If the folk and fancy of beekeeping is delightful, working with bees is downright amazing. And no one speaks of this life more eloquently than Sue Hubbell in "Country Year, Living the Questions" (Random House).

Hubbell, a single woman in her 50's pens a years' worth of essays concerning the many diverse facets of her beekeeping life-from Chevrolet U-joints to requeening, to coyotes and tree frogs. The key to Hubbell's beekeeping experience and, by extension, to her book, is the almost lost art of paying attention. 'Spring beework requires time, patience, some skill and a strong back. It also requires a clear mind and concentration. There is nothing that so focuses the attention as opening a hive of bees. At full summertime strength, a bee colony has about 60,000 bees in it...."