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Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey--The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 638.16
EAN: 9780743250221
ISBN: 0743250222
Label: Free Press
Manufacturer: Free Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: January 10, 2006
Publisher: Free Press
Studio: Free Press
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Editorial Review:
Holley Bishop loves bees. No, more than that: she idolizes them. She marvels at their native abilities and the momentous role these misunderstood and unjustly feared creatures have played in the development of human history. And with her book, Robbing the Bees, she succeeds in making the reader love bees, too. Take this nifty bit of information, one of countless fascinating factoids offered by Bishop in her celebration of all things bee-related: "Because of bees' starring role in the drama of pollination, we humans are indebted to them, directly and indirectly, for a third of our food supply. Visiting bees are required for the commercial production of more than a hundred of our most important crops including alfalfa, garlic, apples, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, citrus, melons, onion, almonds, turnips, parsley, sunflower, cranberries, and clover." Or how about this: "For the past decade, the American military has been testing [bees'] potential as special agents in the war on drugs and terrorism. Bees are as sensitive to odor as dogs and can be trained to buzz in on drugs, explosives, landmines, and chemical weapons." Beat that as a winning opening gambit at a cocktail party. And that ain't all. Bishop charts the evolution of honey and beeswax harvesting through the ages, gives us an up-close look inside working beehives from ancient Egypt to the present day, interviews beekeepers, quotes bee chroniclers past and present (from Charles Darwin to contemporary Florida beekeeper Donald Smiley), reveals her rather clumsy foray into beekeeping in candid detail, studies bees' impact on religion and history, and provides a selection of innovative recipes calling for honey. Through it all, Bishop never loses sight of the star if the show--the humble honey bee--or the crucial but largely unrewarded role they continue to play on our planet. And she does it with snappy prose and keen humor. Dogs be warned: if Bishop has her way, bees will be the it pet of the future, or at least less likely to die at the end of a folded newspaper next time one buzzes in through an open window. --Kim Hughes
Honey has been waiting almost ten million years for a good biography. Bees have been making this prized food -- for centuries the world's only sweetener -- for millennia, but we humans started recording our fascination with it only in the past few thousand years. Part history, part love letter, Robbing the Bees is a celebration of bees and their magical produce, revealing the varied roles of bees and honey in nature, world civilization, business, and gastronomy.
To help navigate the worlds and cultures of honey, Bishop -- beekeeper, writer, and honey aficionado -- apprentices herself to Donald Smiley, a professional beekeeper who harvests tupelo honey in the Florida panhandle. She intersperses the lively lore and science of honey with lyrical reflections on her own and Smiley's beekeeping experiences. Its passionate research, rich detail, and fascinating anecdote and illustrations make Holley Bishop's Robbing the Bees a sumptuous look at the oldest, most delectable food in the world.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Went out and bought honey after reading the book
It was fantastic! I was laughing and absorbingly reading this book and couldn't put it down. This book went along nicely with the current media awareness campaign of the plight of the honeybee. Current research indicates that every third bite or drink of food is the direct result of bee pollination. Do you like almonds? Almonds are entirely reliant upon bee pollination. No bees = no almonds. Other foods are also heavily reliant on bees to produce many of the foods we enjoy from watermelons ... Read More
Rating:  - Book about bees
It's a book with an agenda. The author turned me off long before I read more than 60 pages. I consider the author to have an agenda to promote the entrapping of bees. Obviously she's into the business of harnessing bees for profit. Her ridiculous staments "Bees are better pets than dogs" is just that RIDICULOUS! Bees aren't pets, they can't ever be made into pets, all we can do to them is to let them be free and form wild colonies or entrap them for profit. Another thing to ponder for those who call ... Read More
Rating:  - Editor Needed!
Good book if you can skip over the extraneous bits. Alot of un-necessary information. Author has interesting story to tell, but when she gets into a whole section about how the bee-keeper mistakenly painted his house some bright color of pink and there's no connection to bees here, she loses me. Book is another in my collection of 1/2 read tomes.
Rating: - excellent!
an excellent bio of honey, bees, beekeeping and the role the three subjects have in history and our lives. great read.
Rating: - Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey
This is one of the best books I have read. Makes me want to get a bee hive for my back yard. Very interesting facts about bees and honey. Every high school/middle school science class should read this book. I liked it so much I bought it for friends.
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