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Honeybee Democracy Currently reading ... I bought it for the cover design.   It's simply a beautiful book that just asks to be picked up and read.   I wondered if a book dedicated solely to the process of swarming could be that interesting.  Absolutely!   Well written and engaging, it quickly draws you into the exciting discoveries the author was making during his final years of graduate school.     A surprisingly good read.
Natural Beekeeping, by Ross Conrad This is definitely one of my favorites.    I'll admit, though, that I picked it up twice in the book store and passed on it based upon a cursory review of just a few pages.   Unlike most other beekeeping "how to" books, this book goes beyond simply telling you how to keep bees, but also dabbles here in there in the philosophical.    At first, I was really turned off by this as the references to the author's "vision quest" conjured up notions of mysticism and the supernatural, both of which I really wouldn't care for in a book about bees.   However, on a third visit to the book story, I found myself again drawn to the promise of this book so I sat down with a cup of joe and started reading further.    And I'm glad I did ... the hokey imagery I had of a peyote induced discovery of beekeeping wisdom was soon replaced by a lot of really sound and practical advise with the occasional foray into ideas on natural agricultural and where industrial practices are leading us astray.    The ideas and philosophy actually resonated very strongly and I think the author may actually be doing himself a disservice with his introduction.       Beyond this though, the book is well written and well constructed.   You can tell a tremendous effort went into the design of the book ... it is not simply another step by step guide to keeping bees, but a thorough treatise on how and why we keep bees and how we can serve the best interest of the bees while enriching ourselves in the process.
The Practical Beekeeper, by Michael Bush Well written and comprehensive.   This book contains a lot of very practical advice about natural beekeeping methods that works for this author.    You will find recommendations about very contemporary topics (e.g. small cell sizes) with well reasoned arguments to support them, though the evidence is mostly anecdotal.    The book is largely a collection of information previously written as one-off articles and so I think the books lacks a bit of "flow".     While it attempts to address the new beekeeper in volume 1, it probably is not the best book to begin with.  There are other books that do a much better job at introducing topics in a linear manner, building up to the more advanced topics, without jumping right into jargon.   But, assuming you have already read another introductory text, this book is an excellent addition to your library with current thoughts on alternative methods of beekeeping.
Beekeeping for Dummies, by Howland Blackiston I typically avoid the "Dummies" books, finding they are often a little too "dumb" and the book quality itself is poor, low quality paper, cheap binding, etc.   However, this book had good reviews and it's cheap so I figured I would give it a try.    And I'm glad I did, I was pleasantly surprised.   The book is very well written and well organized for the beginner.   The author assumes nothing and does a good job introducing topics in what seemed like a very natural progression.    This book does present a traditional perspective on beekeeping.   There really isn't even any discussion on alternatives, the author simply assumes you will be doing things like medicate prophylactically.   Still a very recommended start book, but read it knowing of that bias and understand that there are alternatives.    The Practical Beekeeper would be a good follow-up to this book.   In fact, I went back and re-read a good bit of it after reading the Dummies book and it was a much better re-read with the knowledge base provided by Dummies.
The Beekeepers Handbook, by Sammataro and Avitabile This is the book that was provided for the FCBA beekeeping class.    It is a very well written and comprehensive book.    The Dummies book provides perhaps a better introduction of basic concepts but this book is definitely more complete and I am sure will continue to be a valuable reference beyond the initial year.