Posted: August 2, 2019Written by: Ritchie Bermudez

SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Cuesta College Book of the Year Program is excited to announce the selection of The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees as its 2020 Book of the Year and will bring author Meredith May to Cuesta College in April of 2020. The memoir depicts May’s struggles with growing up in a dysfunctional, divorced family, and finding inspiration and renewal working with her beekeeper grandfather as she adjusts to life in rural Carmel Valley, California. The book trailer is available by clicking here. Copies of the book are available for check-out from the Cuesta College libraries and local public libraries.

May will appear for a book discussion and event celebrating Earth Day’s 50th anniversary on April 22, 2020, from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Cuesta College Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center on Cuesta College’s San Luis Obispo campus. General admission tickets are $15, and students are free. Tickets are available starting February 1 at cpactickets.cuesta.edu. 

“In keeping with the book’s themes—families, the mystery of bees, the healing powers of the natural world—Cuesta College is planning free activities such as demonstrations by local beekeepers, a honey tasting, book discussions, and a campus Earth Day fair,” said Cuesta Librarian Denise Fourie. “Watch for more details later this year.”

About the author: Meredith May is an award-winning journalist and fifth-generation beekeeper. During her sixteen-year career at the San Francisco Chronicle, her reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, and first place feature writing awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press. Her series about an Iraqi boy wounded during the second Gulf War was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.

May is a former professor of journalism and podcasting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. She lives in San Francisco, where she rows on the Bay and cares for several beehives in a community garden.

The Book of the Year Program is a project of Cuesta College’s Academic Senate in partnership with San Luis Obispo County Public Library SLO Reads. For additional information, please visit the Book of the Year website, email cuestabook@gmail.com, or call (805) 546-3190.