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For Readers Who Love The Help or Green Book

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

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Set in South Carolina in the 1960s, The Secret Life of Bees follows fourteen year old Lilly Owens and her black housekeeper/mother figure, Rosaleen. After some trouble in their hometown- Rosaleen gets arrested while attempting to register to vote and Lilly gets into a fight with her father about whether her deceased mother abandoned her- the two hit the road. With no real plan, Lilly leads them to Tiburon, South Carolina, a town that she believes had some connection to her mother. Once in Tiburon, […]

A sweet and sour tale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is nearly 20 years old but I had not come across it until the paperback was gifted to me for Christmas a couple of weeks ago. The story concerns Lily, a young teenager who has spent most of her life living with her abusive father and believing that she killed her mother. The setting is South Carolina in the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Act was signed and racial tensions were building dangerously. Lily (white) and […]

An Instant Classic

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

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This. Book. Is. So. Good. Seriously. Go get your hands on it right now. The Book of Longings is the fictional story of Jesus’s (Yes, that Jesus) feminist wife, Ana. Author Sue Monk Kidd wove a narrative that is unbelievably immersive and reverential to the life and times of Jesus Christ. By focusing on the humanity of Jesus and the strength of the women around him, The Book of Longings breathes new life into an age-old story. At a time when women were considered the […]

“I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself”

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

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This wasn’t like, horribly monstrously bad. But it was still not very good. It’s the story of Jessie Sullivan, a married woman in her forties, who goes home to this tiny island after she hears that her mother has had a nervous breakdown. Said nervous breakdown manifests as her mother intentionally cutting off one of her fingers. While back home, Jessie falls in love with a monk from the monastery that’s next door to her mother’s house. Meanwhile, her mother continues to act like a […]

History, Characters, and Emotion in a Perfect Package

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

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“People say love gets fouled by a difference big as ours. I didn’t know for sure whether Miss Sarah’s feelings came from love or guilt. I didn’t know whether mine came from love or a need to be safe. She loved me and pitied me. And I loved her and used her. It never was a simple thing.” (54) I’d seen The Invention of Wings (2014) by Sue Monk Kidd on book shelves, and I’d heard some buzz about it. With only a very vague […]

Growing up motherless is hard to do

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

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3. 5 stars Lily Owens grows up isolated, neglected by her father and lonely on a peach farm in Georgia in the 1960s. Her only friend is the woman who acts as her nanny, Rosaleen, a former field hand who’s taken care of her since Lily’s mother died in a tragic accident when Lily was little more than a toddler. When Rosaleen is forced to flee town after accidentally insulting some white men while on her way to registering to vote, Lily insists on coming […]



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