Disclaimer! Princeton Publishing provided the copies for review!
Who doesn't love bees?
Price listed on book - US $29.95
Authors - J.S. Wilson and O.M. Carril
Pages - 288
Size - 7"x10" - almost an inch thick
Topics covered - All sorts of bee's! An introduction, how to help bee's, then discussion of the various families.
Photographs - Who knows! 300? 400? There are many in this rich and colourful book.
The skinny: bee's are all the rage these days with honeybee colony collapse, listing of bumblebees by COSEWIC or SARA, lots of research - so now is the perfect time to learn more about bee's. The authors want everyone to know just how awesome (and variable) our North American Bee's are! (4000+ species in the United States and Canada!)
The good: This book is bright, colourful, and has a lot of information that will keep a budding (to avid) naturalist entertained for a long time. I can't help but feel the excitement the authors have for their subjects and that is the type of situation where things begin to rub off on others. I don't currently have any need to put the book to use, and the cold weather isn't going to provide many opportunities, but I can only imagine that it would help answer many questions you wouldn't easily find elsewhere.
The bad: based on my early impressions - I can't find anything bad to say about the book. I mean, I can say things, but I will cover those in the "who-should-buy-it" below! It has great images, range maps, packed full of facts, great ID tips (oh yeah, this is the "bad" section - moving on...)
Who should buy it: I recommend it to all naturalists! All the naturalists! If you're interested in anything in the natural world, it's an easy progression to move onto something new - espicially when you have great information to start with. This is that book!
Also - if you want to get a gift for a naturalist friend, I think this book is a slam dunk. There may be those who aren't terribly keen on dropping 30 large ($30.00 for the older folk) on a subject-specific book they aren't 100% keen on, but getting a colourful bee-slap in the face from this book will keep them happy throughout Christmas and beyond (note - Christmas is coming!)
and with that said, here's where I have some trouble....Who else buys this book?
It's not really a kids book, despite it having the appearance of a kids book (heeey kids, should we read about Halictus tonight? Or Hoplitis?) It's not really a field guide, given the large size... It isn't quite a coffee table book... Although I'm sure non-naturalist-people will be happy to just look at the awesome photos when they come over for tea... It's just a really pretty reference book? But doesn't exactly cover all 4000 species?
BEEKEEPERS! If you are, or know a Beekeeper, they'll probably like it too...
Be sure to check out the introduction to the book online here:
Also, Princeton put out a slideshow (with more of these awesome images) and an interview here:
It's available online, out in mid December!
Why do you continually make the plural of bee, bees, "bee's"? Stunning lack of grammatical awareness
ReplyDeleteWhy are you afraid to sign your real name?
Delete