The Secret Life of Bees | 
 enlarge | Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.99
You Save: $13.01 (93%)
New (88) Used (273) Collectible (13) from $0.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  1404 reviews
Sales Rank: 308
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0142001740
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780142001745
ASIN: 0142001740
Publication Date: January 28, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Ships within 24-hours, Monday-Friday. Your satisfaction guaranteed.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their South Carolina peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. --Regina Marler
Product Description
Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Now I know why people kept buying this book October 14, 2008
When I worked at Barnes and Noble, people would come in all the time, wanting to buy "The Secret Life of Bees". It was on the Bestseller list at the store just recently as I can remember...Around April or May of this year. I never understood why, I guess because I've been reading so many romance novels, never bothered to look at anything else. Plus it just didn't interest me, until I was at the movie theater and saw the coming attractions for this book. I said, damn, this movie looks real good. Then they said the title, and I nearly jumped out my chair. SO THAT'S THE REASON WHY EVERYONE KEPT BUYING THIS BOOK. I had to read it. I'm so glad I went to the library to get it. This book is so good and so funny. I hate cause it's taking me a long time to read it. That's because I haven't felt like reading, but I'm going to buy this book so I can add it to my collection of books (even though they are all romance). Lilly cracks me up with the things she says (Dakota Fanning definitly fits the part of Lilly) and Rosaleen, I feel so bad for her, but she has me laughing as well. Actually, they all have their quirks but that's what makes them unique. Sue Monk Kidd did an excellent job with this book. I know now to not really judge a book by it's cover, and there's more to books than romance novels. LOL
Traveling made easy October 12, 2008
My husband and I listened to Secret LOB's while traveling. We listened going and returning but didn't get it finished. We spent the next afternoon relaxing and finishing the cd. We both felt it was one of the best Books on cd. Another book on cd for a really long travel is The White House by Margaret Truman. You can listen, stop, and return to listening weeks after for the trip home. She researched the White house and has many interesting inside stories of the people who lived and visited the White House.
Gorgeous Prose and Characters October 11, 2008
The Secret Life of Bees is one of those books that is always talked about yet might not be as good as people say it is. You don't really know until you read it yourself. It has reached such a high pedestal in today's literature that it might just be hype. But it is certainly not. This novel was one of the best I have read this year.
Lily Owens, fourteen years old, is growing sick of her home. Conflicted by the memory of the day her mother died, Lily has to also deal with her mean father T.Ray, who routinely makes her kneel on grits. After her nanny Rosaleen ends up in jail, Lily decides it is time to take charge. She busts Rosaleen out and travels to Tiburon, South Carolina. All she has left of her mother is a little picture of the Black Madonna with Tiburon written on the back. Lily and Rosaleen are immediately taken in by three beekeeping sisters who have secrets to give and secrets to keep. Along the way Lily realizes the true meaning of home and family and meets a group of very special women.
This book is wonderful and relatable. As a teenager myself I find Lily very easy to listen to and to care for. The story moved along quickly, but didn't spare any detail. Every heartbreak and triumph committed by the characters was felt substantially. This book is not hype; it is truly a gem. And with the movie coming out, this book will certainly become appreciated and loved by more people all over the world.
The Secret Life of Bees October 11, 2008
This book was thought provoking, funny, truthful and very touching. I needed to read it slowly so I wouldn't miss any of the details. A great book for a vaction, even if the vacation is in the comfort of your own home. Enjoy!
 Lovely and Sad Story October 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I know I am very late to the party when it comes to "The Secret Life of Bees". It was at a second hand store, and was the best of what was available, so I picked it up. The words and images in this novel set in 1964 South Carolina in 1964 were very evocative...when Kidd describes the oppressive heat - I can practically taste that hot, dusty air.
There were sections when Lily reflects on the mother she's lost and the father she never really had that touched my heart. This young girl's voice comes through so strong and clear that sometimes I forgot the loss she'd experienced. And then I would read something like this.
"That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my other in paradise. I would meet her saying, "Mother, forgive. Please forgive," and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years."
Anyone who has ever been either a parent or a child (!) couldn't help but be touched by the pain and loneliness behind those words.
Lily is a girl full of pain, hungering for the slightest bit of affection, and fueled by anger. And yet, I didn't get a sense that she wanted anyone to pity her - she just wanted the smallest chance at a normal life, the tiniest sign that someone valued her as a person, could recognize the hurt she felt.
"Did this mean that if I told May about T. Ray's mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing my mother - that hearing it, she would feel everything I did? I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?"
This book was an interesting mix of racial tension, Southern life, 1960's politics and the mysteries of female relationships. With so many intertwining issues, it was difficult for me to focus on the underlying message, but I did take an image from here, a message from there. And sometimes I just enjoyed the writing.
"The first week at August's was a consolation, a pure relief. The world will give you that once in a while, a brief time-out; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life."
At other times, I found my cynicism rising - sometimes, (and I understand how ironic this will sound in a story of girl whose mother dies and whose father does not love her) sometimes the events unfolding struck me as "too good to be true". Or more accurately, to coincidental to be believable.
In the end, though, this book has many lovely parts, many small windows into a world and time and life I will never know.
|
|
|
