Customer Reviews

Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When the book fell open to the chapter on Mead, I was hooked. In talking about Elizabeth I's favorite drink: spices, syrup, grape wine and honey, "a sickly-sweet concoction that would not appeal to the un-Tudored palates of modern Chablis drinkers." "un-Tudored," anyone who can write like that deserves to be read.

The next chapter talks about what happens to any bacterium that happens to fall into honey. The highly concentrated sugars in the honey pull the water out of the bacterium. The bacterium then shrink up and die. The ancients, applied honey to wounds, they didn't get infected and they healed faster. Honey impregnated bandages are available in Europe, Australia and New Zeeland (but not in the U.S. - probably no way to get honey through the approval cycle) but worth a try next time you get a cut.

Finally, the book concludes with an Afterword, which is entitled 'A Letter to the Hive.' It's a copy of what might be a letter to the bees, sent 'care of the hive.' It says, thanks and we love you.

Delightful reading along with a great mass of information.

Faint praise you say? Ok, maybe my ruffly apron is tied too tight today. The history and the cultural sections were excellent but the numerous recipes were unwelcome, mere space fillers. In fact most of the contents were fillers, neatly boxed items you could cull from a rural calendar or a few copies of Country Living. Great book for short attention spans and folks who have no trouble falling asleep. You won't fall asleep in the middle of anything in this book, nothing's that long. Which reminds me, the hardcover version is not 288 pages as stated on amazon. It's 276 pages, and that includes 54 pages of: afterword, acknowledgements, five appendices, sources, permissions, index and "about the authors."

I think this is a mostly well written book, but I am a bit disappointed with the recent history section. I would like to have read more from this book about history in the 1900's more so than ancient history and a few hundred years ago. It could be that not that much happened, but I would have like a bit more coverage of what did happen. Other than that it's a pretty good reference.

I just read the only review of this amazing book and am surprised at how much we differ. I am not connected to the bee world and I found this book to be very entertaining. It's raised my awareness of how important these critters are to our fragile environment. The earlier review seems focused on the author. I don't remember any "ego" comments. Just a great storyteller who managed to peek my interest in bees and their world. Wouldn't I love to go on the hikes Dr. Buchmann mentioned. I give this 5 stars. If you enjoy nature and have any sense of wonderment, I feel you'll enjoy reading this one.

This book delivered on all expectations, and then more. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the honey hunts by various peoples, how honey is used as medicine, the history of honey, the recipes, etc. The one thing I would have liked to see more is information about honey in South America. Buchmann touched on the topic briefly, but never really elaborated like he did with other places. Yet I appreciated the amount of detail he devotes to Central and North American stingless bees.

The writing style is simply AWESOME. I enjoyed very much how he and the writer peppered the book with fun remarks. For example, after reading the gruesome battles and killings between queen bees, they finish the paragraph by comparing it to Shakespeare's plays. Even if you are not into bees, you are going to enjoy reading this book.

This book is an exploration of the importance of honey bees to human cultures worldwide and throughout our history. Sound information is presented in an accessible storytelling manner, coupled with a sense of adventure that I think could charm any reader.

Buchmann is a researcher who hasn't forgotten the human connections, the sense of place that local peoples have, the importance of the bees and flowering plants where they live whether that is a seaside Mayan ruin and village, or amongst the buttressed trunks of the world's oldest rainforest, sampling brood and honey following and all night honey hunt, dreaming of the Rig Veda legend and lore of Hitam Manis, the mythology and creation story of Asian honey bees.

This is a wonderful book for a basic overview of the history and mystery of beekeeping. It is not a how-to book, but it is a great book if you like reading about bees and their relationship with people.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. As a complete novice in the world of bees, it gave me the information I wanted while being thoroughly enjoyable to read and providing great historical connections. Added bonus, the recipes are terrific!

All in all, this book was very enjoyable. Parts were charming, while half or more sounded more like an article in a scientific magazine or, indeed, a travelogue. Those parts could have used a bit more literary touch. The content throughout, however, is really very interesting, especially if you're not all that familiar with honey bees, and I'm very happy to have read this. The publishers also did a beautiful job on the book, which contains pretty little illustrations to punctuate the chapters.