A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

by Helen Jukes

'This book has found a special place in my heart. It’s as strange, beautiful and unexpected, as precise and exquisite in its movings, as bees in a hive. I loved it' HELEN MACDONALD, author of H IS FOR HAWK

A fascinating, insightful and inspiring account of a novice beekeeper's year of keeping honeybees, which will appeal to readers of H is For Hawk and The Outrun

Entering her thirties, Helen Jukes feels trapped in an urban grind of office politics and temporary addresses – disconnected, stressed. Struggling to settle into her latest job and home in Oxford, she realises she needs to effect a change if she’s to create a meaningful life for herself, one that can accommodate comfort and labour and love. Then friends give her the gift of a colony of honeybees – according to folklore, bees freely given bring luck – and Helen embarks on her first full year of beekeeping. But what does it mean to ‘keep’ wild creatures? In learning about the bees, what can she learn of herself? And can travelling inside the hive free her outside it?  

As Helen grapples with her role in the delicate, awe-inspiring ecosystem of the hive, the very act of keeping seems to open up new perspectives, deepen friendships old and new, and make her world come alive.  A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings is at once a fascinating exploration of the honeybee and the hive, the practices of honey-gathering and the history of our observation of bees; and a beautifully wrought meditation on responsibility and care, on vulnerability and trust, on forging bonds and breaking new ground.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Memoir, Science, Animals, Biography, Audiobook

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2018

Reviews

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quaint and thoughtful memoir about the author's experience keeping bees for a season and all the ways in which it opened up her life. For those who like to learn about the natural world while being invited into a period of someone's life, you're likely to enjoy this one.

Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book (and one other book on honeybees) over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of them back-to-nature-ish memoirs about turning an early-thirties malaise around through a fulfilling project. Jukes was sick of a boring office job and wanted to make her new house share in Oxford more than just another temporary fix. So she got involved with the Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group and spent a year researching the history of beekeeping (e.g. blind François Huber) and ultimately getting an urban hive of her own. To start with it was all just an idea and a pile of old books; by the end she had jars of honey from her own backyard.

This is an easy read, if not particularly compelling; I kept thinking that there wasn’t really enough to the story to warrant a 280-page book. A long personal essay could have covered the same material and wouldn’t have necessitated her filling in the background with made-up dialogue and dull details about her tense muscles and picnics with her new boyfriend, a white-haired psychic. Maybe you just need to be a little more interested in bees than I am? In any case, it’s a stunning cover and an enticing title, and I could relate to Jukes’s feeling of rootlessness and search for purpose:

“I sometimes think that life must be a bit like tessellation for some people. You take one shape and fit it to the next and they sit comfortably together – you don’t mind a bit of repetition because it’s what makes the pattern form. Life is not like tessellation for me. Sometimes the shapes don’t fit, or I don’t fit into them, or I’m looking at the patterns but they don’t feel real or right to me.”

“locating the origins of ‘home’. It seems inseparable from houses now, and from notions of domesticity and ownership. Yet in its original meaning it referred not to a building or even a geographical location, but a state of being. A place at the heart of the real, according to Eliade.”

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The hive has become a counterweight to a work environment I’ve been finding stressful. I’ve begun to relax out here; to drop some rigid outer casings that were holding me stiffly and rather unhappily in place. The bees are hot and busy inside the hive, and maybe if I can understand them better I might learn something important about how to live.”

A Honeybee Heart has Five Openings is a memoir by British writer, beekeeper and tutor, Helen Jukes. Now in Oxford with a new job, Helen Jukes decides she may want to keep bees. As it’s November, she won’t be able to get her own colony until the spring, so she fills the time learning all she can about them: ancient and more recent history, hives, habits. As she does her research she is “becoming less and less convinced that it’s possible to be a purely rational and detached observer of the natural world – or if that’s all we’d want to go on, if it were.”

“All of the movements and change of the last few years - the string of houses and jobs, the roving friendships – has put me in the habit of expecting things to disappear quickly once found, and in that state of almost permanent temporariness I’ve caught myself wondering a few times if it’s very reasonable to hope to keep anything at all. No wonder the arrival of a colony of bees is triggering my anxieties. Here I am pondering impermanence, having just tasked myself with the responsibility of keeping something – with sustaining it. A colony is not a book or an archivable object and you can’t hold it in a glass cabinet or on a shelf. It is live and shifting and if this one doesn’t take to our little rectangular space it’ll be put of here faster than you can say swarm.”

