The end of March 2025, reviewing my assigned books for April 2025, I saw The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd, on my list.
Looking that title up, anywhere, The Secret Life of Bees, by the same author Sue Monk Kidd, immediately pops up too.
I looked and The Secret Life of Bees was already on my To Read list.
Youngest’s book group read it several years ago, as a back up book. Their past read lists are the building blocks of my current To Read list.
I listened to The Secret Life of Bees, on Audible, and absolutely loved it. Great story, fabulous characters, well written, really loved it. The audio reader was perfect. I suggested it for next year’s reading list.
Next, I tried The Mermaid Chair listening to the first part, reading a summary, and then 100% abandoned it.
Then, I listened to my assigned book, The Invention of Wings this past week and loved it also. Fabulous characters, well written, well narrated.
It is set in a part of the country I have visited (Charleston, SC). It takes place at the beginning of the 1800’s.
The rest of my group loved it too, in spite of the hard to read slave treatment. Lots of discussion about this book.
Both The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings would be good book group reads for February/Black History Awareness. Both books lend themselves for lots of discussion.
The rest of the books on Sue Monk Kidd’s list (below) did not interest me. But the two I read were winners, in my opinion.
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/sue-monk-kidd/
In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/
This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.
