The Secret Life of Bees Review

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a bittersweet story of inspiration, faith, and the power of love. It was published in 2002 and then made into a movie in 2008 featuring names such as Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys. It’s the story of a fourteen year old girl who accidentally killed her mother when she was little and now that memory follow her ever where haunting her. But it leads her on a journey to Tiburon South Carolina where she finds a trio of beekeeping, loving sisters. Kidd originally wrote it as a short story in 1933 but knew she wanted to make that she really wanted to make it into a novel. But she put it aside because she had just started writing fiction and didn’t feel ready or experienced enough to dive in.

The plot of the story is truly unique, one of a kind. It’s new and simply refreshing yet has the sentimental feel of an old story that’s been passed down from generation to generation. Intertwined amongst the main plot are many subplots. This allowed Kidd to weave in lots of emotion and create a story that everyone can relate to in some way.  Although the book can be slow at times, and is in no way a fast paced, intense, thriller that keeps you biting at your fingernails always on edge of seat, it does secretly keep drawing you in without you even realizing. It has a very relaxed, easy going pace that makes the reader drift out of reality and back in time. As you read it’s as if you’re sitting on a beaten porch in the South Carolina heat sipping sweet tea observing the world around you. And sitting there you see relationships and secrets, and so much love but so much hate existing all at the same.

The characterization in this story is phenomenal.  Kidd does a remarkable job creating the characters. You really get a great sense for who they are and what their inner emotions and beliefs are even when she doesn’t come out and directly state it. She creates such relatable characters you really fall in love or despise each character. You become so caught up in them and their lives that they become almost like real people to you. And she describes them in such a way that you can picture not only a character’s face and hair and skin, but heart and soul and mind. During a conversation between two of the main characters, Lily and Zach, “I’ve just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them.’ ‘Bullshit. You gotta imagine what’s never been.” (Kidd 104) a lot is revealed about the kind of person they both are.

Sue has a very distinct voice, she infuses figurative language everywhere into her writing. She would write great comparisons like, “My whole life has been nothing but a hole, where my mother should have been. It always left me aching, but I never thought about what it did to you.” (Kidd 293). She takes emotions that are hard to explain and understand and puts them in words that make sense. She also writes great dialogue. It is so natural and smooth and she really captured that southern twang. You can hear the voices speaking right into your ears like overhearing a conversation. Something that was different that she did that I especially liked was the epigraphs at beginning of every chapter they helped to tie in the reoccurring symbolism of bees and beehives. Beehives are a safe haven for bees just like August and the pink house was for Lily. And bee’s struggles for survival and need for a queen bee and motherly love parallel Lily’s feelings.

The Secret Life of Bees is a truly wonderful, heart moving story. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry, but ultimately it leaves you smiling. I would give it four out of five stars and think that it’s a story all mothers and daughters should read and share. It is a perfect book club kind of book. “When you read The Secret Life of Bees, you know why the book sold 5 million copies. Kidd is a seductive writer, with a voice that carries just enough moonlight and magnolias to evoke the desultory Southern lyricism of To Kill a Mockingbird. Each character vibrates with mystery.” (Entertainment Weekly).

Top 5 Presentation

Truth in Memoir

If you say something is non- fiction, then it better be non- fiction. One hundred percent of it, not seventy, not eighty, not even nighty- five, one hundred percent. When you read non-fiction, often you are doing so in order to learn about something, but if what you “learn” is untrue, then it defeats the whole purpose. Also the thing that makes memoirs so powerful and such great stories is the fact that they are true. It’s not someone’s imagination at work, it is real life. Knowing this, memoirs have the ability to move us in ways that an ordinary novel cannot. We can be hurt and sad feeling the pain in the story. Or we can be inspired and filled with happiness for the triumph in the story. But if we find out it’s all fake, then what’s it worth? Anyone can make up a story of someone who beats the odds, or a story of a tragedy that made someone stronger in the end, or a story of a fascinating, interesting life filled with bittersweet memories. It’s when these things have actually happened to someone that we create the connection and find ourselves thinking about the story in our own life. I think this is why so many authors call pieces memoirs, which have really been fabricated. They know it makes the story that much better, that much stronger, and most importantly it makes people want to read it that much more.

I do think half-truths are okay though, with one exception. The author must state that the story is not non- fiction. I’m not asking them to call their book fiction and lump it together with a bunch of other great stories. People should know that some of the story is true. That’s why I believe if someone is going to write a memoir and they are going to add or change things, they must say this work is based on a true story, or loosely based on a true story. That way the reader going in knows what to expect. And that is why I strongly disagree with David Shields. What he did with his book was intriguing I must admit. But we need to have a clear, definite line between fiction and non-fiction because otherwise we may start to blur the line between reality and fiction so much that we don’t know what to believe at all anymore. With textbooks and history books, how would we know anything they are saying is true? We will find ourselves not having a clue what to believe anymore.

Readicide

     A book should be defined by the writing craft and plot, not how many weeks it has been on the best seller’s list, not when it was written, or not if over the years it has been deemed a “classic.” So you ask how to determine what books should be taught in school. Well, I think they should have an award given to a book of every genre each year that the people vote on. It would be like the people’s choice awards of books. Then schools could take some of these books along with what the feel are the best and most important literary works for students to read. This would provide students with a variety of good books. Plus, even if a particular book was not a student’s favorite, with the variety in genre they are bound to enjoy at least one of the books they have to read. I think this is the best system because right now kids in school only are getting exposed to literary works, and therefore judging all books on their experience with these works. It’s also very important to expose kids to other genres so they can get inspiration for their writing, and just see different writing techniques. I believe a person can’t make a blanket statement abou8t reading or a specific genre before they have really dipped into it and let themselves explore it with an open mind. I think all books of all genres can be relevant in our lives, even one’s written many years ago, teachers just have to make sure they focus on the underlying themes and help us to relate them to our lives. This way students will feel what they are reading is important too and care about it. Because the moment we feel that reading a book is pointless and we don’t care about the story or what the author is trying to convey to us, we are doomed.

