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.

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."


Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.


Chapter31

Boo is led to Jem’s bed to wish him goodnight. Scout is very protective and careful with Boo. When the latter requests Scout to escort him home and Scout does so, but by making it seem as though it is he who is leading her. After he goes home, Scout never sees him again.

Scout sits with Aunt Alexandra near Jem’s bed for a while. Atticus is reading out from a book, The Grey Ghost to Jem who has fallen asleep. Gradually, Scout too falls asleep. Atticus leads her to her own bed and returns to Jem’s room to remain there till morning.

I don't think I can say anything about this book that hasn't already been said. The Great American Novel.

Every person should read this once in his or her life. At least once; if not, twice or thrice or more.

This is the first book (1960) that this author wrote and it won a Pulitzer Prize. I saw the Academy Award-winning film in the early sixties.

A must read for every living soul. Great in that it gets the attention of even non-reading 7th graders.

Although I didn't realize how funny this book was until I read and re-read this book in college, it was one of my favorites when I first read it in middle school.

My favorite novel of all time. 'Nuf said.

Started 9 Dec 2006

Finished 16 Dec 2006

A tremendous, simple, moving book. Elements of the the secrets and mystery of the Deep South of that era combine with a frank and charged portrayal of black vs. white, and all are wrapped up with a little tomboy girl learning to make sense of her world.

I like how Harper Lee doesn't cut corners; she doesn't take the easy way out with easily-identified stereotypes. It can be a harsh read, but only because you may be reminded as a white reader that maybe you aren't so much separate from the racists in the book. But on the plus side, maybe you aren't so different than Atticus & Scout, too. Because they're all human. Even the racists, and there but for the grace of god go we all.

I have to read this book for school.... :/
I am sure it will be a good book though! :]

Classic. Obvious must read!