The Honey Month
by Amal El-Mohtar
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted May 22, 2026
Buy from Bookshop or Amazon. A purchase through our links may earn us a commission.
If I had been aware of it beforehand I would have started and finished this book sooner, posting a review two days ago, which was World Bee Day. Honeybees produce the most honey in May and June, although that probably varies regionally. For that reason you might expect a Honey Month to be either 30 or 31 days, but for this book it is only 28, even though it was originally published in August 2010. Each day of Amal's Honey Month is devoted to one variety of honey, each chapter beginning with descriptions of its colour, smell, and taste, followed by a story or poem that honey inspired. Day 1 was for Fireweed Honey, and the story is about a dream that may have been induced by a bee sting. I won't mention all the other types of honey, but I would like to sample all of them, even those that taste a bit like medicine. I could use a little medicine for my melancholy these days. Perhaps it should have appeared earlier in the book, but it was not until "Day 27 - Leatherwood Honey" when this was stated:
"To be given honey is a great gift, fraught with special significance. As Victorians chose their nosegays, as they elaborated a language of petal and thorn and stem, so too is there a language of honey, a dialect of nectar and pollen, that must be learned and recited in appropriate situations."
The only other story I will mention is "Day 2 - Peach Creamed Honey," which won a Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem in 2011.
The majority of the stories/poems are at least fantasy-adjacent; dreams that may include ghosts or fairies, or in some cases bees that interact with the character. Most are also about longing; for a lover, a friend, or an escape from life's vicissitudes. All are short, but very poignant, a lyrical rendtion of hopes and desires, but sometimes also fears. As far as I've been able to discover this book is not available in audio, but it is one I would forego my usual aversion to that format, especially if it was narrated by Amal herself. I read the e-book purchased from B&N for the Nook app on my Kindle Fire tablet. Unfortunately, its cover image is rather generic, not the same as the paperback pictured above, with cover and interior illustrations by Oliver Hunter. Both Amazon and B&N offer a preview of the text, but neither show any of the illustrations, I suppose due to copyright issues. I'm still glad I bought the e-book, and will re-read from time to time. I'm not sorry to limit my comments, but recommend this highly, and you should read it with limited expectations, since each type of honey, each story or poem, will resonate differently for each reader..
We would appreciate your support for this site with your purchases from Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, and ReAnimusPress.
