Since many of us around the globe are staying home, we've decided to randomly pick three BEE books as a change of pace. They can be acquired on Amazon or at some independent booksellers.
E-books or audio books afford instant access, or if you prefer a book in your hands, order it and you may have it in time for next weekend.
So find a quite, cozy place, prepare a pot of tea or your favorite coffee, and settle in with a good book in a comfortable chair with some natural light streaming in to brighten your spirits.
These books are listed in no particular order... we have not included covers or buy links but you can find them all on Amazon... so, what are you drawn to?
LIQUID GOLD: Bees and the Pursuit of Midlife Honey by Roger Morgan-Grenville
Roger Morgan-Grenville and his friend Duncan meet by chance at a pub and decide to start beekeeping. Their enthusiasm is unmatched by anything except their ignorance as they are thrown into an arcane world of unforeseen obstacles.
They manage to create a colony of beehives but cope with many setbacks. Two years later they have more honey than they know what to do with. Working with cycles and seasons, and stepping back from their own lives, they emerge from their beekeeping journey with a new understanding of nature and respect for the honeybee as it faces threats to its survival.
Wryly humorous and surprisingly moving, Liquid Gold is the story of a friendship between two unlikely men at different stages of life. It is also a revealing and uplifting insight into the author's midlife journey.
THE HONEY TRAIL: In Pursuit of Liquid Gold and Vanishing Bees by Grace Pundyk
A unique look at the history, culture, tradition, and environmental impact of honey
The Honey Trail will appeal if you love a good global travel narrative. It’s about how bees and honey are affected by deforestation, globalization, terrorism, the global food trade, and climate change, and it questions how the state of our environment impacts bees and honey. The reader goes on an adventure across Yemeni deserts, Borneo jungles, through the Mississippi Delta and Tasmanian rainforests, over frozen Siberian snowscapes and ancient Turkish villages in search of the liquid gold known as honey.
ROBBING THE BEES: A Biography of Honey—The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World by Holley Bishop
Honey has waited nearly ten million years for a good biography, says Holley Bishop. Bees have made honey for hundreds of millennia, and humans only started recording our fascination with it in the past few thousand years—painting bees and hives on cave and temple walls and papyrus scrolls, revering them in poetry and art, and worshipping them as gods. From the temples of the Nile to the hives at the author's own house, people have had a long, rapturous love affair with the beehive and the seductive, addictive honey it produces. Combining passionate research, rich detail, and fascinating anecdote, this is an in-depth, sumptuous look at the oldest, most delectable food in the world.
Part biography, part history, Robbing the Bees is a love letter to bees and their magical produce. Honey has played significant roles in civilization: so sweet that bacteria can't survive in it... our first food preservative and wound salve. Honey wine, or mead, was the intoxicant of choice long before beer or wine. Hindus believed honey bestowed long life; Mohammed saw honey as a remedy for all illness. Virgil, Aristotle and Pythagoras are famous beekeepers who figured in honey's past.
Interspersed throughout the text are the author's lyrical reflections, the business and gastronomical world of honey, the myriad varieties of honey (as distinct as the provenance of wine), illustrations, historical quotes, recipes—ancient, modern, and some of the author's own creations.
The 1:55-minute video above shows Bees Robbing Bees... just a play on the title of the last book above. We'll discuss robbing in an upcoming blog post soon.
This is our first book list, so we'd love to know what you think of our choices. They are not all hot-off-the-press, but each is rich and rewarding in its own way.
We wish you a restful weekend, and may you and yours BEE WELL.
If you read any of the books, please let us know on our Facebook page how you enjoyed the read and if you recommend it. :)