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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This beautiful story touched on so many heavy to topics. Seeing the changes, brutality, and beauty of politics, poverty, nature, friendship, and family through the eyes of a bee keeper and his community. This book had me hooked and I want more! Fabulous short read with delicious translation.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interesting premise just fell short
The book started out strong with interesting storylines that ran parallel throughout the novel until the end where everything just ended abruptly. Too many threads were left hanging: what happened to the politician that started the whole god movement, what happened to the professors accused by students, what happened to the people in Nawa? etc. If another book is going to begin where this one left off, I’d still feel unsatisfied by the ending. It’s too bad because I was enjoying the story and I feel it had plenty of room to resolve itself.
The book started out strong with interesting storylines that ran parallel throughout the novel until the end where everything just ended abruptly. Too many threads were left hanging: what happened to the politician that started the whole god movement, what happened to the professors accused by students, what happened to the people in Nawa? etc. If another book is going to begin where this one left off, I’d still feel unsatisfied by the ending. It’s too bad because I was enjoying the story and I feel it had plenty of room to resolve itself.
My brother-in-law is a beekeeper and I recently "met" his bees. I loved this story.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the bees are coming
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Beautifully written and translated. Exciting, insightful and an excellent read.
This is one of those books where I think the author tried to do too much (and in a rather short book at that). There is the story of the beekeeper and his bees attacked by huge hornets, and the story of the fledgling democracy, attacked (I guess) by Islamist fundamentalists. I suppose one is a reflection of the other, but I think it's a clumsy reflection. The Goodreads blurb contains this: "brilliantly accessible modern-day parable". I don't think it's any of those things. Others say its an allegory, but I don't see that either, perhaps because of my lack of knowledge of Tunisian culture and history. Where the book really goes off the rails, I think, is when the author compares the culture of the fictitious Arab country in the book with Japan's. It's not that it's not an interesting comparison, it is just so shallow, and the caution that the Japanese culture is not as great as it seems because there are large adult sex shops seems shallower still.