Reviews for Beeing : life, motherhood, and 180,000 honeybees
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Novelist Thomas (The Angel Carver) recounts her first year in a small New England town with her young daughter, her old cat, and her laptop. Once there, she decided on a lark to try her hand at beekeeping, about which she knew nothing, and headed to a local beekeeping store for advice and supplies. As she learned to care for her three hives, she overcame her initial apprehension. With a bit of philosophizing and a lot of self-appreciation, Thomas describes how she tended her hives from one spring to the next and how, during that time, she developed a strong animosity toward one man and opportunistic friendships with several others. As she distributed her first crop of honey as gifts, she concluded that "a single narrow four-inch-high jar cost approximately $200 to produce. It was worth it." With her newly acquired facts and enthusiasm, Thomas strives to be an inspiration to other novice beekeepers. But tedious descriptions of her mundane activities bog down the narrative, and Thomas's depiction of her trial-and-error methods tends to confuse the reader. A beginner will find a much sounder introduction in such excellent guides as Diana Sammatro and others' The Beekeeper's Handbook and R. Bonney's Beekeeping. Not recommended.-Ilse Heidmann, Olympia, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
