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Amal El-Mohtar

The Honey Month Paperback – August 5, 2010

by Amal El-Mohtar (Author), Oliver Hunter (Illustrator), Danielle E. Sucher (Introduction)

4.4 111 ratings

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Twenty-eight days there are in the month of February, a cold month, a month in which the summer seems an endless dream one had once, long ago. We should not be tricked by the frost, for it was during the dreaming month of February that Amal El-Mohtar composed The Honey Month, a book that tastes and smells of sun. Each day she uncapped a vial of honey, letting the brew inspire the words that became this book. Amal offers us much more than poetry and prose, however. Her words wrap around us like spiderwebs, gently pulling us into the web she weaves, where honey girls tempt and tease us, where things lost return and sorrow paints the leaves. This is a colourful book, but it is by no means a frivolous one. Remember, not all honey is sweet.

These bewitching poems and stories unwind a fevered world of magic and longing and young women who chance the uncanny and gain wisdom beyond their years.

Print length

80 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Papaveria Press
Publication date

August 5, 2010
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.21 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

190788100X
ISBN-13

978-1907881008
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Amal El-Mohtar's The Honey Month from Papaveria Press ranks among 2010's most exquisite and overlooked treasures. --Jeff VanderMeer, Omnivoracious, omnivoracious.com/2010/09/exquisite-treasure-amal-el-mohtars-the-honey-month.html

A delightful debut collection whose poems and short stories are more than just an aesthetic pleasure; they are a rich sensual indulgence. --Andy Humphrey, poets-soapbox.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-honey-month-by-amal-el-mohtar.html

I am hopelessly, madly in love with this small book. --Dan Campbell, art-ungulate.livejournal.com/4691.html

From the Inside Flap

As you tuck into Amal El-Mohtar's The Honey Month, I would recommend having at the ready a big plate of warm crusty bread oozing butter and a few jars of honey with spoons at the ready. Yes, it will make you that hungry, that desirous of the sticky, glorious stuff. Honey is one of those mythical foods--celebrated in almost every culture for its potency, its golden sweetness as well as its amber bitterness. It is rubbed on the tongues of newborns to give them a good life, the faces of brides to make them fertile, and the hands of the dead to reward them in the afterlife. It is alchemy at its best--fragrant and edible.

So it is great fun to read Amal's salute to the glorious stuff in sensual, dreamy works of mythic poetry and short fiction. Scent and taste evoke emotions, memories, longings and each honey is introduced with its appropriate synesthesic qualities: Thistle honey has both "crispness and mellowness at once...playful, a child among honeys," while garnet red Blackberry Creamed Honey has the scent of "bread served at funerals." The literary responses to these sensory descriptions are steeped in the wax of fairy tale, romantic poetry, and memoir: a bee's stinger leads a dreamer to the lonely realm of a fallen star child; a wily lover seduces a young woman with proffered taste of peach cream honey; and a beloved childhood ring lost in the woods reappears a year later on the branches of a sapling.

This slim volume, published by Papaveria Press, is handsomely illustrated by Oliver Hunter who also provides much of the illustrations for Goblin Fruit, a quarterly online poetry journal edited by Amal and co-creator Jessica Wick.

- Midori Snyder, author of The Innamorati and co-director, with Terri Windling, of The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Papaveria Press (August 5, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 80 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 190788100X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1907881008
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.67 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.21 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,635 in Folklore (Books)
- #103,159 in Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 111 ratings

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Amal El-Mohtar

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Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winning author and critic: her short fiction has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, while her poetry has won the Rhysling award three times. She is the author of THE HONEY MONTH, a collection of poetry and prose written to the taste of twenty-eight different kinds of honey, and writes the OTHERWORLDLY column for the New York Times Book Review. She's the co-author, with Max Gladstone, of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, an epistolary time-travelling spy vs spy novella. Find her online at amalelmohtar.com, or on Twitter @tithenai.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

111 global ratings

5 star		62%
4 star		23%
3 star		10%
2 star		5%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Moxie Bee

Sweetly beguiling

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2018

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I found this author through the twists and turns of Twitter. So happy I did.
This dreamy, honey-tongued book is a hybrid of poetry and prose exploring the many flavors and moods of honey. Clever and lovely, this book manages to explore the sweetest of substances without becoming cloying. Have a taste.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2020

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I can't remember when I bought this book, I wanted the physical version since I collect books and enjoyed El-Mohtar's This Is How You Lose the Time War last year, but I had to settle for the Kindle.

And it's lovely. The introduction runs the story behind it and so many of the stories connected to the honey are written in an almost dreamlike quality, quite a few times I was reminded of Catherynne Valente's writing. I was also glad the intro called out parallels to Valente's Palimpsest because I was almost overwhelmed with them.

One person found this helpful

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Kate Mergener

Descriptive honey to be tasted

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 25, 2019

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From hearing about Star-Girls, Dream Thieves, to lovers stealing kisses, to fairy bargains, to devious crows, and to maidens drawn to the water you get visceral allusions of honey portrayed in words. I wouldn't mind trying quite a few, especially peach creamed, apricot creamed, and red gum honey. Leatherwood honey sounds a little dangerous and spicy though.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 27, 2011

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The word that kept coming to mind with the flood of sensual delights that came from the descriptions of intoxicating and exotic honeys along with the hothouse prose and poems was "delirious." Everything rushes over the reader in a flood of sensation. The compact fictions and poems never feel rushed or uninspired. I enjoyed the casual encounter with a pixen in a field, the best. A casual gift of a shirt becomes an obligation that the narrator is smart enough to negotiate away, which is a rare and insightful thing to do considering the whole history of folk and fairy tales. Of course, afterwards, the narrator goes back for an adventure.

A thoroughly delightful treat, and highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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Susan Gossman

Prose for all the senses

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2019

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Reading this book was pure pleasure. The stories and poems weaves the scents and textures of different varieties of honey into beautifully written short stories and poems. One word of warning: when reading this book you will experience a strong craving for honey.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2020

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Eclectic and enchanting...I'm a beekeeper so this grabbed me. It is lyrical, fun, unexpected and delightful. Check it out if you love getting lost in reverie.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 11, 2010

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Lovely little collection of short stories (mostly) and poems. I started reading one morning on the way to work, groggy and tired, as soon as I read the first story, my attention focused, I felt refreshed and invigorated. (I realize how strange this sounds talking about a book, but there it is.) The pieces are easy to read, lyrical and light, and don't get repetitive. Recommended.

3 people found this helpful

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Rita Briar

Restorative

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 29, 2018

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I borrowed this book from a friend. Less than halfway through, I bought it so that I could read these drips and drabbles of sweetness whenever I needed tham.

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Top reviews from other countries

Giliell

Ein Besuch im Museum / a visit to the art gallery

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on June 20, 2014

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Wenn ein normaler Roman wie ein Besuch im Theater ist, dann ist The Honey Month ein Besuch im Kunstmuseum. Wie Bilder zeigen die verschiedenen Tage Facetten, immer wieder blitzt ein bekanntes Element auf, und wie bei einem Gemälde fragt man oft nicht nach dem tieferen Sinn, sondern genießt die Ästhetik der Worte.

If a novel is like going to watch a play at the theatre, The Honey Month is like a visit to the art gallery. The different days show different themes and versions of themes. A familiar element appears in a flash, and just like when looking at a paining one doesn't ask for a deeper meaning but simply enjoys the aesthetics of words

Avidalire

?

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 16, 2017

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The Honey Month Paperback – August 5, 2010

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