The Secret Life of Bees

This is a heart warming story, that I finished in a day! The author does a great job creating the mental images to go along with the story and the characters. I am a Midwest girl, born and raised. Since my first trip as a child down to Georgia, I have been in love with the South. The food, the landscape, the people, the weather! And it is all present here, and written in such a way that you are right smack dab in the middle of it. I was reluctant to read this until the movie came out because it just didn't seem like a story that would really stimulate me. I could not have been more wrong. Please don't make the same mistake I did, and indulge yourself in this delicious story now! Can't wait to see how Hollywood has interpreted this in movie format. Cozy up and enjoy!

I loved the book, and then as a book club we all saw the movie together. The characters were PERFECT!

The book is an easy, comfortable, feel good book. I highly recommend it. If you're more into a thriller, I just wrote and published my first book TAKEN. [...] See it!

The Secret Life of Bee's is an excellent story about a fourteen year old girl finding herself and learning to grow up. It takes place in the south (Tiburon, South Carolina to be exact) when racism was very common in that area. It is a great book for anyone but especially for girls entering their teens. She had to grow up without a mother so she never had that maternal influence or guidance. The most prominent female in her life was her Nanny Rosaleen. Because her father is cold and heatless Rosaleen becomes her only source of love, but people frown on this because Rosaleen is black. When Rosaleen's life is threatened and her father is to much for lily to bare lily makes a decision that will change her life forever. Lily runs away to Tiburon South Carolina because of a picture she found that belonged to her mother with the town written on the back.

Sure, I know, this book has been out for a while. I saw it on the shelves and felt like I didn't want to be bothered. I never go the way of the popular. However, The Secret Life of Bees is an absolutely wonderful story about compelling people doing compelling things. I was in the middle of reading another novel when I picked this one up at the store on a whim.

Lily, the main character, takes the reader by the hand and into a whirlwind of events that mold her into a young woman. August and her sisters take Lily under their collective wing and give her roots for the first time in her life. They also give her a place to heal old wounds. This story literally made me cry. Everything about Lily -- from falling in love with someone she cannot have to feeling the pain and anguish of knowing her mother ran away and left her -- rings so true to life.

If you only read one book for a long time, pick this one. I'm reading the Mermaid Chair (and finding it good but not as good so far) by the same author. It would be hard to match the quality and pace of The Secret Life of Bees.

What a wonderful book! I can't wait for the movie, but I know it will not be as good. It was written in the voice of a child and was just wonderful. I am adding it to my bookclub list.