Sue Monk Kidd's big trade paper bestseller, The Secret Life of Bees (37 weeks so far on PW's list), has been chosen by Rhode Island as its state read for 2004. Nice going for a book that has led all the Book Sense regional bestseller charts since early October. Penguin reports there are close to 1.8 million copies in print after 13 trips to press. —With reporting by Diane Roback