Jodi Finchum

Professor McLaughlin

7-9-10

Journal- Friday

             My favorite reading/author that we ready by far was The Secret Life of Bees. I was very drawn into the characters, and loved the imagery and in depth descriptions. The setting was also great for me, because I love southern everything! I also liked the time period that the story was supposed to depict, considering I’m very interested in Human Rights issues. This novel was hard to put down, and I could not wait to go watch the movie.

            Kidd’s suspenseful writing style and her clever foreshadowing was admirable to me. I loved the realness she brought to the table. She found a way for us to love the characters, which is not easy to do. She makes the readers want to be there! I wanted to live with the Boatwright sisters, and have a sprinkler fight and have Rosaleen cook for me! She makes you want to be a part of the story, and I loved that about the novel.

            I will definitely read more novels by Kidd. I’m a fan of her writing style. Any book that makes me want to stay up late reading is a novel and author that I’m interested in indefinitely. Compared to the other works that we explored in this class, Kidd had the most interesting topic and story line to me. There was a great balance of mystery, drama, humor and love. I have never loved five main characters as much as in this novel. All of the characters had their own unique identities, but they shared commonalities that tied the story together, like their religion with Black Mary.

            The religion aspect of the story was surprisingly the most humorous part of the novel for me. I loved the traditional misunderstandings and wrong assumptions that the story depicted conservative southern churches had about Catholics and anything that was not their church. I found great humor in the scene that Lily describes about her mother messing around with Catholics, and the fact that all of the church people from home carried around the five-step plan to salvation.  I also enjoyed the Boatwright sister’s religion of Black Mary. I think a powerful part of the book that may have been overlooked is when August spoke of everyone needing something to believe in that looked like himself or herself. I think this idea could be related to all parts of our lives, always searching for acceptance and love, which is exactly what Lily was searching for the whole novel.