Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, 2002 (302 pages)

I've often heard good things about this book, but I've avoided reading it. I read another book by the same author (The Mermaid Chair), which I did NOT like, so I was worried that this book would be similar. However, I was given a new section of English to teach, and one of the required readings for the course is this book. Considering I'm supposed to be grading assignments based on the book...I figured I'd better read it!

I actually really liked the book! It's set in South Carolina in the summer of 1964. Lily is a 14-year old girl who leaves home in search of information about her mother (who died when Lily was only 4). One of the few things Lily has that belonged to her mother is a picture of a Black Madonna with "Tiburon, South Carolina" written on the back. This picture leads Lily to the Boatwright sisters, who keep bees and make "Black Madonna Honey."

This book is a story about love, about mothers and daughters, about friendship, about racism, and about healing after emotional pain. It's beautifully written, and the characters are very likeable. It's definitely worth the read!
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Total number of books read in 2009: 37
Total number of pages read in 2009: 12985

1 comment:

Heather said...

I had to read this book for my Comp I class in college a couple of years ago. They could have left out a few cuss words, but other then that I enjoyed it.