Monday, September 1, 2008

Amateur Book Review - The Secret Life of Bees


The Secret Lives of Bees - by Sue Monk Kidd - Great book. I just heard that will will be a movie starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo (who I love from Hotel Rwanda) and Jennifer Hudson. Pretty exciting that it will be an all star cast.

Back to the book. The book takes place in the 60's and deals with racial tensions of the time. That is not why I wanted to read the book. The reason I wanted to read it was because the main character Lily's mom has died and she is on a mission to find out who her mom was. She is hungry for information about her mother which I can totally relate to.

In the story Lily she has a few saved mementos of her mom's and one of them, a piece of wood with a label on it featuring s a Black Madonna with the words Tiburon, South Carolina on the back. She and her maid/nanny (outspoken Rosaleen) get in a little trouble and Lily takes the opportunity to break free from her dad. She and Rosaleen head to South Carolina where they run into three black bee keeper sisters.

For me the story is about sisterhood, friends, and bravery. I adored the religion that the sisterhood made up to honor the Black Madonna along with a wonderfully poetic description of the times, an the nature of bee keeping.

This is a fantastic book and a really quick read. 4 out of 5 stars.

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