{"id":3877,"date":"2022-12-04T15:52:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T14:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=3877"},"modified":"2022-12-04T15:52:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T14:52:45","slug":"books-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=3877","title":{"rendered":"Books of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/afloweraday_303x430.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"303\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/afloweraday_303x430.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3878\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3878\" class=\"wp-image-3878\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/afloweraday_303x430.jpg 303w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/afloweraday_303x430-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/web-drought-resistant_84f6947127.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"687\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/web-drought-resistant_84f6947127.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3879\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3879\" class=\"wp-image-3879\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/web-drought-resistant_84f6947127.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/web-drought-resistant_84f6947127-236x300.jpg 236w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/greybees.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"327\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/greybees.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3880\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/greybees.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3880\" class=\"wp-image-3880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/greybees.jpg 327w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/greybees-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.batsfordbooks.com\/book\/a-flower-a-day\/\">A Flower A Day<\/a><\/em>, by Miranda Janatka (Batsford), is a hefty, colourful coffee table book, full of bite-sized chunks  of information about a different a flower blooming somewhere in the world on each day, with photos and illustrations. Today, it&#8217;s Witch hazel <em>(Hamamelis virginiana<\/em>) from North America and its medicinal properties. It would make a lovely present for anyone who loves flowers.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bethchatto.co.uk\/gift-shop\/all-gifts\/beth-chatto-drought-resistant-planting.htm\"><em>Drought-Resistant Planting<\/em> by Beth Chatto <\/a>(Frances Lincoln), was publicised many years ago, but the lessons from this late, great plants woman&#8217;s gravel garden have never been more timely. I keep going back to it. <\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.maclehosepress.com\/titles\/andrey-kurkov\/grey-bees\/9780857059352\/\">Grey bees<\/a><\/em> by Andrey Kurkov (Maclehose Press) is nothing really to do with bees but the protagonist is a beekeeper living in the Donetsk region between 2015 -2020. He loves his bees more than anything. It is the best novel I&#8217;ve read this year, other than Kurkov&#8217;s classic black satire, <em>Death and the Penguin<\/em>, about Ukraine in the 1990s.<\/li><li><em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/312242\/finding-the-mother-tree-by-simard-suzanne\/9780141990286\">Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard (Penguin)<\/a><\/em> is the real life story of the scientist some of you will recognise from the novel Overstory by Richard Powers whose discovery that trees &#8216;talked&#8217; to each other and co-operated for survival was discredited by male academia for decades. <\/li><li><em>Rachel Carson Cared About Our World<\/em> by Kate Coombs and Seth Lucas (Gibbs Smith) is one of a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.babylit.com\/little-naturalists-poets\">BabyLit books<\/a> introducing very young children to some of our great conservationists. I discovered the book in my local, independent bookshop and then looked online to find  others in the series include John Muir and Beatrix Potter. It&#8217;s a US publisher, but you can get them here. <\/li><li>I can&#8217;t mention children&#8217;s books without including Nan Eshelby&#8217;s entertaining and quirkily illustrated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bombusthebee.com\/\">Maisie, Daisy and Mo series <\/a>to save wildlife,  including <em>Bombus and the Beeline<\/em>. (I should disclose that I have advised Nan on some of the bee facts.) <\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/442832\/wild-fell-by-schofield-lee\/9780857527752\">Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm<\/a><\/em>, by Lee Schofield (Transworld) &#8220;I found myself turning the pages with an inward leap of joy&#8221;,  says Isabella Tree (author of Wilding) of Lee&#8217;s battle to persuade farmers around RSPB Haweswater\u00a0to work with, not against, nature. <\/li><li>Jake Fiennes&#8217;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/442697\/land-healer-by-fiennes-jake\/9781785947308\"> Land Healer: How Farming Can Save Britain&#8217;s Countryside<\/a><\/em>, &#8211; actually written beautifully by award-winning nature author, Tim Ecott &#8211;  (Ebury) is in the same vein and equally important by showing farmers the small tweaks they can make and the positive impact it can have on nature. <\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/443405\/silent-earth-by-goulson-dave\/9781529114423\">Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse\u00a0<\/a><\/em>by Dave Goulson  (Penguin) out in paperback this year, is a compelling and essential read. <\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhbs.com\/insectinside-life-in-the-bushes-of-a-small-peckham-park-book\">Insectinside; life in the bushes of a small Peckham park<\/a><\/em>, by Penny Metal, will always have a place in my top 10 because the amazing photos are a great way to start identifying not just bees, but hoverflies, wasps and other amazing insects we will all encounter if we just stop and pay a bit more notice to nature.<\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhbs.com\/field-guide-to-the-bees-of-great-britain-and-ireland-book\">Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland<\/a><\/em>, by Steven Falk and Richard Lewington (Bloomsbury), is the bee bible that anyone series about trying to identify bees cannot be without. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Flower A Day, by Miranda Janatka (Batsford), is a hefty, colourful coffee table book, full of bite-sized chunks of information about a different a flower blooming somewhere in the world on each day, with photos and illustrations. Today, it&#8217;s Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) from North America and its medicinal properties. It would make a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-3877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","tag-books-fo-the-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3881,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3877\/revisions\/3881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}