Bees, Utopia and Olive Kitteridge

Doing a little catch-up as I haven't posted in awhile. Here are my thoughts on some of the books I read in the dead of winter....

The Secret Life of Bees-After reading this one it took me quite a long bit of pondering to decide whether or not I liked it. My final word on it is that it was OK. Somehow the story never quite got me to where I wanted to go. I liked the beekeeping bits and life at the "farm", but the whole oddball religious worship of honey and a ship's wooden figurehead just made me roll my eyeballs.

The Giver- I read this one after Ben finished with it. A good story of Utopian society and how it went wrong...they all do, ya know. Ben and I had an interesting discussion about the end of the book. Just what was real and what was memory? Was it really a happy ending? It was a new genre for Ben so he was quite taken with it.

Olive Kitteridge-Loved it! This is the life story of Olive Kitteridge. Or more accurately how the life story of Olive Kitteridge touched others, for better or worse. Think "It's A Wonderful Life" and that's the basic idea. Each chapter takes a look at a moment in time of the life of a character from Olive's small town, and how a glance, a wave or a word from Olive affected those lives. Not a sappy book by any means. A very cool look at how all we do can affect those around us, whether we know it or not.