What the Buzz Was All About

I’m probably the last person to have read it, but I just finished (sadly) The Secret Life of Bees. I knew when it was newly published that it was a gem, every critic said so—but let me just confirm it personally. I pulled it off the shelf because last week I bought Kidd’s new novel, The Mermaid Chair. Being the obsessive/compulsive I am, I told myself I couldn’t read the new one until I finally read her first one.

Well, timing is everything – it couldn’t have been a more appropriate story to read over Mother’s Day weekend! It is a sweet, poignant story, rich in tone, solid in its depiction of the south of the Civil Rights era, full of characters to whom I grew deeply attached and humor that made me chuckle out loud. It is essentially a child’s search for mother love--

Perhaps it is impossible to have a relationship with a book, but Sue Monk Kidd has created a story so alive with warmth and emotion I feel like I just spent a few days with a very good friend.