Reading about bees and not only

"Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black stand-in-mother, Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racist in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina-a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about devine female power, a story that women will share and pass to their daughters for years to come." (Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, Penguin Books, 2002)