Upcoming Appearances

January 2004: Sue Monk Kidd's THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

For the great Christmas adventure (aka, twelve hours of trains, planes and automobiles with a seven-month old baby), I brought along Sue Monk Kidd's THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. What an utterly lovely novel! This is a Southern tale, filled with the charm, wit and eccentric characters that populate such books. As a new mom, I found Lily's journey to learn more about her deceased mother particularly poignant. The opening few pages, where Lily relates her only memory of her mother-the afternoon when four-year old Lily accidentally kills the one woman she loves above all others-are particularly powerful. Despite such an opening, this is not a "depressing" piece of literature, but is a quietly optimistic tale about the power of the individual and the ability we all have to heal ourselves.