The pace is sedate: there’s no major action and the bees don’t even turn up until March. But it’s interesting and, surprisingly, quite moving at times, and Jukes makes many insightful observations about life, about the world we live in and our attitude to it. The prose is often beautiful and with the perilous state of bees in today’s world, it’s a timely read. An outstanding debut.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because there's a lot of wisdom in the padding

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: After getting a new, longed-for position, Author Jukes finds that wanting and having are not the same sensation.

I sometimes think that life must be a bit like tessellation for some people. You take one shape and fit it to the next and they sit comfortably together – you don’t mind a bit of repetition because it’s what makes the pattern form. Life is not like tessellation for me. Sometimes the shapes don’t fit, or I don’t fit into them, or I’m looking at the patterns but they don’t feel real or right to me.

It's a key realization, and it leads to her keeping a beehive as a means to create value and meaning in her world.

A lot of people have compared the book to H is for Hawk, which read I very much did not like. It felt deeply hypocritical to me to read of someone's love for a wild thing as they're describing how they un-wilded it. Author Jukes does not un-wild her bees, as that's been done millennia ago. And her possession of a colony evokes some very good meditative thinking in her:

Here I am pondering impermanence, having just tasked myself with the responsibility of keeping something—with sustaining it. A colony is not a book or an archivable object and you can’t hold it in a glass cabinet or on a shelf. It is live and shifting and if this one doesn’t take to our little rectangular space it’ll be put of here faster than you can say swarm.

What makes the book less than a four-star, upper-heap read is that it's too long for how short it is. Cut some chapters, bring the philosophizing to some conclusions earlier for example and don't repeat the same ruminations, and there'd be another star up there. As it stands I can't agree with myself to overlook this to grow it over three-and-a-half smiling stars.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eye-opening, and surprisingly fast read. This is the memoir of a 30 yo woman who decides to “keep”, which for her, means “watch over”, a colony of bees given to her by a group of friends to celebrate her house move to Oxford in England.

It is very well-researched and, at times, beautifully written. The bee (and pollinator) population needs our help, and we of course, need them to keep our food supply going.

Neonicotinoids, which are pesticides derived from nicotine, are especially harming bees, and the queen in particular. Since the queen does the breeding, without the queen, there is no colony. Bees taking pollen from plants sprayed with these pesticides can become infected and bring the illness back to the hive, causing colonies to collapse.

There are parts of the world, even parts of the US, where there are no or few bees. People are trucking bee hives around to pollinate crops. In China, agricultural workers are climbing trees, pollinating orchards with paint brushes. This is happening now, and we must stop it.

Organic gardening, y’all. Buy organic, grow organically. For our health, and the health of our planet. We were not meant to consume poison. Our bodies, bees’ bodies, were not designed for this. We can change this, but we have to think from an ecological perspective.

If you have an interest in this area, as we do, please read this book. It is available on Libby, and at local libraries. This young author is wise beyond her years, and the personal growth she experiences as she learns about and watches over her bees really impressed me. A beautiful, immersive book.

[Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

Helen Jukes is caught up in the grind of an office job and feeling disconnected though she lives in a busy city. She needs a change that will fill her time and create some sort of connection. Her search for meaning leads her to beekeeping. First, it’s just an idea and a bit of reading. Then, her friends gift her a honeybee colony for Christmas. Jukes spends the winter preparing for her colony, considering the history and practice of beekeeping, and ultimately what her role is in their care.

Beekeeping has always fascinated me and I actually started an online course a few weeks ago to learn more. It was serendipitous that I found this book on NetGalley and I was excited to dive in! I really enjoyed this memoir about the year in the life of a beekeeper. Jukes covers the complex inner workings of a hive and gives us the history of beekeeping without being too dry. She manages to merge her personal experiences with her research and make this an enlightening read.

This is a book that I recommend to readers who are interested in beekeeping and/or memoir with a focus on nature/environment.

Thanks to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings is scheduled for release on May 5, 2020.

