VOTE!!! Voting ends Thursday March 5!!

A Mercy - Toni Morrison

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Nobel laureate Morrison returns more explicitly to the net of pain cast by slavery, a theme she detailed so memorably in Beloved. Set at the close of the 17th century, the book details America's untoward foundation: dominion over Native Americans, indentured workers, women and slaves. A slave at a plantation in Maryland offers up her daughter, Florens, to a relatively humane Northern farmer, Jacob, as debt payment from their owner. The ripples of this choice spread to the inhabitants of Jacob's farm, populated by women with intersecting and conflicting desires. Jacob's wife, Rebekka, struggles with her faith as she loses one child after another to the harsh New World. A Native servant, Lina, survivor of a smallpox outbreak, craves Florens's love to replace the family taken from her, and distrusts the other servant, a peculiar girl named Sorrow. When Jacob falls ill, all these women are threatened. Morrison's lyricism infuses the shifting voices of her characters as they describe a brutal society being forged in the wilderness. Morrison's unflinching narrative is all the more powerful for its relative brevity; it takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go until the wrenching final-page crescendo. (Nov.)
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The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."

When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina--a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother.

There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most.

The Secret Life of Bees has a rare wisdom about life--about mothers and daughters and the women in our lives who become our true mothers. A remarkable story about the divine power of women and the transforming power of love, this is a stunning debut whose rich, assured, irresistible voice gathers us up and doesn't let go, not for a moment. It is the kind of novel that women share with each other and that mothers will hand down to their daughters for years to come.

Looks like the winner is The Secret Life of Bees

March Book Club
You may choose only one (9 total votes)
The Secret Life of Bee's by Sue Monk Kidd 5 (56%)
A Mercy by Toni Morrison 4 (44%)

Barely winning! We can read A Mercy in April if that is ok with everyone.

So go get the book. The library should have a bunch of copies, if not Amazon.com is a great place to visit to get it. I will post questions next Friday or you all may start discussing it sooner!

I have heard some really great things about The Secret Life of Bee's and I think everyone will really enjoy it. It's a very different type of book from Twilight, but I think it's great to explore all different genre's of Women's lit. I look forward to reading it and the book by Toni Morrison also.

I agree Debbie, it is great to explore all kinds of literature. I have heard good things about the Bees book as well. My god-daughter had to read it for her English class and she raved about it. I ordered a copy from the library already.

I ordered a copy of both books on the poll from our local book store here in town a couple days ago. I feel very strongly about buying things locally instead of ordering from Amazon or Barnes and Noble unless I can't find what I'm looking for around here. I figured we would probably read both books eventually, so I decided to be prepared, lol.

A Secret Life of Bees was good and I'll be glad to read A Mercy in April.

Count me in. See you all on next Friday. Bye.

I don't know if you all have seen this site yet, but there is a Reading Group Guide for Secret Life of Bees but not one, so far, for A Mercy.

I think A Mercy is pretty new...