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A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings
A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings | Helen Jukes
15 posts | 11 read | 22 to read
'This book has found a special place in my heart. Its 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 An intimate exploration of the heart and home, and a tantalising glimpse into an alien culture. A brave and delicate book, rich and fascinatingNick Hunt, author of Where the Wild Winds Are 'A profound, funny and sometimes deeply moving book that describes a year of inner city bee keeping, while dancing between the history of bees and us and what it means to be human in our modern world' Julia Blackburn, author of Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske 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 shes 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. 'A mesmeric, lovely, quietly powerful book. A gentle but compelling account of the redemption that comes from relationship and attention' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast I raced through this really terrific, down-to-earth read. The existential threat to our entire ecosystem posed by the problems facing bees can be hard to grasp, but Helen manages to make this a very personal, human story that, hopefully, might inspire others to action' Luke Turner, The Quietus
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AllDebooks
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Pickpick

Busy white tailed bumblebee on Scabosia

Such a beautiful little book. Jukes discusses her research into beekeeping and it's history, as she sets up her own hive.
Inspirational stuff, I'm now saving for my own top bar hive 🐝🍯
#naturalitsy

22 likes1 stack add
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quietlycuriouskate
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Pickpick

I appear to be gathering a shelf of books that might be subtitled "what other creatures taught me about being human". This time it's bees. It made for the perfect bedtime book. I especially delighted in HJ's propensity for consulting the dictionary whenever her perceptions and experiences of the bees and her keeping of them perplexed her.

TrishB I have this one on the pile 👍🏻 3y
40 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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Dc_cush
Mehso-so

Very informative

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Jess_Read_This
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📚I love my librarians. I picked up my second book hoard from them and they tucked in back issues of Bookpages I never got to read due to Covid.
🐝To which I promptly got on Book Depository to order the gorgeous U.K. edition of this because it called to my beekeeping heart.

#beekeeper #pollinatorprotector #beelover #savethehoneybee

GingerAntics Your librarians ROCK!!! 4y
Jess_Read_This @GingerAntics I promptly went to the library‘s social media page to publicly thank and recognize how awesome they are. It was such a great surprise to open the bag and see all the issues I haven‘t read yet. 4y
51 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Ellohcin

Sunshine & a new book.

☀️

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kyraleseberg
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Not book related but I'm super excited I managed to complete this course while also homeschooling my child 😂
Hopefully I'll have my own hive in the next couple years!

Librariana Congratulations on such an awesome accomplishment! Good for you! 🐝🍯 5y
squirrelbrain Oh wow - well done! I‘d love to know more about 🐝 and beekeeping! I think there‘s a course near me.... one day! 5y
LiteraryinPA How cool! 5y
Reggie Awesome! Congrats! 5y
kyraleseberg @Librariana @squirrelbrain @LiteraryinLititz @Reggie Thank you all! It was really fascinating and now I'm looking forward to making my dream of beekeeping a reality. 5y
32 likes5 comments
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beaconhillbooks
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Pickpick

Give me all the books like this... love them. Love bees.

Just released. #netgalley

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kyraleseberg
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Pickpick

I've been considering beekeeping for quite some time. I started an online course a few weeks ago and it has been fascinating! I loved reading this memoir about a year of beekeeping, especially since there were so many things she explained that I was excited to realize I've learned!

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BookNAround
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Today‘s #MayARC is available May 5th (or back in 2018 for UK Littens). I‘m completely fascinated by bees although my mother thinks I‘m allergic (I haven‘t been stung since I was too little to remember for myself).

ravenlee My friend once had herself so convinced she was allergic to bees (despite never having been stung) that we were sure if she ever were stung she‘d end up having a panic attack that approximated anaphylaxis. Once she went out for a run and a bee followed her for two blocks, and she set a personal best run time trying to get away! 😆 (edited) 5y
zezeki I like the title, as well as the cover. 5y
59 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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cris.f
Pickpick

It took a few chapters to get in to this book but once I got there I enjoyed it and learned so much about bees and beekeeping intertwined with the authors life during the process of establishing her own hive, that I read the rest of it in one sitting. I wasn‘t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

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jenniferw88
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Day 6 of my favourite book covers without any explanation. Today i tag @LibrarianRyan

LibrarianRyan Dang you. Okay, I'm Game. 5y
66 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Lieh
Mehso-so

I got this book as a gift. It took me a while to get into it, because this book is not one i would have picked out myself. There are a lot of facts about bees. Around the halfway point I really got into it and finished in one sitting

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BookishMarginalia
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105 likes6 stack adds
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mr_annie
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Warm, meditative and joyful, Helen Jukes‘ account of a year spent keeping bees was just the read I needed as I wait impatiently for spring to arrive. The book blossoms as her hive (and her obsession) develops, and she muses about care, openness, and closeness to our environment and those around us. Interspersed with history and mythology about bees, I would highly recommend this to nature lovers or fans of quiet, introspective memoir.

JennyM Such a beautiful cover 6y
mr_annie Isn‘t it @JennyM?! Every time I put the book down I had to stare. So shiny! 6y
9 likes2 comments
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Mitch
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Such a gorgeous window graphic for this new book. It‘s about a woman who is in a bit of a life rut and is gifted a hive of bees - which are meant to bring good luck. The memoir is her journey to a happy place with the help of the bees. Sounds interesting and the writing has been given high praise. #somethingdifferent