Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because there's a lot of wisdom in the padding

After getting a new, longed-for position, Author Jukes finds that wanting and having are not the same sensation.
<blockquote>I sometimes think that life must be a bit like tessellation for some people. You take one shape and fit it to the next and they sit comfortably together – you don’t mind a bit of repetition because it’s what makes the pattern form. Life is not like tessellation for me. Sometimes the shapes don’t fit, or I don’t fit into them, or I’m looking at the patterns but they don’t feel real or right to me.</blockquote>
It's a key realization, and it leads to her keeping a beehive as a means to create value and meaning in her world.

A lot of people have compared the book to <I>H is for Hawk</i>, which read I very much did not like. It felt deeply hypocritical to me to read of someone's love for a wild thing as they're describing how they un-wilded it. Author Jukes does not un-wild her bees, as that's been done millennia ago. And her possession of a colony evokes some very good meditative thinking in her:
<blockquote>Here I am pondering impermanence, having just tasked myself with the responsibility of keeping something&mdash;with sustaining it. A colony is not a book or an archivable object and you can’t hold it in a glass cabinet or on a shelf. It is live and shifting and if this one doesn’t take to our little rectangular space it’ll be put of here faster than you can say swarm.</blockquote>
What makes the book less than a four-star, upper-heap read is that it's too long for how short it is. Cut some chapters, bring the philosophizing to some conclusions earlier for example and don't repeat the same ruminations, and there'd be another star up there. As it stands I can't agree with myself to overlook this to grow it over three-and-a-half smiling stars.

As a lover of honey, I've always been curious about all things apian. This was a interesting memoir in which Jukes walks the reader through her first year with her first hive.

Grateful to NetGalley and Patheon for the free copy (which I didn't get to read in time and got this from the library instead). I find myself being interested in a topic, but difficult to read dry non-fiction books about The Art of [Thing]. This was a really fun way to learn about beekeeping and the personal impact it had on the authors life. I loved how it touched on making new friends when you're older and being comfortable joining a new community. This was an inspiring read. Thank you!

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Pantheon Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes.

I chose this book to read and review as I am fascinated by all bees, but in particular in learning more about the workings of a honeybee hive. Written as a memoir, Helen Jukes takes us through a year of her life in which she expresses an interest in bees, is gifted a swarm and then learns as much as she can before she collects them for her own hive. This book was extremely educational and informative and I enjoyed learning as much about the history of bees as Helen did, although I’m sure she only scratched the surface in what she shared with her reader.

Although predominantly about the author’s beekeeping, we learn a little of her life, her work and her friends at the same time and occasionally, I forgot I was reading a non-fiction book as I was transported into the bee world. The book is well-written and thoroughly immersive.

I would recommend A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings to anyone with an interest in wildlife, bees and how they keep the world turning.

This non-fiction book plays out like a memoir of one woman’s (Helen) journey to establish her first bee hive. An easy read, this book targets more of an audience with a particular interest in bee keeping who would appreciate her journey to become a bee keeper in an unbran environment.

Her quest to become a beekeeper is one of hard work, and determination with the hopes there is a reward in the end, and that her subjects do not swarm and remain in the hive after winter,

She invests a lot to time and money but soon realizes that her own evolution to transform as a bee keeper is congruent to the journey her bees face to create a community in the hive they will stay in.

In the end, Helen must face her fears, overcome anxiety and fulfill her wish to become a successful beekeeper.

This was an excellent book. The author really drew me in to her story and I appreciated her narrative. It was both informative and engaging. I hope she has another story to tell in the future, because I’d certainly read it!

I generally love these types of memoirs, and did enjoy this one, though I found it somehow a tad impersonal. I learned quite a bit about honeybees but could have done with a little less on the history of beekeeping. Overall, 3 out of 5.