For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com

[DeB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t prepared to have this book resonate with me so deeply. Jukes writes about a period of her life which is unsettled, yes, however it is the breadth of her exploration of the life of bees, the history, our impact on their productivity and so much more which is almost breathtaking.

Universally, we understand and wince about the peril our bee populations are in. Bees are major pollinators- and they have become the source of a huge industry for their honey. As Jukes chronicled through past to present, my respect for honey bees and my unease about the industry grew. Fields of crops without diversity and pollutants especially in the form of pesticides weaken bees making them unable to withstand mites which they formerly could weather. Our modern business of bees has put them in harm’s way.

Jukes recounts a year of keeping bees- one immersed in research, in accessing records and learning as much history and minutiae as possible before taking the plunge with a hive. She became part of a community of urban beekeepers, unique in their knowledge, eager to learn and share with one another.

Thoughtful, at times lyrical, reading about this year with her bees was enchanting. Our relationship with bees has influenced thought through the ages and our language; their effect on our world has been significant far beyond the fruit, vegetables which they pollinate or the honey produced.

“There’s a Lithuanian word for friend… (it) comes from the word for bee. Literally it means ‘a person with whom ones shares the keeping of the bees’.”

My own birth name, Deborah, the Hebrew word for bee, “ is derived from the root ‘debar’, meaning to pronounce or speak. Jukes loves the interplay of language, thought, considers life deeply, thinks that perhaps these bees who don’t actually speak do combine as a colony to have multiple voices, that maybe we humans do the same, from different parts of ourselves too.

“I won’t ever hear what they’re saying to each other, but sometimes I’ve had the feeling that what’s happening inside the hive is speaking to things inside me all the same”.

A most magical rendezvous for me. I will not be setting up a backyard hive, but I will add to my lavender, thyme and volunteer sunflowers. Up the road from me, there are hives and orchards- I will contribute where I’m able.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child, I stepped on a bee nest hidden by leaves. According to my mother, I ran into the house screaming, enveloped by a black cloud of bees. (It took hours to pluck all the stingers out of my body.) I’ve been terrified of bees ever since, so reading a memoir about a millennial who takes up urban beekeeping was not an obvious choice.

A 30-year old who has just moved to Oxford for a new job, Helen Jukes is unhappy with her work and restless in her life. Having volunteered with beehives in London, she starts pondering getting her own hive. And there is a lot of pondering. Jukes spends the first 40 percent of the book reading about the history of bees, reflecting on the nature of beekeeping, and studying the etiology of words associated with bees. I can relate to her introversion and intellectual focus, but the pacing of the book was leisurely at best and a lot of time is spent exploring discredited ideas.

The ancient philosophers and naturalists certainly had some *eccentric* theories about bees: Aristotle wrote that bees could not be female, since “nature does not assign defensive weapons to any female” while Pliny imagined that honey was the saliva of stars. Egyptians compared the buzzing of bees to the voice of the soul. Don’t get me started on the Eastern Europeans who thought a woman’s virginity could be proved by her walking past a beehive without rousing the bees.

Let’s just move on from the past, shall we?

Almost halfway through the book, her friends get tired of waiting and buy Jukes a beehive. Yay, story progression! She joins a local beekeeping society and begins observing her bees, hoping they will connect her to nature and provide insights into her own life. There is some information about modern beekeeping practices and the role of bees in the ecosystem. The many comparisons between the bees and the author’s life (e.g., cameras in museums observe her passage as she observes the bees) felt contrived. But the writing is absolutely gorgeous. Jukes has a gift for words. For example:

“In just the same way that you can think of light as either a wave or a particle, a honeybee can be thought of either as an individual or as a single cell within the larger superorganism of the colony."

Or

Describing the hive’s interior: “the beekeepers must have noticed the toughness of it; the way it curved and bloomed. The sameness of the cells, and the way the colors drifted from white to gold to dark brown, like the tide marks on a beach.”

Some nifty facts about bees:

* Bees have light sensors on their head to help them tell direction; the fuzz of their hair registers flight speed.
* Bees are deaf (handy, because the constant buzzing in the hive would be super annoying.)
* Like clubbers, bees communicate through smell (pheromones) body to body in the dark hive.
* Males have their penis torn out during intercourse with the queen, so sex is once and done.
* Bees do the hokey pokey (the "waggle dance") to recruit workers to a new site. They literally wiggle and turn around in circles like nursery school children.

