Rating: 
Summary: A journey into the complex world of relationships and bees
Review: I thought this was a wonderful book. Graver has an amazing ability to articulate the confusion, pain and joy of early adolescence. She creates believable and touching characters, who you come to care about in spite of their shortcomings. With these characters, she creates a series of complex human relationships with no simple conclusions, and a story that is a pleasure to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak characters in an underdeveloped plot
Review: Is it fair to review a book I didn't finish reading? Well, why not? This book included long chapters in flashback form, the characters were not believable and their relationships were too frustrating for the reader. No one told anyone anything. The mother moves out of New York City with her daughter to find a better life in rural America. Instead of moving to a small town, she rents a house in the country, dumps her kid with a ridiculous babysitter so she's basically alone all day, then commutes to town to work. I kept thinking about what would happen to her commute in the winter in New York state on dirt roads. Ridiculous! This was supposed to be an improvement over the warm protective downstairs neighbor in NY? Too dumb to believe. I had to quit reading it. The plot was as slow as honey and not anywhere near as sweet. For a really poignant young girl story read Elizabeth Berg's Durable Goods and Joy School. Those are truly wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: murky at best
Review: plodded through this book. struggled to finish it. kept waiting for something to happen, something to engage my interest. but i was half-way through the book before i realized i should have put it down long ago, yet i'd invested too much time to cast it aside. the imagery is nebulous. the diaglogue is stiffled. explicatory timing is way off. i am a fan of chronology. flip-flopping through time did not work well with this novel, though I truly enjoyed Graver's previous novel, "Unravelling;" one of the better books I've read.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: The book was well written, drawing the reader into the inner lives of its complex and endearing characters. The story captured the essence of how the forgotten losses of early childhood can create a lonliness and un-named longing as the years go by. Graver's portrayal of the mother/daughter relationship rings rich and true. The only 'fault' in the story, was that Graver seemed to 'sell us short' at the ending....I think she could have gone a bit further toward resolution of some of the issues. Mind you, I wouldn't like a neat and tidy ending, but this one was a bit too ambiguous. But graver's writing makes up for any shortcomings at the end. I enjoyed every page...just wish there were more of them!
Rating:
Summary: worth reading
Review: The Honey Thief is a contemporary novel about a woman who must face her past before she can help her daughter. Eleven year old Eva is picked up for shop lifting, Eva's 4th offence, the judge warns her that next time she will go to a detention center. Miriam, Eva's mother is at her wits end. Miriam decides it would be better if they moved out of Manhattan to up state New York. They decided together where they would move. They picked a small town where both mother and daughter could get a fresh start. Life is simple and slow, a little to slow for Eva's taste. Eva fights her desire to shop lift most of the time, the urge is so strong. Miriam decides to buy Eva a used bike so she can explore the town and meet new friends. All through this Miriam has a secret of her own that she will not, cannot tell any one not even her own daughter. Than Eva meets a nice older man named Burl who helps Eva get grounded. They experience mother-daughter relationship that goes through troubling times and Burl helps them through it. It's interesting to watch how two people who are physically put together can be so emotionally far apart. It's real life, and like real life sometimes it takes a stranger to bring them together. The path they take makes for an interesting read, it may seems slow at times, but stick with it, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: worth reading
Review: The Honey Thief is a contemporary novel about a woman who must face her past before she can help her daughter. Eleven year old Eva is picked up for shop lifting, Eva's 4th offence, the judge warns her that next time she will go to a detention center. Miriam, Eva's mother is at her wits end. Miriam decides it would be better if they moved out of Manhattan to up state New York. They decided together where they would move. They picked a small town where both mother and daughter could get a fresh start. Life is simple and slow, a little to slow for Eva's taste. Eva fights her desire to shop lift most of the time, the urge is so strong. Miriam decides to buy Eva a used bike so she can explore the town and meet new friends. All through this Miriam has a secret of her own that she will not, cannot tell any one not even her own daughter. Than Eva meets a nice older man named Burl who helps Eva get grounded. They experience mother-daughter relationship that goes through troubling times and Burl helps them through it. It's interesting to watch how two people who are physically put together can be so emotionally far apart. It's real life, and like real life sometimes it takes a stranger to bring them together. The path they take makes for an interesting read, it may seems slow at times, but stick with it, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeously written book.
Review: The Honey Thief is a lucid and beautiful novel about how the errors of the past haunt the present and how a widowed wife and daughter deal with bottled up feelings. Do secrets affect relationships and every day life? After eleven-year-old Eva is picked up on her fourth shoplifting charge, her mother, Miriam, decides to move from Manhattan to a quiet town in New York State. Lonely, Eva bonds with a middle-aged beekeeper named Burl. But Eva hasn't felt compelled to tell her mother about her new friend. Also, Miriam has never told Eva about her father's death. She told her he died of a heart attack. But is that the truth? The disturbing and heart-wrenching way her father died could affect Eva's future. As tension mounts between mother and daughter, Miriam wonders if she should open up to her daughter. There are some haunting scenes in this book. The Honey Thief has beautiful language; it has a rather lyrical feel to it. I have fallen in love with this book; there are few novels about family dilemmas that touch me this way. With compelling characters and exquisite language, The Honey Thief is as sweet and as rich as, well, honey. I highly recommend this title.
Rating: 
Summary: As sweet as honey!
Review: The Honey Thief is a lucid and beautiful novel about how the errors of the past haunt the present and how a widowed wife and daughter deal with bottled up feelings. Do secrets affect relationships and every day life? After eleven-year-old Eva is picked up on her fourth shoplifting charge, her mother, Miriam, decides to move from Manhattan to a quiet town in New York State. Lonely, Eva bonds with a middle-aged beekeeper named Burl. But Eva hasn't felt compelled to tell her mother about her new friend. Also, Miriam has never told Eva about her father's death. She told her he died of a heart attack. But is that the truth? The disturbing and heart-wrenching way her father died could affect Eva's future. As tension mounts between mother and daughter, Miriam wonders if she should open up to her daughter. There are some haunting scenes in this book. The Honey Thief has beautiful language; it has a rather lyrical feel to it. I have fallen in love with this book; there are few novels about family dilemmas that touch me this way. With compelling characters and exquisite language, The Honey Thief is as sweet and as rich as, well, honey. I highly recommend this title.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This book is deeply insightful and wonderfully written. In straight-forward but beautiful language, the author does a remarkable job of displaying the inner lives of her characters. They are all complex, imperfect, and compelling -- that is, drawn to be fully human. I was also struck, as a father, by how well she captured the intense feelings of parenthood.
Rating:
Summary: A lot of potential ruined
Review: This could have been a truly wonderful story about a troubled little girl and how the reclusive bee-keeper changes her life. Instead, what you get is a semi-developed plot with a lot of gratuitous and extremely foul language with a perverted and shocking sex scene thrown into the mix. This book is an excellent example of how to debase a wonderful story. Next time I want to experience that kind of language I'll visit my nearby tavern where all the afternoon alcoholics hang out and imagine instead that the filth is coming out of an eleven-year-old's mouth. Sorry, but that is not entertaining to me.
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