A few days ago I read and reviewed for the first time, The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This week, our book club The Bookies had the opportunity to discuss it.
On a scale of 1 – 5 (5 being the highest) the book rated mainly between 3.5 and 4. The girls all agreed that they enjoyed the book. While it was not one of those “WOW” that blew me away reads, it was an overall pleasant read with a nice mix of mid 60’s southern culture, and fats about honey and bees.
We discussed Lily’s home life situation with her father, and the loss of her mother. We discussed the culture of the 60’s in South Carolina and what that meant at the time for a white girl to live among an African-American family. (This still shocks me that this was really, not so long ago….)
Of course, we themed food and I found a fun little website called Book Menus that had a list of ALL the food in The Secret Life Of Bees. Seriously, how cool is that? We had pulled pork sandwiches and I made ham. One of the girls had coleslaw and added peaches to it (delicious!) as peaches play a role in this book. We had a pineapple strawberry upside down cake, orangeade, AND….
we had to try the coke and salted peanuts together like the y had in the book:
Why is this a great book for book clubs?
The Secret Life Of Bees brings out some good discussion topics such as abuse, the loss of a mother and women who stand in as “mothers” in our lives. There is also the topic of racial hatred and relationships among those of different backgrounds and color. The book brings with it wonderful southern foods to try as well.
Book Journey 
Was the Coke and salted peanuts any good? That sounds so weird!
Some liked it – I was not a fan. I think if the coke would have been ice cold I could have handled it 🙂
Y’all had really never had Coke and peanuts before? Did you put some of the cole slaw on your pulled pork sandwiches?
Never had it before Kathy… Minnesota… I have stuck my tongue on a metal pole before though in below freezing weather :razz:. Mmmm…. cole slaw on the pork? That sounds good!
We actually put cole slaw and pickles on pulled pork sandwiches around here.
The Secret Life of Bees is a fabulous book, has remained one of my favorites through the years.
Pulled pork with cole slaw? Absolutely!
This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I’ve introduced it to many of my family members who now love it as much as I do. 🙂
Oooo that doesn’t sound right. Fun pics.
Right? 😛
One of my all-time favorites!
🙂
Sheila, glad you stumbled onto my website! It sounds like your group had fun tasting foods from the Secret Life of Bees. I have yet to try the Coke and peanuts…it’s now on my to do list 😉 Let me know if you or your book group members have any specific titles I can “dissect” and feature on my site.
We did – thanks for an awesome site! It must take a lot of dedication to find all the food and book themes…. very cool! 😀
I love reading posts about book clubs that do it right, adding the food etc from the book, love that. Not sure if I would have tried the coke, lol, but the food sounds delicious.
This is a book that would work for my book club. I’ve read it before and I usually recommend books that I haven’t so I can read new things!
Sounds like another fun book club gathering for your group.
Wish I lived near you. 🙂