A Sting in the Tale - Dave Goulson

I rated this book 10/10

One of the United Kingdom’s most respected conservationists and the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Goulson combines lighthearted tales of a child’s growing passion for nature with a deep insight into the crucial importance of the bumblebee. He details the minutiae of life in the nest, sharing fascinating research into the effects intensive farming has had on our bee population and the potential dangers if we are to continue down this path.

A charming insight into the world of the bee

A charming insight into the world of bees. This book is easy to follow, and filled with plenty of personal stories and interesting information. I enjoyed learning all about the ins and outs of the beehive, and how the demise of the bumblebee is really quite a worrying thought. Some myths were busted too - and the index in the back is also really handy if you need to revisit ideas at the end.

Anybody with even the slightest interest in bees or wildlife should pick up this book - it's a wonderful piece of work.

Available at Waterstones

The Bees - Laline Paull

I rated this book 9/10

The Handmaid's Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.

Thrilling, suspenseful and spectacularly imaginative, The Bees gives us a dazzling young heroine and will change forever the way you look at the world outside your window.

Escape into a bizarre dystopian thriller based entirely on the life cycle of a bee. Flora is born a sanitation worker, the lowest on the hierarchy within the hive. This beautifully written novel follows her advance through the ranks. It's strange; unlike anything I've read before - such a simple idea so well executed.

I like the way that Paull captures the suffocating and claustrophobic feel of the hive, the bees living in such close proximity, as one body made from many. It has a hypnotic feel to it at times, and is easy to draw up the sights and smells that she describes throughout.

I'll admit that it was really weird at first, and I needed a few chapters to get used to the narrative, but soon enough I was absorbed and couldn't put it down. I think that this is set to be a big hit in paperback in the springtime.

Definitely worth a read.

Marley & Me - John Grogan

Date Finished: 17th January 2012

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

My Thoughts: Someone recommended this book to me and gave me their copy to read so I felt obliged, specially as I'd already seen the film and figured the book would probably be better. Oh how wrong I was.

John Grogan comes across as arrogant and abrupt in this book and I didn't find him particularly likeable. It seems that he was a pretty bad dog owner too. He found an amount of amusement in strangling Marley on a choker-chain as one example, never had time for the dog as both he and his wife worked all day, left him in a metal cage completely terrified when thunderstorms passed over, bundled him onto an airplane in a crate that was too small for him, went on holiday whilst the dog was in medical care on his last legs... and none of this is anything to rave about. I don't quite understand how anyone could find this kind of behaviour endearing.

By the same token, Marley actually didn't come across very well either and I didn't get a warm feeling for this dog as much as I expected to. I love dogs, but I thought that there would be something amazing about him that would make a brilliant read. Marley just seemed hungry, destructive, scared and boisterous with no particularly admirable or special qualities at all.

In short; a normal dog in a normal house being looked after by normal people. Not the kind of stuff great biographies are made of. Quite disappointing.

I'd recommend leaving the book to gather dust.

I RATED THIS 2/10