Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

What do you think are the main themes in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and how are they explored? Which theme stood out particularly strongly for you?
How does Sue Monk Kidd use colour and texture to bring people and places alive?
What role does honey have to play in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES?
'Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier.' Discuss.
How does memory infuse THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES?
How does Sue Monk Kidd portray motherhood in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES?
'He chose to stand there and be one of them.' Discuss Zach’s actions in chapter nine.
'[The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.' To what extent do the characters in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES manage this?
How did the ending of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES make you feel?

Current Reading Group Titles

The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
Testimony by Anita Shreve
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
Lies by Enrique de Heriz
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
The Return by Victoria Hislop
A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
Scapegallows by Carol Birch
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
Radiance by Shaena Lambert
Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Keep by Jennifer Egan
The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
April in Paris by Michael Wallner
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
Red River by Lalita Tademy
The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell