absurd lengths to connect the two.
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.
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