If you are an addict or know someone who is - this is a great gift! I was rolling on the floor reading this - honestly! It's a small, quick-to-read, "coffee-table" book.

While most of us give a wide berth to stinging insects, memoirist Roseanne Daryl Thomas cozies up to bees, affectionately calling them "my girls." - quite an about face for one whose prior knowledge of apian life consisted of "They buzzed. They stung. They were yellow."

Following a divorce Ms. Thomas, her then 7-year-old daughter, August, and Ruffy, a geriatric cat, sought new life in a small New England community populated by 3,000 inquisitive souls.

There she met Farmer Tom; farmer being an unlikely sobriquet for a man with clean fingernails and a business card. Another unlikelihood was Ms. Thomas's out-of-nowhere comment that she might like to keep bees. At this, her daughter smiled, and Farmer Tom offered his land.

Smitten with the idea of having a mother who was a bee keeper, August "danced jubilantly about the house, composing beekeeping songs, drawing beekeeping pictures." Not wishing to disappoint her daughter, and just a little enthralled by the idea herself, Ms. Thomas began a task about which she knew "a teaspoonful more than absolutely nothing."

She visited a master beekeeper who introduced her to a hive body or deep super where bees live. Inside the deep super would be wax covered moveable frames where honey is made. . To her chagrin these did not come ready made, but had to be assembled - a daunting task for one who was not sure she owned a hammer. She bought three unassembled hives.

Another necessity was "The Outfit," first of all, gloves, elbow length cotton covered with yellow latex. Gloves did not come in a 7 ½; the smallest size in the white beesuit was a men's 42 regular. Finally, the hat. She was hoping for something in "a pale gold closely woven straw." Instead, she was handed "a hard white plastic pith helmet with ventilation grates at the temples."

There was no time for second thoughts as she had also ordered six living pounds of Italian honeybees. (According to the Bee Master Italian honeybees had the best dispositions). After many bruised fingers, considerable help from a friend, and countless visits to True Value, the hives were ready. Named Har, Jafenhar, and Thridi for the mythic trio who guard Valhalla, they were placed on Farmer Tom's land.

Weeks passed as Ms. Thomas tended her bees, sloshing through the field in Wellingtons bearing Ball jars of sugar water and toting other necessities in a lavender Bergdorf's shopping bag. With each visit she felt a deepening affinity for that spot of earth. Her respect for the natural world grew as she observed a blue heron seeking sustenance, and heavily laden black ants climbing ant mountains.

After a year the author had survived numerous stings and slings of fortune. She harvested her first crop with the observation that she had learned much but not enough.
Readers will find that they have learned much about bee keeping but not enough about Rosanne Daryl Thomas. "Beeing" is a memoir oddly lacking in emotional intimacy. Her marriage is dismissed with several lines, and there is scant reference to personal feelings. As "Motherhood" is found in the subtitle, one wonders what August's response was to the breakup of her home, and moving to a new community. Did Ms. Thomas ever address these issues with her daughter?

Practical matters also prove puzzling. With no apparent income how does one undertake a costly hobby that requires full time attention? Questions remain unanswered.

Nonetheless, "Being" is fluidly penned, at times lyric in descriptions of the changing seasons. And, there are lessons to be learned in this memoir, not the least of which is, "If you want to get honey, you have to be prepared to get stung."

There's no question at all about that.

- Gail Cooke

I love this book!!! It is sweet, funny, touching
and completely charming. (also inspiring: makes you
want to keep bees and appreciate them more.)
This is a "keeper" for the personal favorites library.
It is the gift I want to give my favorite friends and
relatives. The only thing possibly better than reading
this story would be to see Sandra Bullock make this into
a movie!
******Sandra Bullock please make this into a movie...
it is PERFECT for you!!!!!****************************

What a great read! Thomas breezes us through a year in the life of an unstoppable single mom, as seen through the lens of a novice beekeeper. She braves the vicissitudes of her first year of beekeeping with pathos, humor, intelligence and grace. As she interweaves her care and tending of the bees and their hives with the care and tending of her daughter, herself and their memorable home, I turned page after page with an ever-widening smile. Many thanks to the author for granting me a glimpse into her personal and universal world.

