Our Native Bees

North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them

By: Paige Embry

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Honey bees get all the press, but the fascinating story of North America's native bees - an endangered species essential to our ecosystems and food supplies - is just as crucial. Our Native Bees is the result of Paige Embry's yearlong quest to learn more about these forgotten, yet fundamental, creatures.

Through interviews with farmers, gardeners, scientists, and bee experts, Embry explores the importance of native bees and focuses on why they play a key role in gardening and agriculture. The people and stories are compelling: Embry goes on a bee hunt with the world expert on the likely extinct Franklin's bumble bee, raises blue orchard bees in her refrigerator, and learns about an organization that turns the out-of-play areas in golf courses into pollinator habitats.

For bee enthusiasts and anyone who us curious about the natural world, Our Native Bees is an illuminating exploration of the pollinators essential to our survival.

©2018 Paige Embry (P)2018 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Designed to educate everyone from bee and honey enthusiasts to amateur gardeners and agricultural professionals, Embry's captivating profiles of just a few of the myriad native bee species and the dedicated individuals and institutions committed to their survival are as entertaining as they are enlightening." (Booklist)

Meh

For a topic I am so passionate about, this just wasn't a very engaging book. I'm not sure what I was looking for differently. More science? More magic? Not sure.

Fascinating Book

This is an awesome book - I enjoyed learning about the "little things that run the world" as E. O Wilson says. This book was especially exciting for me since it brought to life several people that I see as I do my Citizen Science work at Notes form Nature (https://www.notesfromnature.org/). It is inspiring to see all of the people who work so hard to preserve these little creatures that go unnoticed by the vast majority of people in their daily life. A great window into the fascinating world of bees and the people who study them.

One For Little Miss Starshine

Short and sweet, the book is a bit of a pillow upon which to lay a wearied head. It consists on Embry's gonzo insertion of herself into entomological and agricultural communities concerned with bees going extinct and bees that are being used as pollinators. The style is very feminine, and probably aimed at a readership between 12 years old and 18 years old. While "good" in the American sense, I felt like the detail was lacking and the conservation ecology discourse was short-sighted in areas. The reportage on golf clubs and pesticide companies banding together to save insects almost made me wonder if some money had changed hands. The depiction of industrial farmers planting a few wild flowers beside their giant crops and then driving past them in their buggies because they are too lazy to walk, and saying "problem solved honey" made me laugh.

But this book is the only thing on non-honeybee bees on audible. Somebody please write something better.

Wonderful information!

Such a fun listen with a lot of great information.. now I’m constantly looking for bumblebees for my tomatoes!!

Buzzzz

Very engaging and so glad that she discusses the Franklin’s Bumblebee whose habitat surrounds where I currently live. Inspiration to find Franky!

Inspiring

Full of overlooked information and neglected neighbors/pollinators. Worth having in my collection. Looking forward to finding the print version

Great read

I loved everything about this! The narrator was wonderful, the information was told in an interesting way, and I learned a lot of new things about bees. I’d recommend this to anyone who has an interest in nature or bees specifically!

Inspiring though could be more educational

The book definitely left me wanting to learn more about bees. I'd recommend having the hard copy while listening. It's not easy to picture the families and individual bees she's referring to. I was hoping for a little more science. The book is mostly anecdotal though covers a good amount of bee behavior. I think it'll be worth going through again, this time with the paperback.

great homage book about native bees

This was a great book that makes me want to plant some sunflower seeds and go on a bee expedition! Our native bees are indeed the red headed step child of the pollinator world and this book lets them shibe abd show their importance!