This is not a book to buy if you are looking for practical advice on beekeeping or concerned about the environmental impact of colony collapse. It probably won’t appeal to readers of exciting, action-packed, historically significant memoirs. Animal lovers may feel the book has way too much human introspection. But it was interesting enough to finish, so kudos to Helen Jukes for getting a reader who dislikes bees to read an entire book about their lives.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is an interesting look at the history of bees; bee keeping and the building and maintaining of hives.

“With the modern hive, beekeepers could begin influencing the internal functioning of their colonies.”

The author quotes EXTENSIVELY from other writers dealing with bees and bee keeping.

This book will be of optimum interest for anyone thinking about becoming a bee keeper. Just not for me.

To be fair - I did skip a lot.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was supposed to be a positive move, but Helen's new job in Oxford feels like a bit of a dead end. Uninterested in the office politics and finding the work tedious she is looking for something to inspire her once again. Having helped a friend look after a few hives, having a colony of bees of her own really appeals, however they are an expensive hobby, especially when starting from scratch. However, the generosity of her friends, who club together to buy a colony of bees for her, gives that spark of enthusiasm for the project. A hive is purchased, delivered and built ready for the for the influx of these winged wonders. And then late spring cam round, and it was time to go and collect her present.

However, will they like their new home? There are a few nervous moments as she checks each week to see if they are surviving and it turns out that they want to stay there, but take a while to fully expand into their new residence. Spending time watching the bees as they go about their business adds a different perspective to Helen's life. It also prompts her to start finding more out about the history of bee-keeping. On one research trip to London, she meets with a friend of a friend and tentatively there is a blossoming of friendship.

Not only is this an exploration of the hive and the bee, but this is a tender and personal memoir of Helen's life and a touching story of her falling in love; something that she wasn't expecting when the thought of having a beehive of her own occurred to her. I thought that it was really sensitively written too as well as being well researched and positive story. Can highly recommend it.

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A honeybee hive is a complex community. One where roles are clearly defined.

In this memoir Helen Jukes is struggling with her role and her community. Helen decides she will become a beekeeper and takes the reader on her year long journey. We learn along with Helen as she researches and discovers historical origins of the modern hive, the swarming tendencies of bees, environmental treats bees are facing and much more.

The keeping of the bees radically changes Helens role within her community. By the end of her first year as a beekeeper she seems more comfortable and at peace with her work colleagues and personal relationships.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book as a gift. Otherwise I’d probably never purchased it. I am a beekeeper myself and I really didn’t like the book. Don’t get me wrong, the facts and information I didn’t know were great! I learned lots of new things. I just couldn’t identify with Helen and I also don’t agree with her way of beekeeping. Honey harvesting with brood inside? Disgusting. As well as not taking good care of bees: you need to do something against varroa. If you want to learn about bees read something else. If you want to read about a person on some sort of psychological journey, again, read something else.

[Sallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I actually did.

[Jenny Cooke (Bookish Shenanigans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this, a wonderful account of one woman's year of bee-keeping and the escape that nature offers.

[Gillian Brownlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This resonated with me so strongly that I am almost convinced that keeping bees will solve all of my problems.

I saw complaints in other reviews that there weren’t enough bee facts in this book, but I think there were a perfect number of bee facts. The book isn’t about beekeeping, it’s about how Helen relates to them and her personal journey. Unlike other memoirs I’ve read, this one didn’t delve too much into the “woe is me” kind of tone. Helen was struggling, but in a way that I could relate to. And even then, she was actively trying to be better, rather than wallow and self-soothe with unhealthy habits. Books like this leave me hopeful.

Some of the writing in this was just lovely. I read this book for a book club I help run, and a lot of my notes were just passages I enjoyed reading. I’m seriously considering buying it.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I am emotionally allergic to bees. I still respect them, and somewhat find them intriguing. I could of lived without the side part of finding love.

[jpm · Rating 4 out of 5]

In questa vita o nell'altra, se ci sarà, voglio avere un'arnia e fare l'apicoltore. Mi affascinano molto questi piccoli e industriosi insetti che non sono catalogabili: non sono aggressivi e pericolosi, non sono addomesticabili, sono unici.
Potremmo imparare tantissimo dalle api, ma noi umani siamo troppo boriosi per comprendere che si può imparare soprattutto dai più piccoli!
Buona lettura

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book that I am reading as part of my bee reading. Developed from a fascination with them and in attempts to write a university assignment, all fiction and non-fiction bee books have taken top priority.

