The Secret Life of Bees

I do not know if I would have ever chosen this book by reading the back cover. However, I wanted a novel to take with me on vacation (to Vietnam) and I while visiting my friend Regina, she said this was one her daughter Tanya had wanted her to read because of the love portrayed between mothers and daughters. So on that recommendation, I gave it a go.

The Secret Life of Bees takes you back to the summer of 1964 to the hot days of South Carolina as the Civil Rights Movement heats up. It was easy to get caught up in the smell of Carolina jasmine, the dialect of the locals, feel loss and love and taste the sweetness of honey as the story moves in a non-rushed way allowing you to experience life right along with Lily. Lily, a 14 year old white girl won my affections immediately as each page drew me into her life and her fears. Because I did not read the back of the book, i had no idea that i was about to meet 3 wonderfully eccentric black beekeeping sisters (named August, May and June) and I felt like a part of the sisterhood in their pink house. How was I to know Black Madonna worship would be involved? But I could picture it just as easy as I could May's self created wailing wall. August and her patient wisdom shows throughout the book and here is an example of it with Lily about the color of their house:

"All this time I just figured you liked pink," I (Lily) said. She (August) laughed again. "You know, some things don't matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house, how big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart--now that matters. The whole problem with people is--" "They don't know what matters and what doesn't, " I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so. "I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

While reading this coming-to-age-story of love, forgiveness, prejudice, pain and healing, I learned a whole lot about bees and honey in the process. I will never eat honey again without thinking of the bees that make it and I have a feeling August and her sisters will come to mind for quite some time too.
Oh, and another delightful thing about the book was the brief interveiw at the end with the author and a short guide for discussion
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The Secret Life of Bees
author: Sue Monk Kidd
302 pages; paperback
2002