Bumblebee Season by Eileen Garvin

BUMBLEBEE SEASON by Eileen Garvin (Crow Talk) is the sequel to her debut novel The Music of Bees. She provides an update on the progress that wheelchair-bound Jake Stevenson is accomplishing with his bee hives and Queen of G Honey business located near the Hood River in Oregon. But there is much more to the story as Garvin introduces us to other characters. One is Abigail Elizabeth Plue, a young teaching assistant at the local university; she is interested in insects and nature, but she has difficulty with self-regulation and cooperating with others, resulting in a transfer to study bees. Flaco (“skinny”) is the nickname of Sebastian Santiago Luna Lopez; he’s only fourteen and has been sent North (entering the US without papers) by his mother to keep him away from the cartel in his hometown. Along with Jake, each is struggling with personal issues and rejection by a loved one, but Garvin unites them through a shared desire to protect the environment and a growing respect and care for each other. Belonging and community are key ideas in this book which she has dedicated to “anyone who’s ever longed for home.” BUMBLEBEE SEASON received a starred review from Booklist (“Undoubtedly inspired by her own experiences as an Oregon beekeeper, Garvin is a master at creating hive-like communities vibrating with characters readers will enthusiastically embrace.”).

Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin

CROW TALK by Eileen Garvin (The Music of Bees) is a beautiful story as much about nature and birds as it is about people. The setting is a remote collection of summer homes near a lake by Hood River, Oregon. Garvin says she only imagined June Lake, but finds it a welcome “place of refuge” and hopes her readers will, too. That peacefulness is what Mary Francis (call me Frankie) O’Neill is seeking when she heads to her family’s caretaker cottage near the end of the season. She is still grieving her father’s death; plus, her plans to be the first in her family to obtain a master’s degree in the ornithology field have been thwarted by a vindictive advisor. Life feels overwhelming and uncertain. The loneliness, grief, and unhappiness are echoed by Annie Ryan, Irish musician and daughter-in-law to one of the long-established summer families. Annie and husband Tim have brought their five-year-old, Aiden. Once a cheerful, outgoing little boy, he no longer speaks, but manages to establish a rapport with Frankie and with Charlie Crow, a young, injured bird that she nurses back to health. Gavin intersperses many facts (and even idioms) about birds; for example, that there are roughly two thousand distinct species, that a group of hummingbirds is called a glittering, and that birds may have capacity for facial recognition (see 2014 TedTalk by Dr. John Marzluff). Told from multiple viewpoints, CROW TALK received a starred review from Booklist (“A stunning affirmation of nature’s power to soothe and rejuvenate.”). Despite the sadness, readers will revel in a positive ending, all while feeling as though they are forest bathing due to Garvin’s vivid descriptions.

Stay Dead by April Henry

I have commented over the years on suspenseful young adult reads by April Henry like Eyes of the Forest or The Girl I Used to Be and STAY DEAD is another gripping mystery from this prolific, talented author. Sixteen-year-old Milan (great name, right?) has just been expelled from her third boarding school after the death of her Dad, Senator and environmentalist, Jack Mayhew. She and her Mom, Heather, who is now the serving Senator, are with staff aboard a private plane when it crashes. As the only survivor, Milan must rely on quick thinking and her past hiking experiences to beat the cold, the snow, and an animal predator as she struggles to get to Portland, Oregon and the only person her Mom told her to trust. That hazardous journey is exciting enough, but Henry treats readers to added perspective from Lenny, the woman hired to kill Milan and her parents, plus details from Jane, a dairy farmer dealing with the consequences of allowing fracking to occur on her farmland. The pace is quick – and Milan needs to draw on inner resources, remembering a favorite quote of her Mom’s from Amelia Earhart: “The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” In her acknowledgments, Henry sounds super curious and adventuresome herself; she says, “as a writer, I've done many things for research, but probably the most intense was a three-day course called Urban Escape and Evasion. The final day of class you are kidnapped; hooded, cuffed, and mouth duct-taped.… You must use all your newly learned skills to escape...” Wow – that is serious research! And her adrenaline-charged writing reflects it. Enjoy! 

Also wanted to note this quote... from another character who reflects on his departed wife: “She just got to heaven a little sooner than me, … she always liked to be early to things.”

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung

A LIVING REMEDY by Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know) is a heartfelt memoir that readers will not want to miss. Chung essentially eulogizes both of her parents while exploring her relationship with them and her feelings about their illnesses and death. Yes, this is heavy reading at places, but it is beautifully written. Although especially relevant to mixed race adoptees and children of immigrant parents, Chung succeeds in portraying universal experiences in a way which will not be easily forgotten. She is unflinching in writing about the impact of Covid resulting in her “attention and energies divided between the family I was raising and the one that raised me.” And there is consolation, too, when reflecting on her mother: “I know that some part of her isn’t gone, because I feel her love and experience her care like a living thing. I hear her voice speaking to me. And though my father felt so far from me after he died, he no longer feels so distant, lost beyond my reach – it’s as if she has given a part of him back to me now that they are wherever they are …” A LIVING REMEDY received a starred review from Booklist. Highly recommended.

Eyes of the Forest by April Henry

EYES OF THE FOREST by New York Times bestselling author April Henry (The Body in the Woods) involves a kidnapping gone wrong. As Henry says, “I think every writer, if they write long enough, eventually writes a book where one of the main characters is a writer. Eyes of the Forest is mine.” She features R.M. Haldon, a famous fantasy author facing writer’s block (and reminiscent of George R. R. Martin), who conspires in his own kidnapping. Trapped in a remote cabin, he finds a way to begin writing again AND to communicate with his research assistant, seventeen year old Bridget Shepherd, in an attempt to gain his freedom. Yes, it all seemed a bit far-fetched at times, but Henry succeeds in keeping readers’ interest and builds suspense and affection for these characters. With insights into fan fiction, EYES OF THE FOREST is a title with enough cliff-hangers to entertain even reluctant readers.  Goodreads suggests many more 2021 mysteries for young adults here.

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

THE MUSIC OF BEES by debut author Eileen Garvin deserves to be on your “to be read” list, especially if you are looking for a “feel good” story. Forgive me, but this novel has received plenty of “buzz,” including a LibraryReads selection for April and a starred review from Booklist which compared this quest for “belonging and stability” to writing by Anne Tyler or Sue Miller.  Eileen Garvin, a beekeeper herself, definitely increased my interest in learning more about bees, including picking up our library copy of Paige Embry’s Our native bees: America's endangered pollinators and the fight to save them. The characters in THE MUSIC OF BEES each face different challenges, but manage to form an unlikely bond. Alice is in her mid-forties, a widow redefining her priorities who essentially adopts two young men: Jake, now confined to a wheel chair after a foolish high school accident and Harry, a former felon with a serious self-confidence problem. Together, they work to expand an apiary for bees and fight a large pesticide company. A bit simplistic? Yes, but readers will enjoy growing with and rooting for these three and their friends and family.