"I might get a beehive" (11).

Helen has just changed jobs, moving to Oxford and a small office space and faces the desire to get out, escape. Until she remembers a time beekeeping with a friend and sparks the idea of creating and keeping a hive in her back garden. Once the idea is sparked, she finds herself in a hive-like community who aspire to help her keep bees as she grapples with the language, idea of being kept, and homes.

It's divided into sections that correspond with the patterns of her beekeeping, and then divided again into the months where this idea grows, starting in November and continuing into a year. Juke's means of chronology are incredibly beautiful and make the piece easy to read. It tessellates in its own way you could say.

It's also embedded with a lot of research and includes a bibliography at the novel's conclusion. At times I felt that the research was forced, which made the writing more difficult to flow. However, seeing the amount of research was definitely a positive in the experience, especially when it was a reference to word meaning.

"If therapy is about gaining a more rounded perception of ourselves in relation to the world around us – how we affect our environments, and are affected by them; if it is concerned not simply with the business of trending tired egos, but the slower and more effortful labour of creating more sentient, compassionate and capable human beings – well, then perhaps lifting a hive lid and taking a look inside wouldn’t be such a bad way to start” (33).

For Helen, this is more about the idea of the hive and a sense of belonging to the world than it is about the bees. In a world where anxieties limit and prevent us from belonging to our spaces, such as work in her case, beekeeping questions for her where to exist and how to cope with change as the battles the idea of her bees not taking to the hive and swarming.

She looks into the symbolism, and core meanings of words throughout the piece, aided by her friend working for the Oxford English Dictionary. Each little recording of words is incredibly important, especially to me as I hope to look into meaning and recognition of bees in today's society.

What this novel lacked I felt was a sense of the personal. We're aware that Helen is at a crux in her life, but I wanted to know more about that itself. How the beekeeping influenced change, or even how it did not. This meant that the plot did not feel as complete as it could.

"A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings" is a non-fiction piece novel of coping and learning from the experiences and ideas that we develop. It looks closely at the benefits and risks of beekeeping in Oxford and coping with patience and change. It has the potential to melt new ideas and dreams into its readers if they are willing to learn and take on new opportunities.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be something like H is for Hawk or The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating where an element of nature becomes the focal point for an introspective look at life. But it isn’t. It’s primarily the journal of a novice beekeeper’s year of setting up and keeping a hive in Oxford, England, and is full of facts about bees as well as the history of beekeeping. So, in a way I was disappointed, but in another I was glad to be spared the navel gazing some memoirs can slip into. The author included just enough about herself to share her enthusiasm and awe for these fascinating creatures and to show how tending them influenced her own personal growth. 3 ½ stars

[melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is a pretty flat attempt at using beekeeping as a catalyst for personal growth. I'm not saying that beekeeping isn't transformative, but the book reads like an unconvincing version of H is for Hawk. I won't deny that Jukes highlights interesting, well-researched information related to the history of beekeeping and common beekeeping practices, but she loses authenticity by making forced, existential analogies between her personal life and anything remotely related to bees (including their behaviors, characteristics, even their physicality). It was honestly cringe-worthy.

Also, as a beekeeper I was pretty horrified that she harvested comb with brood. I'm not a top bar expert, but there are definitely ways to avoid this.

[Yas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gorgeous cover, combined with my eagerness to read more nature writing, is what first drew me to this book.

I learnt a lot about language and life lessons from this book, all shaped through the hexagonal perspective of hive and honeycomb. But although Jukes is brilliant at bringing her bees to life, the human characters in this memoir are less mesmerising. The dialogue is occasionally dull and often stilted, and Jukes does not always make the most likeable protagonist in this memoir.

It’s five stars for the bees and three stars for the people (mostly the narrator herself), which brings me to what feels like a very fair four stars.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book, but that is almost certainly simply because it was just not for me. In case anyone is trying to figure out if it might be for them, I thought I would explain.

