This is such a fun and well written book. The author's enthusiasm really shines through in the text (he's an entomologist and beekeeper himself, apparently). I liked the book's logical and easy-to-follow layout. An introduction with a good, science-based history of bee history, the ecological niche bees fill as pollinators and food sources is followed by chapters covering beekeeping (past and present), and recipes for enjoying and using honey and beeswax.
The recipes are varied and useful and encompass everything from baklava and cookies to lip balm and old fashioned wood polish. Recipe ingredients are listed bullet style in a sidebar. Measurements are in American standard only. Tips and alternatives for the recipes are contained in highlighted text boxes. The book includes a short author bio and a metric conversion chart, but lacks any index or a general ingredients list. The bibliography and resource lists will provide lots of possibilities for further learning and reading.
This is a useful and well written book. It's graphically appealing and typeset in a clear, easy to read font, but the photography is not abundant. This would not be my *first* choice for a beekeeping book to learn from, but it would make an excellent choice to add to the beekeeper's (or those interested in becoming apiarists) libraries.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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