THE ANGEL CARVER is a well-written, entertaing novel -- and several of the characters are very endearing (particularly Jack, Lucille and Leopoldine). The author's style is very conversational -- most of the book reads like an oral history, or a talk with an old friend. Thomas is obviously very fond of her characters, but not to the point of painting them in an unbelievable light.

Jack -- 'the shoe man' as he is known in his neighborhood -- is a study in complete devotion. His wife, who left him unexpectedly years before, is still at the center of his heart and his world. His pain at her leaving has remained with him, and he has nurtured it rather than reject it or try to 'get over it'. His life goes on, but she is in his thoughts every day -- and there is always within him a grain of hope that one day she will return. In his spare time, he carves exquisitely beautiful wooden angels -- an entire room in his apartment is devoted to them. They are his secret -- no one knows about them, until Lucille enters his shop and his life, like a gentle breeze of fresh air.

Lucille is at frayed ends in her life. She has no direction, she has no hope of a career -- but she has dreams. On a whim, she decides to color her hair blonde, after seeing a postcard photo of Marilyn Monroe. After this first change, she begins to see that she and Marilyn bear other resemblances, and she begins to accentuate and 'show off' these similarities. She enters a Marilyn look-alike contest and is spotted by Buddy, a computer graphics expert at an advertising agency. She sees Buddy's interest in her as an escape from her to-now humdrum existence, a ticket to fame and fortune. Buddy sees a bit more in her than she realizes.

The character of Buddy is one of the most heartless, mean-spirited, manipulating people you could ever hope (not) to meet. The subsequent and incresing control he begins to exercise over Lucille's life is frightening -- even moreso in that it's all too possible and occurs too often in the world. When Buddy's obsessions collide with Lucille's ambitions and Jack's love and devotion, the tension and suspense build and build until the inevitable climax.

I found most of the novel very compelling -- and, as I mentioned, I especially liked the characters of Jack and Lucille, as well as that of Leopoldine, the housekeeper of one of Jack's neighbors. Buddy was completely reprehensible -- but a necessary element in the story. The chemistry between the characters, and the events imagined by Thomas make for an enjoyable read. The only problem I had was that the ending seemed a little pat, a little rushed. This small disappointment certainly wouldn't keep me from reading another work by this author.

My interest in angels and Rosanne Daryl Thomas (initially under the pseudonym "Prince Charming")ininitially brought me to this book, and I'm glad it did. The story of "Lucille," a Marilyn Monroe look-alike and "Jack," the lonely cobbler with a strange hobby of carving angels is brought together by Buddy, a figure colder than, and just as heartless as stone. Thomas creates an almost magical little world in which the three characters operate. Her writing style lends to the fairy-tale-esque atmosphere, and the ghosts of the past, that is, Marilyn Monroe and Jack's long lost wife, seem to move in every shadow. The intensity with which Thomas describes the angels makes them appear on the pages, making the story that much more real and sophistocagted. Through this detail are pulled into the neurotic spiral the characters revolve in. My only quam with the book is the high voice in which the story is told with, throughout. A variation in tone would have helped to hold the reader to the story more closely, but instead there is a tendancy to drift away from it. Overall, however. Thomas constructs a tapestry that gives us a little modern day magic to hold on to.

This book had an interesting premise, but it left me cold and uninspired. While the narration "by God" had promise, in the end, the book lacked depth and insight. I was disappointed.

I picked up this book, attracted by the title and the cover, and couldn't stop reading. It's an interesting combination of clever satire and compassionate spiritual insight. I loved the characters, especially Sheila and the "downtrodden" Kiri; I laughed out loud at a few spots and got teary-eyed at others. The spiritual side of the book is by no means sentimental -- it offers a picture of a God who works in ways that are not only mysterious but sometimes exactly the opposite of what we'd expect.

I chose this book for superficial reasons- appealing cover and title. I very much enjoyed the the story and found the characters convincing and engaging. God as narrator seemed like a fun and interesting device. Maybe it is not deep theology but the chain of events seemed consistent with my experience of the way God works in human life.