The Elephant and the Bee

This is a story we can all relate with. What will we do with our life? Do we have to follow a path we build in our head for many years or will we just go with the flow? From Africa to Switzerland, with a quick detour to Vietnam, Jess brings us in her peregrination and her mental journey of "What can I do with my life?". Is following your principles enough? How can a simple detail (in this case, an advert for beekeeping classes) change the course of your life - and others? This was a truly fun and inspiring book. You'll finish it full of hope and motivation to engage in something (or someone) new and unusual. * Marion Tessier, The KU Big Read *

If I had seen this book in the bookstore and it had been sealed with only the cover for reference, I would still pick it up. Its title 'The Elephant and the Bee, Jess de Boer On Saving The World and other triumphant failures' had me chuckling even before I had read the preface. That sets the pace of the book, which gives an honest account of the author's incredible journey of trying to find her purpose and like most of us attempting to actually do 'something good for once as opposed to just thinking about it.'
Jess's story begins right after high school and she shares a collection of stories, spanning several years and different continents that gives the reader a peek into her personal defeats and success in her bid to save the world. What makes this book a real page turner, are the Kenyan author's clever descriptions of all the places she has been. There is the hilarious description of a café she worked at in Christchurch, New Zealand, 'The building itself had only just survived the earlier tremors and was held together with suspicious amount of wire, duct tape and cable ties...' And then her realisation that the mountains wilderness that she had longed to see in Lao Cai in China, 'was in reality a never-ending row of scruffy hotels and eateries on either side of a road...'
Throughout the whole book, I felt like I was listening to a story told by a friend over coffee and even the ending is not really an ending but the possibility of something new. As Jess surmises, 'While saving the world isn't easy as it seems, we can make a positive change, one little bee at a time.' What a beautiful read.

* Brenda Okoth, The Sunday *