"Quaker Summer" by Lisa Samson

Web photos (ENLARGE)

(ENLARGE)

"While I know beach season is here and there is nothing better to me than reading a Mary Kay Andrews, Anne River Siddons or Nicholas Sparks book during the summer, I do have a different type book to recommend. The book is 'Quaker Summer' by Lisa Samson. It is a Christian fiction novel and won the Women of Faith Novel of the Year. The author explains that 'sometimes you have to go a little bit crazy to find the life you were meant to live.

"The book takes you through several years of the life of Heather Curridge. Heather has everything — a mansion on a lake, a loving son, a heart-surgeon husband, new car every year and even granite countertops — yet her life is sometimes miserable. It is interesting to follow her experiences and see what she encounters en route to realizing what is important and what you can throw out in your life to give it more meaning. This book will make you take stock of your own life."

— Jeri Jackson, 63, Greenville

"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

"My favorite book is 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd. Set in the American South in 1964 ... It's a powerful story of coming-of-age, of the ability of love to transform our lives and the often unacknowledged longing for the universal feminine divine ...

"Isolated on a South Carolina peach farm with a harsh father, 14-year-old Lily Owens has spent much of her life longing for her mother, who died amid mysterious circumstances ... Lily is raised by Rosaleen, her outspoken African-American nanny. When Rosaleen attempts to exercise her newly won right to vote, she is attacked by the three worst racists in town and is thrown into jail. Lily springs Rosaleen from jail, and the two set out across South Carolina in search of a new life ... They are taken in by three black beekeeping sisters who worship the Black Madonna. It is here, surrounded by the strength of the Madonna, the hum of bees, and a circle of wise and colorful women, that Lily makes her passage to wholeness and a new life."

— Lynn Caverly, 51, Greenville