365 Days of Books

I admit that I stayed up way too late reading A recipe for Bees. I first read this book years ago when it was given to me as a gift by a wonderful woman I met on the internet (Hi, Julie!). I blush when I tell you that for years after, people kept recommending Secret Life of Bees and I said I had already read it, because I was confusing it with this book.

It is interesting that lately I have read two books that inciorporate beekeeping and two about the isolated and difficult lives of family farmers, two of which are set in the same time period (Postcards and Recipe for Bees).

A Recipe of Bees tells the story of Augusta. She grew up on a family farm and her mother had a reputation for flirting (and more) with other men. Like Jewell in Postcards, Augusta struggles to find her place in the world; unlike Jewell Augusta does not wait until her husband is dead. Augusta is haunted by glimpses of the future and ghosts from the past who show her the limits of her life and the consequences of allowing her life spirit to be squeezed down to a small bland cube. Augusta, naive or just optimistic, gives people the chance to be wonderful and good but when they don't step up she takes matters into her own hands. Isolated on her father-in-law's farmstead while he and her husband work the sheep, Augusta accepts help from the Reverend and takes jobs in the nearby town. While there she has an affair that lasts for several years. One result of the affair is a pregnancy that Augusta has been seeking with her husband; the more important result is that Augusta feels beautiful and worthy of not only love but positive attention. Can she get those things from her husband?

The story is told in a series of flashbacks and story-telling from Augusta's present day old age. In present day Augusta you can see flashes of how she changed and how her core self remains.