A Book of Bees
by Sue Hubbell
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Description
Weaving a vivid portrait of her own life and her bees' lives, Sue Hubbell lovingly describes the ins and outs of beekeeping on her small Missouri farm, where the end of one honey season is the start of the next. With three hundred hives, Hubbell stays busy year-round tending to the bees and harvesting their honey, a process that is as personally demanding as it is rewarding. Exploring the progression of both the author and the hive through the seasons, this is "a book about bees to be sure, show more but it is also about other things: the important difference between loneliness and solitude; the seasonal rhythms inherent in rural living; the achievement of independence; the accommodating of oneself to nature" (Philadelphia Inquirer). Beautifully written and full of exquisitely rendered details, it is a tribute to Hubbell's wild hilltop in the Ozarks and of the joys of living a complex life in a simple place. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
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.”
“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.”
Wonderful unpretentious book about a bee keepers year and how to keep bees. Delightfully straight forward and full of anecdotes about her bee keeping and other experiences, highly recommended.
Like ECBA this book pushed me over the edge from having the desire to keep bees to NEEDING to keep bees. Sue Hubbell writes beautifully. Her advice on keeping bees is spot on and I love her view of the world. I need to read more by her.
A worthy sequel to her first book, (A Country Year, Living the Questions), this one is less contemplative and more matter of fact. There's a lot of good information about keeping bees (whether it's remained in date, though, I wouldn't know) and Hubbell's personality continues to shine through- feisty yet in a pleasant way, and knowledgeable, but not pedantic. After reading both books, you'll have a great feel for what it's like to bee a beekeeper.
I liked this book so much I bought it (which I only do if I plan to re-read). I'm not much of a non-fiction reader, but Ms. Hubbell made bee-keeping such a compelling story I found myself wondering how I would go about keeping bees in my suburban neighborhood!
An excellent primer on how one becomes entangled in the bee-raising (non-industrial) community. Enjoyable and a page-turner, if you want to have a book in your library about the joy of bees, this is it.
Sue Hubbell is a wonderful writer, and she knows her bees!
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Author Information
18+ Works 1,796 Members
Sue Hubbell was born Suzanne Gilbert in Kalamazoo, Michigan on January 28, 1935. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California in 1956 and a master's degree in library science from Drexel University in 1965. She worked as a librarian at Trenton State College and as a periodicals librarian at Brown show more University. In 1972, she and her first husband moved to a farm in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and took up beekeeping. To supplement the income from honey sales, she wrote freelance articles for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. After they divorced, she continued to run the large beekeeping operation. She also wrote several books including A Country Year: Living the Questions, A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them, Far-Flung Hubbell: Essays from the American Road, and Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys Into the Time Before Bones. She suffered from dementia and decided to stop eating and drinking on September 9, 2018 because she did not want to eventually be placed under indefinite institutional care. She died on October 13, 2018 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Book of Bees
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Statistics
- Members
- 442
- Popularity
- 69,090
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (4.21)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 4