I was expecting a book about finding yourself and expanding your understanding of what it means to be human through the pursuit of beekeeping. This book is about 20-30% that. But there is a lot of history and philosophy of bees and beekeeping, and discussions of etymology. These things dominated the writing (maybe 60% of the book it felt like?), and I am not as enthused by them as the writer. I was most interested in her journey and growth via keeping bees, but the bees themselves did not show up for at least 100 pages. I was also expecting humour and lightness since it is a fun and unusual pursuit, but there was next to none. Instead the writing was very heavy, like literary fiction, and felt at all times like Writing. (There was a LOT of imagery and description of scenes unrelated to what was happening.)

Now. A lot of people love that type of thing, and this book is well-reviewed. Its treatment of the subject of bees and beekeeping is thorough and careful. It also pulled me along enough to finish it, despite how grating I found its style. This is very much a case of “good for her, not for me”. I just wanted to mention my issues with the content and writing style in case other potential readers like similar things to what I like.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Part memoir, part natural history, part romance, part biology - this is a fascinating book about Helen Jukes' journey to become a beekeeper and how the bees affected her life in unexpected ways. I'll be honest, this took me a few attempts to get into. I felt that I wasn't connecting to the author when I was reading the ebook. However, the audiobook was a brilliant medium for this. Although not narrated by the author herself, the narrator did a brilliant job of portraying the wonder and excitement of the beehive and the task of beekeeping.

I am fascinated by bees and the inner workings of the hive. This book did a great job of taking the reader throughout the year, month by month, and showing how the bees go through different processes in different seasons.

The only thing that let this down for me was the author's romance. I understand that this was part of this period of her life but I felt like the link to the story of the bees was tenuous at best. I did enjoy hearing from some of the side characters but others felt unnecessary.

Overall, I enjoyed this read but I felt like some aspects were superfluous. I would recommend it if you want a light natural history book but this won't be for you if you want something more in depth.

3 out of 5 stars!

[Emily Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a non-fictional memoir based upon the authors first year in beekeeping and how it helped her find peace and comfort through this activity. I feel as if I went on an emotional journey with the author of this book. Helen Jukes writes about her research into beekeeping, ancient beekeeping practices and how the hive has changed over the years, she also documents her own personal anxieties, fears and hopes during her beekeeping experience. She wrote this novel in monthly diary format. It is such beautiful writing! I hope she publishes more books on keeping honey bees!

[Nikolka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mě osobně knížka nadchla. Jako osoba včelařením nepolíbená jsem si rok s Helen velmi užila. Všechny její myšlenky a poznatky a získané informace. Myslím, že kniha je stejným dílem o včelách jako o lidech. O jistém propojení, nalezení sebe sama a svého místa v životě. O ukotvení. Jelikož je mi třicet, dokázala jsem se s Helen ztotožnit, plus knize přidává i fakt, že se odehrává v Anglii (a tu já miluji). Mně tohle sedlo a trefila se mi do nálady.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly there is nothing in this book to make the heart sing. There are a handful of passages that are interesting the rest is just waffle be it about decisions that seem to make months to take or the atmosphere at work. I am not sure what anyone thought there was to engage the reader

This book popped up as my real life book group read. It doen's get any better for me on a second reading. All the definitions of words just seem to be filler to make the book longer

[D Brothers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interminably boring. This felt like listening to a highschool student book report - endless fluff in the form of unnecessarily detailed descriptions of the mundane, and too many entomological references. The only takeaway for me was the consideration of modern versus traditional beekeeping - and whether the pursuit of honey, or the welfare of bees, is the key motivation.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen Jukes ist geschafft vom Arbeiten und Leben in der Stadt, als sie an einem Novembertag beschließt, in ihrem heruntergekommen Reihenhausgarten in Oxford Bienen zu halten. Mit dem Gedanken gespielt haben muss sie schon länger; denn Bücher über Bienen und die Imkerei stapeln sich bei ihr. Darunter Werke zur Geschichte des Bienenstocks, über Imkern zu Zeiten von Aristoteles und die Tagebücher (1792) des blinden Francois Huber, der bei seiner Erforschung der Befruchtung von Bienenköniginnen völlig zu vergessen schien, dass er nicht sieht. Recherche liegt Helen. Sie sinnt über die Nahrungsmittelindustrie nach, die Verinselung der Bienen in Großstädten und - gemeinsam mit ihrer Mitbewohnerin Ellie über die Wortfelder to keep, to hive, to swarm.

