Up the Creek Book Club
Home Page |
|
Current Book List |
|
Prior Book Lists |
|
King County Library |
|
Barnes & Noble |
|
Amazon.com |
|
© 2000 Kathy Craig |
A Recipe for Bees
by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
September 2001
Synopsis
Augusta Olsen has the gift of second sight. As a teenager growing up on a rural farm she foresaw that her mother would die in childbirth. But she could not predict that her own marriage to a taciturn sheep farmer would prove so confining (or her father-in-law so very ornery). Augusta remains feisty and unbowed, finding independence in work, friendships, motherhood, and a love affair that will reverberate throughout her life. And it is when she takes up her mother's craft of beekeeping that her life - and even her marriage - is unexpectedly transformed.
Reminding us of the dignity that can be won from hard circumstances, A Recipe for Bees is a rich immersion in the sensory world of life on a farm, a novel full of vitality, wisdom, and great charm." (Publisher)
Reviews
- "In language remarkable for its suppleness and unforced simplicity, Anderson-Dargatz delivers both a quirky love story and a serene meditation on endurance and its rich rewards" (The Washington Post)
- "A bravura work that in several ways recalls Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries. What Gail Anderson-Dargatz has achieved is a commemoration of a lifestyle and a collection of characters that live on when the novel is finished." (The Times Literary Supplement/London)
- "An engaging, well-paced story of earthy necessity, with vigorously distinct characters." (The Seattle Times)
Book Club Rating and Comments
If you or your book club has read this book and would like to share your comments, please email us at upthecreekbc@yahoo.com.
Other Books by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
- 'The Cure for Death by Lightning'