I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. At first I had the impression that it would be super gimmicky, given the premise, and only something cheesy. It was, a bit, and I don't think much was developed in the characters more than I anticipated- the expected self-discovery and attempts to right one's self with the world. But the interactions between characters were interesting and fun.
The television reality show the characters were on sounds totally absurd, but I think the unrealistic nature of it is tempered by the characters understanding that it is totally unreasonable and stupid.
I liked the inclusion of the gay characters. I predictably disliked the hypocritical ones (as I am intended to do), but I appreciated Abby's redemption.

I am still processing. All I can say now is that this book packs a big punch and that reading it at this point in my life proves my point that there is a Book God who gives you the books you need when you need them.

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."

When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina - a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother.

There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most, a sense of belonging.

This book was recommended to me by a friend, but I was a little hesitant at first as I read The Mermaid Chair and did not enjoy it that much. This book was fantastic and did not disappoint! I loved the storyline and the charcters; I had a hard time putting The Secret Life of Bees down!

I enjoyed this book, but the end became awfully idealistic and predictable. Until that point, though, it was a great story. I thought the story did an exceptional job of gracefully discussing race issues of the '60's and '70's.

This book takes place in during the turbulent times of the 60's. It is amazingly well-written. I can't say enough about this book. Highly recommended by me.

A quick read full of ups and downs and new experiences meshed with familiar ones. I wouldn't say it is stellar writing, but she does have a great gift for description that allows you to really feel much of the book. A little gem.

I enjoyed this touching story very much.

An emotional journey involving a young southern girl whose mother dies at a young age. I don't want to say more...just read it!

A fantastic read filled with many emotional topics...The south, racism, the role of women in history and much, much more!

Fantastic! Fantastic! Fantastic!

This novel, tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl named Lily Owen who is raised by an elderly African American Rosaleen after the accidental death of Lily's mother. Following a racial brawl in 1960s Tiburon, SC, Lily and Rosaleen find shelter in a distant town with three black bee-keeping sisters. The sisters and their close-knit community of women live within the confines of racial and gender bondage and yet have an unmistakable strength and serenity associated with the worship of a black Madonna and the healing power of honey. Lily discovers the truth about her mother's past and the certainty that "the hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters." The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant that they will bring tears to your eyes. Among the best books I have ever read.

BLURB
Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event.
Now fourteen, she yeams for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart.
South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act.
Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.


REVIEW
This is about to made into a movie with the incomparable Dakota Fanning taking the lead. It sounds perfect and I can hardly wait.

The Lily of the novel is feisty, intelligent and at times desperately unhappy. Although not a particularly troublesome kid, she seems to exist in a ghost world, surrounded by the silent unforgiving oppression of her father. Her only companion is her Nanny Rosaleen, and though good-natured, the servant has a tongue that could skin a cow.

So, Lily decided one day that she has had enough, and she starts across the country, until she is taken in by three bee-keeping sisters. These odd, strong and independent women have problems of their own aplenty (one has mental health problems, beautifully described here as her personal cross to bear rather than as some axe-weilding lunatic fringe character), but they have a lot to teach about life and bees and honey.

As Lily grows under their care, she discovers the truth about her own past, parents and potential.

This book has all the potential to be a kiddy-friendly stinker, but Sue Monk Kidd possesses that wonderful albeit rare quality to create three-dimensional flawed characters that climb into your heart and don't let go. Never santimonious, never preachy, her books are simple and powerful and poignant.

The only tiny flaw I could find was that the father was a kinda unrealised character (though that might have been the point). But in a book celebrating the liberating power of sisterhood, that was hardly the shock of the century!

Read this in 2005. I remember the general outline of the story. I know I really enjoyed this and it was a book club selection.

A brilliant book and really enjoyed it.

Blurb:
This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most.
But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg's mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives - and the country that shaped and nourished them - with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. The result is unforgettable.

On Palm Sunday, 1994, a tornado ripped through a church in Piedmont, AL, killing 20 people. This is Bragg's hometown, and he began his story on the tragedy for the New York Times as follows: "This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven. This is a place where the song 'Jesus Loves Me' has rocked generations to sleep, and heaven is not a concept, but a destination." It is writing of this quality that won the author his job as a national correspondent and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. He grew up in poverty, the second of three sons of an alcoholic, abusive father and a loving mother. The early chapters give a beautiful description of warm and happy moments he enjoyed with her and his family even as she struggled to provide for them after they'd been abandoned.

The best reason to read ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN' is to become acquainted with Margaret, and perhaps the best chapter is near the end when Rick describes his Momma's very first plane ride and foray out into the larger world - at age 59 - to see her son awarded the Pulitzer in New York City. That chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Margaret is truly the essence of the meaning of "Mom".

Nikki's mother is murdered by a stranger. Book is about the following year and how she deals with her grief and her relationship with her sister.

A touching account of a mother's loss and how she copes with the loss of a daughter and grandson due to murder.