Everything precious can slip from the hinges where you’ve hung it so careful.—Sue Monk Kidd

I just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees and am still reveling in the rich resonance of this wonderfully written, content-packed story. There’s a lot of bee talk in The Secret Life of Bees, but there’s a lot more to this book than bees. How many books in one’s life are as beautifully written as they are content-laden? Usually I’ll like a book either because it’s well written or because the story is so compelling. The Secret Life of Bees delivers both.

If you read this book you’ll have received a gift that stays with you days after. Weeks, months, years. No wonder Sue Monk Kidd has exploded onto the literary scene as the next Carson McCullers or Harper Lee. What is it about these Southern female writers and their way with words?  Move over Southern ladies of the pen. Make room in the pantheon of literary lions from the American South for Sue Monk Kidd.  She floors me. She’ll floor you too if you you read The Secret Life of Bees.

What wine would you sip while contemplating this quote?

I would sip something honey colored—a buttery Chardonnay. Egret from California comes to mind.

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