The Secret Life of Bees

“I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called ‘bee yard etiquette'. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”

When I arrived on the Goodreads page for The Secret Life of Bees, I was amused to find that I'd marked it as ‘want to read' eleven years previously. It was worth the wait. This was a well paced, easy read, touching on themes of racism, motherhood, the power of female community, and the divine feminine.

As a beekeeper I was always going to be somewhat biased towards this book so it will come as no surprise that I absolutely loved it, particularly the way that facts about bees and beekeeping folklore mingled with the storytelling throughout. Sue Kidd's writing is dreamy, almost fairy tale esque, and does a fantastic job of evoking the heat and tension of the American south in the sixties.

Another five star read. What a month!

Didn't expect the book to be this good!
Surprisingly very funny!
Although a little slow in the middle, engaging enough to keep you going.
Story of a young girl in search of answers and the world she discovers on that journey.
The way this book is written, it will make you fall in love with the honey house, and the Boatwright sisters. Heartwarming, and has some great quotable lines.

I don't read a lot of what might get categorized as “chick lit”, but I found this story about a 14 year-old girl who finds family and community in a place she might never have imagined to be sweet and an easy read. It wasn't challenging, and I didn't find it especially moving or lovely, but sometimes something nice to read and satisfying hits the spot.

I liked this book okay as I was reading it, but suspected the real power of the story would hit me at the ending, that the book was building toward something. Sometimes books are like that. This IS how the book worked for me – when I looked back on the story.

I enjoyed the characters, and the idea of finding a mother/a self-nurturing side inside yourself. I think there are the mothers we have in the most literal sense and then the archetypal mother – sometimes the two are interwoven and other times ... not. The important thing is that it is deeply human to crave the a deeper, unconditional, life-giving, encompassing love we associate with mothers.

When I was a teen, my mother broke my heart, and I remember crying about wanting my mother, but in that moment I didn't mean her, I meant someone who would give me what I lacked, who would help heal the hurt caused by my actual mother's limitations.

Eh, I don't know.

This is the second book I've read by this (white) author, and both contained prominent black characters going through significant hardships at the hands of white people, and I have to confess I feel conflicted. Of course people should be allowed to write about characters of different races from their own. Still, I can't help but feel like people of color are the best people to write about slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, and civil rights until their voices are given as much weight as the voices of white authors.

“There is nothing perfect... There is only life.”

The Secret Life of Bees is an emotional coming of age story about Lily, a 14 year old girl in the South in 1964, who runs away from home to protect herself and Rosaleen, the black woman who takes care of her, from the abuses of the white men in her hometown. They find refuge in the home of three black beekeeping sisters who Lily believes may have known her deceased mother. While staying with these women, Lily learns many valuable life lessons and comes to better understand herself and the world in which she lives.

Lily's life is far from perfect. Her mother died in a tragic accident when she was only four years old, and her father is not a capable or loving parent. Lily's story is an emotional one, and it seems at times that she is destined to end up bitter and angry. However, the women of this story nurture her and teach her acceptance and forgiveness so that she can embrace her own power and love herself and others.

This is a beautiful, compelling story that uses metaphors about bees and spirituality to develop many important themes around the topics of identity, acceptance, family, abuse, racism, and mental health. It made me feel powerful emotions, which is always the sign of a great book for me. The understanding Lily gains about her mother and the relationship she develops with August are particularly impactful. I believe I will be thinking about this book for a while.

I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy character-driven stories in historical settings that focus on female characters and relationships. This is definitely a new favorite for me.

I read this for school but don't get it twisted; the fact that this was required reading had absolutely no hinderance on my enjoyment of this.

I really really loved the writing style. It was so beautiful and seemed to romanticize every aspect of life. But there were so many plot points or lines of dialogue that just had me asking “why? But... but why?” I really couldn't get into the story, and that might be because this just wouldn't have been something I would've picked up on my own.

Also, there's definitely something to be said about how schools have us read stories about racism from a white character's POV and by a white author.

3.5

This book had me waffling between ‘yes, that's how that would go' and ‘how in the world...'.

So the suspension of disbelief was a little weak.

It also felt jumpy in moments and often had to reread bits, or give up.

There were many instances where a detail rang rather true to some of the region's culture or idiosyncratic nature, such as weather phenomena and natural landscape, and it was deeply satisfying. Some portions were excellent in both concept and form.

I really enjoyed this book. The reading itself was very easy... the research done on bees was enough to make this all believable, but not so much that it was overwhelmingly detailed. Some of the story-telling was predictable, but the overall book was thoroughly enjoyable.

Like many of the other readers/reviewers of this book, I would like to see a sequel as well. I'd like to know what happens to some of the characters. I didn't want the story to stop. I wanted to find out what happened with Lily and August...