When her thirty-year marriage broke up, Sue Hubbell found herself alone and broke on a small Ozarks farm. Keeping bees, she found solace in the natural world. She began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things that she cared about. The result is one of the best-loved books ever written about life on the land, about a woman finding her way in middle age.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An invasion of spring peepers, a young indigo bunting at song practice, a parade of caterpillarsthese are integral parts of Hubbell's environment. She lives alone on a 100-acre farm in the Ozarks, where she tends 200 beehives and produces honey on a commercial scale. In a series of exquisite vignettes she takes us into her world, and a life attuned to nature. Hubbell's busiest season is late summer, when she harvests the honey. Then she needs help for the backbreaking labor ("a strong young man who is not afraid of being stung"). She tells how she desensitizes her helper to bee stings; there is a vivid description of a day in the beeyard at harvest time. We meet her dogs and cats, her neighbors; travel with her when she sells the honey; share the pleasures of observing wildlife. Some of these delightful pieces have appeared in the "Hers" column of the New York Times and in Country Journal. Illustrations. First serial to Harper's.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA Hubbell, a former librarian and now a commercial beekeeper, lives on a peninsula between two rivers in the Ozark Mountains. Her quiet reflections are arranged by seasons, beginning and ending with the spring. Most of the short chapters include an attractive pen-and-ink sketch of the insect, plant, or little animal, etc., that is the major subject of the essay. Through a map of her farm and the lovely prose descriptions of the natural settings that she has had around her for the past 12 years, readers gain a pleasant picture of the countryside. This is a book for those who enjoy natural history and the questions that arise from it. Rain, snow, and mud; countless harbingers of each season; and Hubbell's bees and how they fare all make fascinating reading for anyone who appreciates the beauties and intricacies of the natural world.Mary Wadsworth Sucher, Baltimore County Reading Services
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When Sue Hubbell's long-term marriage fell apart, and she found herself in mid-life living alone as a beekeeper on a farm in the Ozarks. Her book is ostensibly set within a single year, but that's only the framework for the series of essays that form a beautiful chronicle of the seasons of one's life, the seasons of nature, the seasons of tame and wild animals, and the seasons of living on a farm.
Her inquiring mind constantly asks "Why?" questions, and the essays are her attempts to answer them. She's a former librarian, so she's articulate, academic, intellectual - but also quietly hilarious, such as her description of trying to think like a chicken in order to coax her hens to sleep inside the coop instead of perched on the trees.
Buy a copy for yourself, and buy one for your best woman friend who is heading into her middle years and may also be Living the Questions.
Her inquiring mind constantly asks "Why?" questions, and the essays are her attempts to answer them. She's a former librarian, so she's articulate, academic, intellectual - but also quietly hilarious, such as her description of trying to think like a chicken in order to coax her hens to sleep inside the coop instead of perched on the trees.
Buy a copy for yourself, and buy one for your best woman friend who is heading into her middle years and may also be Living the Questions.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sue Hubble is an excellent writer; you can feel the hot Ozark sun and hear the hypnotic murmur of her bees, the bright slash of a bunting's song and share her wonder at the joys and challenges in country life.
If you aspire to memoir writing, this is a fine example of the craft. If you want walk in someone else's footsteps for a few hundred pages, learn how they live and how they think and feel about everyday things and about nature, this is for you.
I love this book.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio Cassette
I almost didn't buy the audiocassette of this book because of the reviewer who said Sue Hubbell's reading was monotonous. I bought it anyway, and am thrilled to say both the content and the reading were outstanding. To my mind, the author's voice, in any tone, beats an inauthentic performance. This is one of the best works on contemporary nonfiction by women - and one of the best books on tape - I have come across in a long while. I recommend it highly, for anyone interested in how the human mind makes connections between her immediate surroundings and the larger questions of living in the world. The "bee" theme, like Thoreau's ants and Annie Dillard's creek creatures, is simply a fascinating and concrete set of phenomena through which Hubbell examines the mystical world around her, and around us all. (One last note of interest: the audiocassette - comprised of only one tape - includes a second tape on which Gary Snyder reads from his work on nature and the problem of logging in the northwest of the U.S.).
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
good book
recommended by a friend and i thoroughly enjoyed reading it. couldn't put it down. need more books like this in this day and age.
Published 3 months ago by Judith Beaver
3.0 out of 5 stars
A year of Country Living
We read this book in my book club. The subject matter, nature, birds, wildlife etc is not something I would pick out myself, but it is beautifully written. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Suzanne Wolski
5.0 out of 5 stars
healing book
I read this book when I needed it most, after an accident. It helped me to get grounded. The down to Earth nature of this book also helped to relax me and took away much of my... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars
The audible version read by the author is simply wonderful!
If there was ever a title that warranted being remastered to an audible/e-book, this title should be at the top of the list. Read more
Published 14 months ago by JODI HENDRICKSON
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Country Year; living the Questions
Absolutely loved this book. Ordered this copy from Amazon - used, hard cover, for my brother who also enjoyed it tremendously. Read more
Published 14 months ago by pale rider
5.0 out of 5 stars
So many levels...so much wisdom
You should read A Country Year by Sue Hubbell. It is about a woman who comes to the Missouri Ozarks in 1970's with her husband to live on a farm. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Karen Tracey
4.0 out of 5 stars
The joys of an Ozark beekeeper
Sue Hubbell is a beekeeper and this gentle book welcomes us into her life in the Ozark Mountains. It's a life where hard work lets you survive, but doesn't guarantee much more than... Read more
Published on April 3, 2010 by J. Carroll
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Service, Great Book
Excellent service. Exactly as described. Must have been shipped same day as I ordered the book. Even the post office cooperated and got it here quickly. Read more
Published on September 17, 2009 by Janet E. Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly enjoyable
From the minute I opened this book, I loved it. I love books about women who live in the country and master the land in which they live. Read more
Published on August 13, 2008 by Kat A.
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a beautiful book ...
Sue Hubbell's voice is true. She shares great sadness so matter-of-factly that whole years are communicated in short paragraphs. Read more
Published on September 21, 2007 by Lori Bamber
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 4
books:
19
books
cite this book:
See all 19 books citing this book
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke in Front Matter
- The Chicago Cubs (Writing Baseball) by Mr. Warren Brown on page 109
- A Golden Age: The Golden Age of Radio (Smithsonian Odyssey) by Martha Wickham on page 109
- Letters To a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke in Front Matter
- 75 Readings Plus by Santi V. Buscemi on page 107, and Back Matter
- Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques (Techniques in Ecology & Conservation) by Susan K. Jacobson on page 194, and Back Matter
- Gendered Fields: Rural Women, Agriculture, And Environment (Rural Studies Series) by Carolyn E Sachs in Back Matter
- 75 Readings: An Anthology by Santi V. Buscemi in Back Matter
- Nature Writing (Genres in Context) by Don Scheese in Back Matter
See all 19 books citing this book
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