SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd, 2002.

This Southern novel has been on my to-read list for a long time, and as soon as I began reading it, I was pulled in. Kidd is a fine writer who knows how to tell a story, is super with her characterizations and dialogue, and really puts some feeling into it.
   Set in South Carolina during the first part of 1964, President Johnson has just signed the Civil Rights Act. Shortly after that event, 14 year old Lily Owens, unhappy with who she is and her treatment by her unlovable father, T. Ray (who blames Lily for her mother's early death), goes into town with Rosaleen, the kind black woman who has raised her. Rosaleen intends to register to vote, but on the way she insults three of the town's racists, and the two females are thrown into jail. Once freed, Lily springs Rosaleen, and the pair take off for Tiburon, S.C., a place known to Lily only from the back of a picture of a black Madonna that Lily found among her mother's things and kept in a box in her room. Once they reach Tiburon, they are taken in by three black beekeeping sisters, May, August, and June. Lily, anxious to discover the connection between her mother and the town, manages to insinuate herself into their lives in the hopes of sticking around a while. The kind, rather eccentric sisters protect the two refugees and provide a temporary haven from their troubles.
   August takes the teenager under her wing, and Lily learns about beekeeping and making honey, about relationships and memories and stories and living the life you are given. She and Rosaleen soon fit right into the ladies' routine; they are even invited to the sisters' somewhat unorthodox religious services surrounding the figurehead of a ship, which they call the "Black Mary," and meet other community members who attend their services. As stories are told and old secrets emerge, bits and pieces of information fall into place and the full story is revealed gradually to Lily, who realizes just how important these women are to her life. When the mystery of her mother's connection with these black women becomes clear, it means everything in the world to Lily and her future.
   Kidd has created a beautifully told story, with an interesting plotline, great descriptions of beekeeping practices and honey making, and colorful characters that the reader can care about. I found it enjoyable and homey and comfortable, a good read.

LAST TIME I SAW YOU by Elizabeth Berg, 2010.

  This contemporary novel concerns a group of people who are attending their 40th (and final) high school class reunion. Her cast of characters pretty much includes all the usual stereotypes: jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, etc., each of whom have reasons for attending this last reunion. Divorced Dorothy wants a chance at the class heartthrob, Pete Decker, who is desperately trying to win back his estranged wife Nora; Mary Alice Mayhew, an independent sort usually ignored by her classmates at Whitley High, comes hoping to see a certain someone again; Lester Hessenpfeffer, a nerdy widowed veterinarian, who realizes the person he longed most to see was not who he actually wanted; Candy Armstrong, the blonde beauty who has a painful secret and needs a true friend. It's all about missed opportunities, paths not taken, choices made, and seeking to right wrongs done decades earlier. As these characters and others converge during the reunion weekend and as their old secrets and hidden motives and long simmering desires are revealed and new bonds forged, they learn things about each other and themselves in unexpected and at times surprising ways.
  Berg writes in the easy, breezy style she does so well, providing an entertaining story with characters who are at once familiar and recognizable and thus the reader can connect with them. In their late fifties, Berg's characters have issues with aging, marriage, love, death, a sense of belonging, of being connected with those from their past, and of being understood by those they shared their school experiences with. She has the dialogue down pat; she provides a fine reunion background, complete with decorations and drinks and bathroom chats and all the greetings and the "who is that?" and "whatever happened to...?" types of comments that are prevalent at such an event. Although there's not much depth involved, Berg does tell a good story and offers up some moments of true emotional insight between several of the characters.
   Does all come right in the end? Not necessarily, but for most of the people in this novel, changes do occur, and they are the better for them. An entertaining and at times thought-provoking story, I enjoyed it as a casual light read.

TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis, c1968.
  I remember my grandfather reading this novel when it was first released; at the time it didn't interest me, as I was never a big fan of western stories. I believe I watched the older movie version of the novel that starred John Wayne once or twice on TV and enjoyed it; only recently I viewed it again and then saw the recent remake of the film and realized that the original was actually the more satisfying of the two films for me, even though the newer film hewed closer to the book.
  When a colleague chose the book for our library book discussion group, I decided I'd read it also, but my wife snatched the book and read it first; when I finally got it, it really took hold of me. It's a wonderfully written story that has it all: the wild landscape of the 1870s West, nasty villains, brave lawmen, lots of violence, and a precocious teenage heroine out for justice. Such entertainment! After reading it, I wondered why I hadn't before now.
  The story is relatively straightforward: feisty 14 year old Mattie Ross comes to Fort Smith from near Dardanelles, Arkansas, to avenge the death of her father, Frank, who was shot by a drunken Tom Chaney, who has since fled into the lawless Indian Territory. She hires Rooster Cogburn, one of the local Federal marshals to assist her, because she was told he has "true grit." They are joined by a Texas Ranger, LaBeouf (called LaBeef), who has been tracking Chaney (aka Chelmsford) for murdering a Texas senator. Mattie wants revenge, plain and simple, and she insists she will ride with them, even though they try mightily to dissuade her; she determinedly plunges ahead and manages to hold her own as they travel through Indian Territory searching for clues to locate Chaney, who they discover has likely joined the vicious Ned Pepper's gang. On their journey, they meet an assortment of characters good and bad (including thieves and murderers) and make use of their survival skills to combat weather, rivers, and injuries. After they get too close to their quarry, Mattie accidentally runs into Chaney at the river and is taken captive by him, which leads to the final showdown between Mattie and Chaney, as well as one between Cogburn and Ned Pepper.
  Portis writes with a huge sense of humor and deceptively simple language that rings believably true, his characters are human and vibrantly portrayed, with my two favorites, Rooster Cogburn larger than life in his personality and Mattie a determined, plucky teenager who can give as good as she takes, real standouts among his characters. The narrative flows swiftly and effortlessly, and I found myself involved, totally caught up in their adventure, hoping that Chaney would be caught and justice served. I think Portis was smart to have Mattie tell the story looking back over the years, and while the book's ending was not as satisfying to me as the original film version's ending, it was still well done and effectively tied up the strands of the plot. I would happily recommend it for anyone who enjoys stories of the West, coming of age stories, or a good adventure yarn.

KINGS OF THE EARTH by Jon Clinch, 2010.

Clinch's novel is a stark narrative of life, death, and family in a remote agricultural area of New York State.
   In 1990, three aged brothers, Vernon, Audie, and Creed Proctor live on their family's crumbling dairy farm in the middle of nowhere. It is their family home, they and their sister were raised by their parents on the land, and they still work the farm in the ways their father, Lester, taught them back in the previous decades, but the place is a decaying wreck, the house and barn hardly fit for habitation. Vernon, the eldest, is in charge; Audie, the middle son, is somewhat simple, and Creed, having been to Korea, has his own ideas about things. Their sister, Donna, the youngest child and only girl, has managed to escape the farm by attending school and becoming a nurse, and then marrying a man who had escaped his own father's "muddy onion farm." Donna visits her brothers regularly and tries to help them out, but their pride keeps them in their current situation, milking their cows, raising turkeys in an old school bus, making do with old machinery. It is a bleak and unrewarding life, but they know no other; even Creed, who has seen something of the world during his military service is drawn back to the farm. Donna's son, Tom, bonds somewhat with his mother's brothers, but he ends up using them to further his own business plans in growing marijuana on their place. Tom's father, discovering the marijuana and recognizing a good business opportunity, jumps in to help his son, and unknowingly sets in motion events that lead to tragedy.
   When Vernon, the eldest brother, is found dead in the bed they all shared and the police suspect murder, attention becomes focused on the Proctors and their land. Preston and Margaret Hatch, the men's lifelong neighbors, are sympathetic and supportive of the brothers, even though they don't understand them. When Creed and Audie are actually brought up for questioning by the police, Preston tries to help them, and Donna and her family are drawn in as well. As the story moves back and forth in time, the reader gets a sense of how these three men were raised, how they matured,  why they became the people they are in the present, and the interconnected events that envelope all the characters.
   Overall, it's a story of family ties, and of the bonds that can exist between unrelated folk, told in spare and often harsh language, with stark scenes and realistic characters who have weathered hard times with very little love or emotional warmth. Clinch's descriptions are such that reader can feel the chilling air coming through the farmhouse's cracks in winter, hear the howling winds, and smell the wildflowers in the fields of the countryside. Clinch's uncluttered prose is unflinchingly honest, and provides the reader with a gritty look at a family that even though it suffers and tears at itself from within, the bond of blood between its members remains unbroken. While I can't say I really enjoyed this novel, it's definitely a thought-provoking and challenging story.