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Audio CD Description In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia 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

Customer Reviews Thoughtful and insightful reading I think anyone can relate to the feelings of the protagonist. She is exceedingly mature for her age, caring, down to earth and focused. I was glad that the book ended the way it did. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, as they say, and it would have been totally out of character for her father to change. The next time I read that someone chose a life of crime because of their early beginnings, I'll think of this book. Despite all manner of adversity, she overcame her obstacles and moved way beyond. B. Warsaw my book club I don't have time to write an extensive review.But I just wanted to say that my book club feels this is the best book we've read so far (of about 20 books). Very Enjoyable, a Book Worth Buying!... The story is also reminiscent of Huck Finn, in that Lily takes her black nanny with her (breaking her out of jail) on this voyage of discovery. They both end up in the home of the "calendar" girls, May, July and August, who lost their sister, April. These women operate the Black Madonna honey company - being excellent beekeepers, not only shipping honey around the country, but lending out their bees as crop pollinators in the neighborhood. The personalities in this story are a hoot. August, the queen bee, guides Lily through the art of beekeeping, the love of their Mary in Chains, the rosary, and all sorts of family traditions, including a "Negro" funeral. August knows exactly who she is, but can't believe Lily is come to stay with them. She doesn't reveal what she knows until the appropriate time. Each chapter (14 in all) begins with an epigraph about the care, feeding and life of bees. The major hint here is that the epigraph relates exactly with the subject of the chapter. Life, death, love, family, work, play. This is a short read if you stick with it, and the life in South Carolina is HOT and sticky. You can feel it in the honey house, the bedroom, and the kitchen. Bees figure centrally, as does Lily's first crush - even on a black young man. The only problem with this is that Lily has so much self-revelation at 14. At 14, I couldn't figure out anything, much less some of these eternal truths. Perhaps this is supposed to be a "looking back" kind of book. The author says it is in no way related to her real life. But , anyway, try it for yourself! Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to the south, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.