Book #8/2019 The Honey Bus: A Memoir of a Girl Saved by Bees

The Honey Bus: A Memoir of a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone should read The Honey Bus, a parable for our time, a beautifully composed memoir of, for the most part, a young girl - Meredith May - who, with her younger brother Matthew, experiences the despair of a broken home, separated parents and a dysfunctional mother. Moved away from their father and Rhode Island to live with grandparents in California. Step-grandpa is a beekeeper, has been for many years. A fount of knowledge about honey bees and their invaluable contribution to life. Uses an old military bus converted for use to harvest honey. Meredith is captivated and comes to learn everything about the husbandry of bees from grandpa, who loves her and her brother, unconditionally. Meredith's personality will be shaped by the life lessons learned in a bee yard. Every child should have that same opportunity to grow.

A story of love, hope, despair, redemption - a wake up call to help honey bees live closer to the way nature intended - bees that are threatened with Varroa destructor and a host of newer diseases such as Nosema gut pathogen and the Slow Bee Paralysis virus.

Meredith does her small part - she owes her Grandpa at least that much to continue his work - and she owes it to the bees...

The Honey Bus has left a lasting impression on me and has been an education about the vital need for us to help honey bees survive. Without them we are lost...

The highest possible recommendation from me. I urge you to read The Honey Bus.

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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Book #7/2019 The Ghost Fields

The Ghost Fields: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 7 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. The Ghost Fields is number 7 and it really is as well to read them in order as there are threads that run through the series that lock your interest and enthusiasm for the characters.

Dr Ruth Galloway is a professor of forensic archaeology at the University of North Norfolk. She likes cats (an endearing trait for me!), Bruce Springsteen, bones and books. She does not like organised religion. She has a now five-year-old daughter, Kate, fathered by DCI Harry Nelson after a brief extra-marital affair. Nelson is married to Michelle. He leads the Serious Crimes Unit in Norfolk. Michael Malone is a lovable character, also know as Cathbad. Born in Ireland and brought up as a catholic he now thinks of himself as a druid and shaman. DS David Clough (Cloughie) is Nelson's bagman, born in Norfolk - a tough, dedicated officer who dislikes political correctness and graduate police officers. He likes food, football, beer - and his job. And then there is DS Judy Johnson who now co-habits with Cathbad and has just given birth to a daughter. I have followed their lives since book #1 with great fondness.

In a blazing heatwave in Norfolk a construction crew unearth a World War Two plane. The body inside isn't the pilot. A television company discovers bones on their latest shoot on a pig farm. They're human bones... One local family, the Blackstocks, links the two grisly discoveries and Ruth must solve the mystery of the ghost fields. With an inevitability she finds herself in harms way in a finish that has the pulse racing - a fabulous page-turner - that left me quite breathless come the end.

Hats off to Elly Griffiths. You have done it again!



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Book #6/2019 The Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I fear I am about to upset the apple-cart, having read so many good reviews of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. It just wasn't for me. This post apocalyptic story (if that is a correct description - it's not dystopian) is depressing. It is very well written but I came close to abandoning before finishing on a number of occasions. After cataclysmic events the tale unfolds around 100 years post 'the event' when the world's population is apparently reduced to around 7,500 (of what used to be 7.5 billion before 'the Gelding'). No electricity, no computers, no communication, no hope.

If this is 'the end of the world' I'll take a rain-check...

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Book #5/2019 American Politics: A Beginner's Guide

American Politics: A Beginner's Guide by Jon Roper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent introduction to American politics for anyone who wants to know more about government and politics in the USA. Jon Roper is Professor of American Studies at the University of Swansea, UK and has formerly held positions at the University of Tennessee, the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University. He takes us on a journey starting with the founding fathers in 1620, explores the founding principles enshrined in the United States Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He provides a sharp analysis of how history, religion and ideology have forged the way America governs itself. He discusses state politics, the original thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, the creation of the federal government, the Tea Party movement, American foreign policy - isolationism verses internationalism - and the power of lobby groups.

This is an engaging guide for anyone including readers in the United States.

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Book #4/2019 The Horseman

The Horseman by Tim Pears
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A list of some twenty-eight characters at the beginning of the book is somewhat confounding. It is necessary to get your head around these from the start, otherwise confusion will spoil your enjoyment of this gentle, pastoral novel set in Devon in 1911/1912. Composed as a calendar through the months and seasons and following the daily, hardworking lives of the Sercombe family: Albert Sercombe, a ploughman, Ruth, his wife, Fred, Sidney and Leopold (Leo), the three sons and Kizzie, their daughter. These are the central characters - in particular the twelve year old Leo - along with Arthur, Lord Prideaux, owner of the estate and Charlotte (Lottie), his only child.

A bucolic blend of Flora Thompson, Laurie Lee and Thomas Hardy, sprinkled with countryside words and events through the seasons: how to groom a Shire horse, how to plough a field, how to slaughter and butcher a pig (in graphic detail), the harvest cycle of collecting, stack-building and threshing. It's all here in forensic detail. One wonders - where is this going? Is there a plot?

Remember Leo and Lottie? Working class, humble lad and privileged daughter of landed gentry. Leo loves horses. His mind is set on working with them, one day. Lottie is at first antagonistic towards him, but at the same time intrigued by this quiet lad. They share a love of all things equine. It will take them on a journey through their age of innocence to a simple act, misinterpreted, that leads to devastating consequences. The last ten minutes of this beautiful story left me stunned...

My thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for this ebook.

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Book #3/2019 Barack Obama: Quotable Wisdom

Barack Obama: Quotable Wisdom by Carol Kelly-Gangi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Passages selected from Barack Obama's speeches, interviews, essays, books, social media posts and other writings over the past twenty years. Arranged thematically the selections reveal his thoughts and feelings and even the occasional joke - about the many issues he faced during his two terms as president:
- universal healthcare
- same-sex marriage equality
- racial equality
- the threat of terrorism
to name a few

These extracts reveal a great intellect, dynamic leadership style and steadfast determination.

Edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi.




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Book #2/2019 Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How can I do justice in a review of this remarkable book? This huge tapestry spread over 430 large pages of small print. The story of this iconic American woman, her story, beautifully composed - full of love, hope, endeavour and achievement. An intimate, powerful and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of The United States.

From the South Side of Chicago, where she and her brother Craig shared a bedroom; where her parents Fraser and Marian Robinson raised her to be outspoken and unafraid and from whom she learned the importance of education. Michelle graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley and Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She recounts the struggle to balance her work and family with her husband's fast-moving political career, nurturing her daughters Malia and Sasha, gives a behind-the-scenes account of her family's history-making launch into the global limelight and life inside the White House, with some wonderful anecdotes about meeting our Queen Elizabeth. This alone endeared me to her.

Michelle Obama tells her story with honesty and boldness and has my unbounded admiration. I recommend Becoming without reservation.

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