Helens guter Freund Luke schult Firmen in „Urban Beekeeping“ und wird ihr zum stets gelassenen Ratgeber in Bienenfragen. Als Helens Freunde ihr gemeinsam ein Bienenvolk versprechen, muss sie aktiv werden und sich um einen Bienenkasten kümmern. Die Bauweise des Kastens bestimmt das Verhalten der Bienen, so viel weiß Helen. Nur welchen soll sie wählen? Imkerei erforderte schon immer enge Beziehungen zwischen Imker-Nachwuchs und einem erfahrenen Mentor. In Helens Fall hilft Oxfords Regionalgruppe der Imker. Ein Mitglied hat mithilfe eines YouTube-Videos den ersten Kasten gezimmert, andere kennen sich mit Krankheiten aus oder der Arbeit im Jahresverlauf. Schließlich ist es soweit, der Winter ist vorbei und es wird Zeit, Helens Bienenvolk abzuholen. Ein Ereignis, so aufregend wie der Einzug eines neuen Mitbewohners.

Helen wartet zunächst aufgeregt, dass ihr Bienenvolk im Kasten baut und ausfliegt. Dabei muss sie unter Lukes Einfluss lernen, einfach neben dem Stock zu sitzen und zu beobachten. Ihr Bienen-Projekt hat sie und ihren Blick auf ihre Umwelt längst verändert und ihr zahlreiche Begegnungen mit interessanten Menschen gebracht. Ökologische Fragen beschäftigen sie, z. B. welche Nahrung Bienen in einer Großstadt finden und wie Bürger gegen die Verinselung in ihrer Stadt vorgehen können. Hätten Sie z. B. gewusst, ob es in ihrer Stadt einen Schwarmfänger gibt?

In warmem, strahlendem Gelb mit gelbem Lesebändchen und Vorsatzpapier im Wabendesign legt Dumont hier ein optisch herausragendes Buch vor.

Helen Jukes erzählt über einen Jahreslauf von November bis Oktober, in dem sie in einem winzigen Reihenhausgarten Raum für ein Bienenvolk schuf. Mich hat ihr biografischer Text auf der Beziehungsebene interessiert. Wissen wollte ich, wie jemand sich in ein komplexes Thema einarbeitet, der kein in der Kindheit erworbenes Fachwissen abrufen kann, das unbewusst schlummert. In erzählenden Sachbüchern zu naturwissenschaftlichen Themen ist der Weg das Ziel und Sachinformationen sind nicht mit einem Blick zu scannen. Nicht alle Leser spricht diese Form an. Die Werbung behauptet, dass Helen MacDonald Jukes Selbstfindung als Imkerin mag. Wer MacDonalds "Falke" mag, macht hier nichts falsch und ebenso wenig Liebhaber von Hubells „Ein Leben auf dem Land“.

[Nina Draganova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Прочитайки анонса , си помислих че съм попаднала на книга, подобна на "Сватбени пчели" на САРА-КЕЙТ ЛИНЧ, която харесвам много.
Не, това е труд на тема "Пчелите", даже бих казала достоен за ползване от всеки начинаещ пчелар.
Приятно е написана, но тъй като не възнамерявам да ставам пчеларка, не ме вдъхнови.
Това , което ме удиви , е веригата от хора които си оказват помощ в тази не лека задача да се грижиш за пчелите и да произвеждаш мед. В това отношение хората по белия свят са на светлинни години от нас.
Има втъкана и малка част от личната история на авторката, но някак само леко загатната , без да са вложени някакви силни емоции.
Оригинално направена корица на книгата.
Бих могла да я подаря на някой , който има интерес към тази дейност (поискайте я от мен).

[erforscherin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot! It’s an odd structure, blending memoir and linguistics and biology and history, but somehow it all works — the musings about language and community and place looping through all these pieces and pulling them tightly together. It’s a little messy and melancholy, but also joyful and curious... and that’s the stuff of life, really.

It’s not a memoir as much as it is a map of what the author was thinking about at the time, I suppose, but I like the approach (and if it’s not too weird to say about a total stranger, I have a feeling we’d be good friends if we didn’t live halfway across the globe from each other).