A memoir told through the process of understanding and keeping bees this is a thoughtful and beautiful book. I found it easy to pick up and put down in between reading fiction titles as a delightful palate cleanser.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes. It was such a delightful look into the author’s personal adventure to embark up on ‘hivekeeping’!! I learned so much about the nature of bees, but also the author’s struggle with whether she was allowed to ‘keep’ something meant to be wild without unnecessary external influence from her. It was something I had never considered in all the years I have wished for backyard bees.

Unfortunately the book was not available anymore after I dowloaded the digital copy, making impossible for me to read it. Therefore, I cannot rate it.
Due to the requirement of the review system I will give it a neuter rating (3 stars), which does not reflect my view on the book.

I really liked the combination of personal memoir with information about beekeeping. I don't know much about bees, so I ended up learning a lot through reading this book, and got excited to learn even more. This might not be the most interesting book for people who already keep bees or have done research about the topic, but for a beginner it was really interesting. I also enjoyed the gentle, slow pace of the book. It went back and forth between the author taking care of her hive to her research on the history of beekeeping. It was a great read for cozy time curled up with a book in front of the fire.

I enjoyed this book. I thought the Author did an excellent job discussing the 'perils' of beekeeping and how this influenced her life. I knew nothing about beekeeping and I thought this was an interesting way to learn about the craft. "A therapeutic pastime."
The Author described her trepidation in taking on beekeeping and she guides us through the process of setting up and researching the beekeeping process. Understnadably, she struggles with the question, "Do I really want to do this or just research bees through books?"
Ultimately, the process changes her life.
I enjoy books like this that offer a personal narrative about the challenges of nature and 'domesticating' wild creatures.

This is a delightful account of Helen’s journey into becoming an apiarist. When she starts a new job and moves house she is hoping for a new start. Her friends club together to fund her first colony of bees, and she recounts the trials and tribulations of her year of learning how to keep them. She has done a lot of research into the history of beekeeping and how to maintain a healthy and productive colony, and shares many interesting facts as she progresses through the year. Unfortunately, whilst interesting, it wasn’t as compelling as I’d hoped. Thank you to Helen jukes, Net Galley and Pantheon Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely!!A very cute memoir!! It was a joy to spend some hours in the company of this book. Unfortunately, it does not come with explanations about Honeybees and their biology and behaviour. In case the reader does not have knowledge about Honeybees, maybe he/she will miss learning something. Thank you Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was fascinated with this little book. It was so interesting reading this memoir and the woman caring for bees. I am glad that I was able to read this gem of a book.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Such an interesting story about the author and how she let honeybee's into her heart. The book starts off quickly and wraps you in for the ride.

A woman decides to keep a honey bee hive in her backyard, and ponders how doing so is similar to growing older and its connections to life. She includes factual information about bees, and the book takes place over the course of a year. I see this book as a “what if” because it fills my own curiosity for what if I chose to keep a hive, what that would be like. Not that I really would, but a story like this answers that wonder. It was a slow paced book- and was helpful as a book before bedtime, to get lost in a life of someone else is a good distraction right now.

A week after finishing it, I can say the story stays with me every time I see a bee buzz by, or a dead one in my backyard (which I find myself scooping up and looking more closely at). I think reading about bees in this way was more interesting to me rather than simply reading a factual science book or website about them.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. I listened to a sample of the audiobook on Audible, and I think it would have been better to listen to it as the narration gave more life to the words.

This book was a delight. It was the perfect mix of memoir and stories along with just enough education to feel like I learned something at the end. Helen starts this book after some changes in her life and a struggle to move into the next chapter of her life. As she honed into learning about bees, her friends decided to jumpstart things by gifting her a hive of bees to be picked up in the spring. Following her through the first year of her colony, we are introduced to the bees, her adventures in beekeeping and the rabbit trails she takes in her bee research,

This a short, sweet memoir about a period in the author's life when she is looking for a change. She takes up beekeeping and learns things along the way. The reader also gets to learn a bit about bees. I love reading about bees. It's peaceful reading.

A great read for anyone who loves bees and all things bees. You will enjoy the information shared as well as the educated understanding of these creatures from the author. A great book!