The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, takes a 14 year old girl, Lily, who has grown up without a mother and any parental affection, and sets her loose during the days of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in South Carolina. She gets into trouble when she tries to help her black caretaker who is beat up when she tries to register to vote. They escape her father's farm with what little possesions Lily has left from her mother and head toward the one town she thinks her mother may have been to.
In this town, they are taken in by three black sisters who are beekeepers, producing a line of honey with a Black Madonna on the label. Lily soon finds out that everyone has secrets, including her mother, and while racial tensions stir around them she finds a place of refuge.
There are great characters in this book. August is the older woman mentor that every woman needs in her life. Monk writes of friendship, motherhood, and a community of women with reverance and respect. She makes this a wonderfully written book, something worth reading - not just as the latest hot read for book discussion groups. And you also learn a bit about bees!
A great read.
One of my favorite passage between August and Lily:
"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? .... The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."
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