This may be a memoir but it reads more like fiction. A story of young Meredith trying to understand her world after her parents split up in the early 70s. She and her brother are unceremoniously dropped on their grandparents while dad stays in RI and mom disappears into a major depression (I actually feel like she has borderline personality disorder or something else going on). Meredith's grandfather is her savior and teaches her about life using his honeybees as a guide. I learned a LOT about bee communities along the way as well!

The Honey Bus is the memoir of Meredith May and her life long relationship with bees. When she was five, her parents split and she was sent to live with her grandfather. He made his living as a beekeeper, keeping his hives on an old military bus. Meredith was terrified by the bees at first, but soon realized that the bees showed her more about life and family then her parents did. Her mother was neurotic and often locked herself away and her father was not present at all. Meredith learned to take care of herself, with the help of her grandfather who introduced her to the amazing world of nature and all that can be learned from observing and being present in the natural world. The Honey Bus is an excellent, educational and riveting story about how one of nature's tiniest creatures helped to save a young girl and give her a home.

A memoir of a young girl her warm emotionally healing relationship with her grandfather.A bond that grew even stronger when he shared with her his love of beekeeping.Highly recommend,#netgalley#the hungrybus

There is no doubt that a book one identifies with has more meaning, but I had no clue how close this book would come to mine. Like Meredith, I was five, and though I did not have a you get brother, I did have a you get sister, when my parents divorced. Like Meredith's mother, mine too took us to live with my grandparents, but luckily my mother was nothing like Meredith's. She did leave us during the week, taking a train into the city to work, returning only on weekends, but she was a loving mother when she was there. I too became close to my grandfather, and though he didn't keep bees , he was a great woodworker, building two lonely little girls, there own playhouse. This close relationship we forged with my grandparents lasted throughout their lives.

Meredith, learns early she must take care of herself and her younger brother. Her mother lost in grief and pity, would of could not be the mother they needed. It was their grandfather that showed them love and introduced them to the world of bees. This world is one the reader also learns a great deal about, and a world that saves two lonely little children. It is touching, stirring, frustrating and reaches right into the readers heart. It is wonderfully told, without pity, but evoking emotional responses, all the same.

It is a warning about the plight of the honey bee, these bees that provide a third of the worlds food. How quickly they are disappearing, giving various reasons why this is so, and what can be done. I loved both the story and the information imparted. It is important, another example of how we are abusing this planet and it's inhabitants, human or not. It is also an ode to grandparents, an example how one loving relationship can change a life, blood relationship or not. I loved it and sent a silent thank you to my long gone grandparents, a simple thank you will never be enough.

In this memoir, the reader will learn more than you ever wanted to know about bees. When Meredith's mom leaves her dad and moves Meredith & her little brother across the country, they move in with her grandparents. Meredith forges a special bond with her grandfather, an experienced beekeeper. He teaches her about the bees, hives, and honey and, in turn, Meredith learns a lot about life.

This is a wonderfully sweet story, but it sometimes bogs down with all the information about raising bees & bees' life cycles. This IS an important topic, since the declining bee population has a direct impact on our food production, but the real story here is how working with nature and learning about lilving creatures can teach you something about cooperation, dependence, and life.

It's not a book for everyone, but it is an enjoyable read and you learn something to boot.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Memoirs are very popular right now and in my opinion this one is much better than some on the bestsellers list! And any book with bees in it is never a bad choice.

Despite the circumstances of their upbringing this book revealed the love and connection between and grandfather and granddaughter. It is definitely worth the read!

The bees are what drew me to this memoir. I've always been fascinated with bees and this book is full of interesting honey bee facts, but it is so much more than that. May has interwoven tales of her own troubled childhood alongside what she learned about life from her experience with the bees and her loving grandfather. While this book is difficult to read at times due to the subject matter - to call May's family dysfunctional is putting it lightly - it is very well-written, touching and inspiring and I'll definitely be recommending it.

Thank you to HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lovely memoir about the author's special relationship with her grandfather. Would recommend to fans of The Glass Castle, as well as The Secret Life of Bees.

Interesting work for lovers of memoirs and also the growing population of those with an interest in the apiary arts..

Family turmoil creates chaos in the young life of Meredith, who loses family unity when her parents split up and her mother falls apart. She embraces the grandparents they turn to for help, especially her grandfather and his honey bus where he produces honey with several friends. This poignant memoir by Meredith May captures her learning from her beekeeper grandfather Franklin about bees and their mysterious lives. She learns and comes to appreciate their society as in her life she takes to her new school and the order and routine it provides.

A sweet and often times heart breaking memoir of young Meredith May. In the wake of her parents divorce, Meredith and her family move in to her grandparents house. Meredith's gentle beekeeping grandfather helps raise her and her brother. His observations about bees and how they all have a purpose and work together helps Meredith grow and thrive in a very dysfunctional household. Thru it all the guiding hand of her grandfather and his bees keeps her on the right track.

A young brother and sister negotiate a world of neglect and indifference but find love and acceptance from a grandfather who tends bees. Learning to side-step a mentally ill mother and a grandmother consumed with guilt for her daughter, these youngsters find solace in the presence of a grandfather who offers unconditional love. Full of facts about bees, this is a great book - full of heartbreak and triumph.

I loved the story between the girl and her grandpa. It was sensitive and caring. I enjoyed reading it very much. I would recommend to anyone who likes a memoir.

I really enjoyed this book. After all was said and done, it was an homage to her grandfather and to an earlier time in America. Large lessons about how the presence of one person offering calm and quiet strength amidst the chaos can make a difference, and how solace can come from the strangest places - the smallest organisms made much greater together, bees and their hive.

When Meredith's parents split, she finds herself living with her grandparents, mother, and little brother in California. Her mother spends her life in bed, depressed and anxious about her life. Her grandmother's focus is the mother, and easing her own guilt. The grandfather, a bee keeper, has infinite patience with Meredith and her brother, teaching them through bee's.

This was a well written, and engaging book. I loved the relationship Meredith had with her grandfather, and the subtle ways that he took her under his wing. I loved how the bee's were woven throughout the story, and how Meredith learned through them. Overall, highly recommended.

The Honey Bus is a beautiful and heart breaking story of love and loss and an exploration of the impact of abuse and how it impacts generations.

***I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

This memoir was ok, it had a little too much about bees in it, but I understand the importance of the info to the story. The story of the family relationships was good. All in all, I liked it, but not sure a lot of people would.

When Meredith was 5, her parents separated and she moved with her mother and brother to her maternal grandparents' home. Her grandfather the beekeeper introduces her to the world of honeybees. It is a comforting, rural memoir and bees have great metaphor potential that the author utilizes through her Grandpa's voice. Research on bees runs throughout with a somewhat sad epilogue combining her grandfather's aging with the bee crisis.

Excellent read. I really enjoyed learning about bees and how they relate to our everyday life. This is a really sweet and educational book. I didn't realize how important bees are. Plus the companion story of a family in crisis was very compelling.