Sue Hubbell (1935–2018)

I enjoyed "A Country Year" more than "A Book of Bees", but that is probably because I don't know a thing about raising honeybees or taking care of their hives, which seems to entail a lot work with energy I don't have. All the detailed explanations and descriptions of the ins-and-outs of hive management was very difficult to follow along. I'm one who would need to watch a video before diving into a hobby like this, but she does tell you just about everything you need to know to understand the interesting nature of bees as well. After watching a video for better understanding of hive management, I would definitely come back to this book for another read, which should be on every beekeepers bookshelf.

In "A Country Year", the author tells little short stories of her experiences and lessons learned from nature while harvesting honey from her honeybees on her, roughly, 100 acre farm in the Ozarks in Missouri. Although 50 years old and just divorced, she hardly lets you in on the details of her starting over on her own, or even the hardships. She's a very fluid writer.

Her father, a botanist, taught her to love, care, appreciate, and have great respect for all things in nature. This book is more about that appreciation and love for nature, which is why I really enjoyed it. A part of her personality is just like mine. She loves weeds, and so do I. When we come across an unfamiliar weed or insect, we both go to extremes to find out what it's all about. Is it native? Is it beneficial? For whom or what? What is its purpose? We want to know everything about it, and then...let it be.

One of her long time friends was a botanist and an artist who liked to draw the wildflowers or weeds that she came across to help her remember the details about them. A great idea, and something I would love to start doing. It's about slowing down.… (more)

I couldn’t love this book anymore if I tried. When we decided to get bees, I started reading as much as I could, but this one has been my favorite so far. Written in the ‘80s, it’s a nonfiction account of one woman’s life as a beekeeper in the Ozarks. Her observations about nature and the joy she finds and keeping bees are beautiful. She has 300 hives and shares basic info while also describing the beautiful world around her. Highly recommended!

“The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I’ve known less and less aynd have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do.”… (more)

I got up to about 3/4 the way through before I put this book down for greener pastures. Who knows...I may finish it one of these days as I usually don't like leaving books unfinished. It's full of information, but I was hoping for more of a A Country Year set in Maine. Instead, very few chapters deal with the creepy-crawlies in Maine--Hubbell travels all over the world to research invertebrates. Of course other interesting issues come up as well such as global warming, evolution, and taxonomy, but I was hoping for more context to her daily life like A Country Year's approach. For those primarily interested in little critters and don't necessarily need a whole lot of other plot to keep it moving, this book is more suited for you. I needed a little more to keep me going. One thing I can say from reading this book that I never would have even considered otherwise: INVERTEBRATES RULE! Strange, but true.… (more)