17th Annual
Washington County READ

The Music of Bees

by Eileen Garvin
Picture

The queen and most of the workers lived their entire lives within the pulsing, lightless interior, so sound must have been some kind of tool. Maybe they heard the tone as Jake did. To him it said, “We are here and all is well.” It said, “We are home.”

Eileen Garvin’s debut novel tells the story of three lost strangers thrown off course by unexpected obstacles who steady themselves through each other and the joy and challenge of beekeeping. Alice, a widowed, middle-aged woman, takes in two misfits as helpers for the bee-keeping hobby she hopes to turn into her life’s work. Jake, a recently paralyzed eighteen year-old, struggles to adapt to his new body and the loss of his dream as a musician. Harry, a twenty-something young man recently released from jail, is lost in shame and hopelessness as he wrestles to find his path in life.

New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel celebrates Garvin’s novel for the way it “immerses the reader in the seasons, the weather, the trees and the flowers, the river and the land, and the rhythms of small-town life; but it’s the bees, with all their wonder and intricacy and intrigue, that make this story sing.”
The Music of Bees (Dutton, 2021) is available for purchase at The Book Nook, 212 W. Alamo Street in downtown Brenham.

The Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library has The Music of Bees.

Washington County READ is on Facebook. Follow us and stay informed about this year's event!
Help spread the message about the READ by making a tax deductible donation:
PayPal

Tuesday, October 7, 2025:
The READ Event

Enjoy The Music of Bees with your book club or your best friend, or simply snuggled up in your favorite armchair as you watch bees flitting through your flower garden. Then join Lifetime Learning Brenham for our READ reception with author Eileen Garvin and dramatic reading by Unity Theatre on October 7th, 5:30 p.m.. The Book Nook will be available for those who wish to purchase a book or feel free to bring your own for the author to sign.

No registration is required. The READ reception is our gift to the community and those who love books as much as we do!

The Author

PicturePatti Callahan
Eileen Garvin lives in Hood River, Oregon. Her knowledge of bees stems from her many years as a beekeeper. Her first book, a memoir How to be a Sister, was published in 2010. The Music of Bees was her debut novel. Her most recent novel is Crow Talk, published in spring of 2024.
Previous Community Reads:
2024:  Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
2023:  This Tender Land by William Kent Kreuger
2022:  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
2021:  The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
2020:  Getting Life by Michael Morton
2019:  The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
2018:  The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell
2017:  News of the World  by Paulette Jiles
2016: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza
2015: My Boys and Girls Are in There by Ron Rozelle
​2014: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni
2013: The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
2012: The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
2011: One Ranger: A Memoir by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson
2010: Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
2009: Final Salute by Jim Sheeler