Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

So I finally read The Secret Life of Bees. And yes, everyone who told me, "Oh, Leila, you have to read this book, it's SO GOOD!" Yes, you were right. You win. I loved it. Although it made me cry on and off a lot. But not it a bad way. And even with everything that's been going on in the last couple of days, I loved it to the point where I HAD to finish it last night—I didn't want to wait to find out how everything worked out. I started it at lunch yesterday, and was really honestly MAD when lunch ended, because I just wanted to keep reading. This conversation is one that sticks:

"You know, some things don't matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall sceme of life? But lifting a person's heart—now, that matters. The whole problem with people is—"

"They don't know that matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.

"I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

Also, I loved the way that Lily uses the word "shitbucket". I've tried it out a few times, and it's really satisfying. I have a feeling that it might end up in my regular vocabulary. I think I'll probably eventually work it into my high school reading group. But I'll have to pick others to go with it. Hmmm. Southern theme? Honey/Bees theme? Religion theme? Sixties theme? There are a lot of possibilities.