The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The book I am currently reading (but almost done) is "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. So far,
(and again I'm almost done so basically its not just "so far" but almost the entire book) I like this book very much and it has definitely become one of my favourites.

 This book is set in the 1960s in South Carolina, where a lot of racial discrimination is still thriving. Lily Owens, a girl living with her heartless and abusive father is constantly not as happy as one could be, due to her mother having passed when she was still at a young age, and the death to be said, was caused by her own accidental doing (a fight between Lily's parents caused her mother do pull out a gun but when it falls on the floor, Lily picks it up and it goes off, killing her mother). When her nanny (that is like a "second" mother to her), Rosaleen (who is an African American), gets thrown in jail by angering a few racist white men while trying to become a voter, Lily and Rosaleen escape to a small town named Tiburon, a town written on the back of a picture of a black Mary (later known as Black Madonna) that belonged to Lily's mother. Now on a "quest" to find out about her mother's past, they meet three sisters who own a honey business and although facing challenges, form a foundation of love and motherly care, finding out what truly matters the most in life.

A lot of the times while I read this book visualizations are what mostly came to mind, because of how well the author has described each setting. In fact (I'm not sure if this counts as a visualization or a connection but...) a lot of the times, again due to well descriptions, I can feel the emotions that Lily is feeling, feel the sorrow when knowing that her father really doesn't love her, feel the anger when she knows her mother did something unforgiving, even feel how beautiful the bond is between her and the Daughters of Mary are. There are times though that I made connections, for example when it talked about her smashing honey jars due to her anger, but finding out that being destructive doesn't help, I can connect to how I get agitated and yell at people when I am extremely unhappy but realize that that only makes me feel worse. Inferences are also made occasionally, such as: I infer that when someone reaches the age of 14, they become a lot more mature based on how she seems so much more mature or able to follow her true will, or even by a lot of other stories, even for example "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" that we read two days ago.

Lastly I did sometimes make predictions but not that often since that is a reading skill that I do not commonly use. One prediction that I made was that Lily would end up meeting T-Ray again but that she wouldn't go with him back to her hometown. I predicted this because a good book doesn't usually leave something hanging, such as "will she ever have to face her dad again?" and also since, it being a heartwarming book (or at least I think it should be) I didn't think that it would have a miserable and depressing ending which would be, if she had to go back.

According to the last few pages the author has written (I read them early on to have a greater understanding of the book before I continued so I could see underlying messages), this novel is about "...mothers lost and found, love, conviction, and forgiveness, The Secret Life of Bees boldly explores life's wounds and reveals the deeper meaning of home and the redemptive simplicity of "choosing what matters", which I completely agree with and therefore I would DEFINITELY recommend this book to anyone who likes reading books that are truly worth while and will be remembered for life.