Hunger Games Book Trailer

Hunger Games Adaptation

     Some challenges a filmmaker would have in adapting The Hunger Games to the big screen would be recreating the setting, preparing the actors to be in top physical condition, and the animation of futuristic creatures. The setting would be very hard to recreate because places such as the Seam and the Capitol do not exist. A filmmaker would have to completely create it and based solely off the description in the book. The actors, once casted, would still need prep work before filming. In the Hunger Games, each character has specific talents and abilities so the actors would have to go through serious training. For example, Jennifer Lawrence had to do lots of training to be as good with a bow and arrow as the Katniss is. Also the actors playing “career” tributes, or characters like Thresh would have to gain lots of muscle in order to fit the look of their character. Many of the characters practically starved to death during the games. Making the characters appear very skinny and bony would be a hard task as well. There are also many made up creatures in the book. This would require good animations to fit them into the scene and make them look as natural and realistic as possible.

     The most important scenes to keep in the adaptation would be when Katniss volunteers to be tribute and then Peeta is chosen, when Peeta declares his love for Katniss, when they join forces in the games, and the suicide attempt. These scenes if removed would completely change the plot. Two parts that could be cut would be the character the red- headed Avox and when the many meals they had before the games. These don’t have any effect on the plot and didn’t help develop the characters too much either.

Book 1 Project- 11/22/63

     11/22/63 by Stephen King needs something big, something bold, something eye- catching to gain a wider audience and help fans extend their interaction with this book.  And I have just the perfect thing! Throughout Jake’s travels back in the 1950s and 60s he visits various cities and towns. These locations play a key role in the story and have immense impacts on Jake’s life. King provided many rich, lavish details about these places, painting pictures in the reader’s mind. What if these images in people’s minds could be brought to life? We should create a tour that would take people through several of the cities that Jake journeys to in his wild adventure into the past.

     Cities important to the story: Derry, Jodie, and Dallas, would be those we recreate. We would also recreate the “rabbit hole” and make it the entrance to the cities, giving people the sense that they are actually going through a time machine and into a whole other world. Jake’s iconic Sunliner will also be featured. In each city the buildings, shops, and houses that were key to the story will be recreated. We not only want to capture the physical essence of the cities but the emotional as well. That is why we will have a staff that will act as the important characters in the book. They will act like the characters and use dialogue from the book. All of these aspects will combine to make the people feel as if they went through  time with Jake.           

     The first city people will tour once they step through the “rabbit hole” is Derry since the cities will be arranged in the order in which they appeared in the book. Derry will be an attention grabber because in the book Jake’s time in Derry was quite suspenseful and everywhere he went he had to have his guard up. When he first entered the city, he wasn’t too fond of it. “This was the town where Harry Dunning had grown up, and I hated it from the first. No concrete reason; I just did. The down town shopping area, situated at the bottom of three steep hills, felt pitlike and claustrophobic. My cherry- red Ford seemed like the brightest thing on the street, a distracting (and unwelcome, judging by most glances it was attracting) splash of color amid the black Plymouths, brown Chevrolets, and grimy delivery trucks. Running through the center of town was a canal filled almost to the top of its moss- splotched concrete retaining walls with black water.” (King 121). This location is where Jake really was changed. Some of the places built in the city will be 379 Kossuth Street, The Center Street Market, The Lamplighter, and the Longview Cemetery. The featured characters would be Frank Dunning and his family, Beverly Marsh, Ritchie Tozier, Chaz Frati and Bill Turcotte.

     The next city on the tour will be Jodie. This will be the big attraction because just as that small town touched Jake in ways he could never have imagined, I think it touched every reader in their own way too. This is where Jake was truly happy in the past,  it’s where he felt he truly belonged. He described it as home saying, “And Jodie was good—good for me. In Derry I was an outsider, but Jodie was home. Here’s home: the smell of the sage and the way the hills flush orange with Indian blanket in the summer. The faint taste of tobacco on Sadie’s tongue and the squeak of the oiled wood floorboards in my homeroom.”(King 398). We want the people to feel Jake’s strong emotions here. We will do this through the presence of DCHS, Mercedes Street  Fort Worth, and Bee Tree Lane. As well as the characters Sadie Dunhill, Deke Simmons, Miz Ellie, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina Oswald, June Oswald, George de Mohrenschildt, Mike Coslaw, Bobbi Jill, and John Clayton.

     The last city will be Dallas. The places in Dallas would include the Texas School Book Depository, Elm Street, and 214 West Neely Street. People taking the tour will be able to share in Jake’s feeling when they see the Depository, “The Book Depository wasn't a ruin, but it conveyed the same sense of sentient menace. I remembered coming on that submerged, soot-blackened smokestack, lying in the weeds like a giant prehistoric snake dozing in the sun. I remembered looking into its dark bore, so large I could have walked into it. And I remembered feeling that something was in there. Something alive. Something that wanted me to walk into it. So I could visit. Maybe for a long, long time.”(King 293) The characters would include JFK, Jackie Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and James P. Hosty.  These are names that people will know, not just those who have read the book.  This would help intrigue them to read about those familiar to them.

       Fans of the book will love this opportunity to really dive into the book even more and this will attract new readers because, even if you have not read the book, the tour would be a fascinating adventure for any person at any age!