Book Presentation and Reflection

Throughout the presentations of the different books, one key theme stood out to me between them all. The books all connected the life of bees to human life. A summary of the novels helps to explain this theme.

In the fiction novel The Bees, the reader followed the life of a bee within a hive. The bees were given human characteristics and emotions that helped the reader to connect to the insect. Within The History of Bees book, three different life stories of humans' relationship with bees were told in different time settings. The Beekeepers Lament explained the life of a beekeeper and the struggles and successes they have with caring for honeybees. Beetime was a spiritual novel that focused on slowing down and noticing the living things around us. The book that I read, Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees, went through the history of bees, the different native species in the United States, and scientific statements from professionals.

In all these novels, they talked about bees and how they interact or relate to human life. It shows the interconnectedness that we have with these insects and nature. Often, humans think of themselves as having all power and control, but through these books we can see that nature can exist without our interference. Although, humans do have a large impact on nature and ecosystems. This brings me to the second theme present in all the novels which is that honeybees are facing a problem, colony collapse disorder. The books took different approaches in talking about the struggle’s bees face, but they all agree that there is a problem with honeybees. This issue is largely caused by humans using pesticides, trucking them around the country, and many other reasons. Colony collapse disorder is a significant issue that humans are dealing with because we rely on bees for pollination services. Another theme that stood out to me was that bees are important to the ecosystem. They are physically small, but they have a large impact on plants, animals, and humans.

These novels also shared a commonality of depicting information about bees while making it an interesting story to read. I appreciated being able to learn more about these creatures in an interesting and compelling way. I liked being able to choose a book from a range of options. It was enjoyable to read a novel and obtain more information about bees rather than reading a textbook or multiple scientific papers. The presentations were interesting; I liked hearing people’s interpretations of their novels and what quotes spoke to them most. Overall, reading a book and listening to people’s presentations helped me to find more themes to help solve the problem of bees.