Welcome to Litsy!

An intriguing memoir blending the author's intense relationship with her new goshawk, learnings about falconry, and grief about the loss of her father; reflections on rural England; and the life of T.H. White, a fantasy writer who was also a falconer.This new take on White's troubled life intrigued me as a childhood reader, but MacDonald's developing relationship with her hawk amidst a complex life is what is most engaging.
#Nonfiction2024 #Kafka

#Bookspin January
1. Saving Time
2. The Future Is Disabled
3. Island of Forgetting
4. An Immense World
5. All the Devils
6. Sure, I‘ll Be Your Black Friend
7. The Prophets
8. Of Time and Turtles
9. It‘s Ok that you‘re not OK
10. How Much of These Hills
11. Greenwood
12. Swimming in the Dark
13. The Toronto Book Dead
14. The Cheese & The Worms
15. A Market
16. Constant Struggle
17. Ordinary Notes
18. Coming Out
19. Some People
20. The House Sea

I think of the complex histories that landscapes have, and how easy it is to put easier, safer histories in their place. The fields in Cambridge, farmed organically, are teeming with life. These are not. The big animals are here: the deer, the foxes, the rabbits; the fields look the same, and the trees, too, but this land is empty. There are few plants other than crops, and few bees, or butterflies, for the soil sprayed with chemicals that kill.

I am becoming fascinated by her quality of attention. I'm starting to believe in what Barry Lopez has called "the conversation of death”: something he saw in the exchange of glances between caribou and hunting wolves, a wordless negotiation that ends up with them working out whether they will become hunter and hunted, or passers-by.

On paper, this memoir full of nature writing should be a slam dunk for me…those are two of my favorite nonfiction genres. However, I didn‘t love the execution of Macdonald‘s journey through grief after the loss of her father. She trains Mabel, the hawk, musing on the impermanence of life and our fragile little selves. Animals handle life and death better than we human beings. I think my expectations were too high, based on awards this received.

I do love a how many have you read type list! Even if, as many have pointed out already, this one is very skewed. And of course heaven forbid we get genre cooties on our Serious Best Books list (except Jemisin cause she's exceptional but don't worry Cloud Atlas can't possibly be genre [except it totally is] cause David Mitchell is a Serious Literary Author don't you know - but definitely no romance or fantasy or YA or *gasp* all three!)

I liked the parts of this that were memoir of Helen‘s life, her childhood and love for her dad, her fascination with hawking from a young age, and her experience raising and working with goshawk Mable.

As other reviews have said, I could have done without most of the parts about TH White. I ended up skimming a lot of that, and don‘t think the book needed that much info about him.

I am interested in her other books.

Good morning from Sietje 🙂🐕

It's not the tagged book, but it's edited by the same author.

#aty24 #bookthatisntanovel

#52bookclub24 #relatedtothewordwild @BarbaraBB @Kristy_K @LaraReads @KarenUK @Hooked_on_books @BarkingMadRead @brittanyreads @Magpiegem @BookBelle84 @Larkken @julesG @Deblovestoread @MidnightBookListener @Librarybelle @triplem80 @Tove_Reads @Read4life @Bluebird @eeclayton @hissingpotatoes @Book_Lover95 @TheAromaofBooks @kwmg40 @Crazeedi

#midwintersolace #naturalitsy I LOVED this book. I think it was the cover that grabbed me, then I realized HM wrote this about her grief journey when her father died suddenly. My father had died suddenly and I was ( with my sister) suddenly aware of how much work my father had been doing to support my mom and her declining health ( she eventually was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia). Absolutely no falconry aspirations but I got the grief

This was beautiful & sad, with an undercurrent of violence that comes with the territory of "taming" a wild animal. I found it moving in a lot of aspects, & appreciated the biographical aspects of White's life as integral to Macdonald's attempt to work things out within herself. The saddest thing was contemplating these hawks & falcons; do humans have to mess with nature in order to heal themselves? All throughout I just wanted Mabel to be free.

I thought of the tagged book so many times during our 2-hour falconry experience yesterday. This local place has special certifications that allow them to offer interactive presentations to the public in a safe and legal way. I still kind of want to get into falconry, which I imagine would be rewarding, humbling, and very messy, but maybe I can just get my next job with a falconer. (This is me with a Harris's hawk.)

Kind of lovely when book serendipity happens. Randomly picked H is for Hawk for the #TBRtarot this month, but as I see now it will feature T.H. White quite heavily because he wrote The Goshawk. It's something I didn't consciously register when I picked this up. Super illuminating to read this though, after reading The Once and Future King for the first time with the #OAFKingalong group!

Decided on my May pick for #TBRtarot and am very much looking forward to it! @CBee

Been trying to work out how I feel about this for the last day or so and I'm still conflicted.
Wretched dichotomy: the intimate window into appreciating a truly wild creature, so very different in nature from a human, but a terrible stolen privilege at that same time, the idea that for therapy in grief, you have a right to control another living being's behavior. 1/?

New word alert! Pretty sure it's just a fancy way to say 'hawkish'.
'Accipitrine: relating to birds of a family that includes most diurnal birds of prey other than falcons, New World vultures, and the osprey.'

A new method of encouraging scholastic excellence! 😂

Particularly taken with the appearance of this delightful passage, as this book is in dire need of moments of levity.

Everyone's a critic.

Considering this author's gift for artful description, I'm sincerely hoping she has, or will, publish a poetry collection.

Small in size or small in mind?
Privileged rich white guys and young children, so much ignorance in common! 🤨

Kindred spirits. And the lovely descriptions continue.

"Beautiful like a granite cliff or a thundercloud."
THIS. WRITING.??

Relatable feeling that has inspired many a spontaneous walk. 🚶🏼‍♂️

I‘m glad I finally got to this even if it was a like, not love pick. Helen‘s grief was so palpable. She seemed to need the hawk to share her mind and understand her needs. It‘s something I‘ve seen in a lot of animal owners who are going through loss. The historical parts about the schoolmaster and his attempts at hawk training weren‘t as interesting to me as Helen‘s personal journey. #roll100

Loving these daffodils!

I only have one complaint about this book —- there‘s far too much about T. H. White in it. The transitions between the sections on White and her own experiences aren‘t always handled skillfully; sometimes I had to wait for her to say “he” or “him” to know that she was talking about White. Otherwise it‘s a great book about hawking and grief. She began training Mabel as a way to handle her grief after her father died. #audiowalk

I have about 2 hours left in this audiobook, so between walking and driving places, I should finish it tomorrow. There was a briskness in the air this evening. It‘s supposed to get down into the 40s beginning on Friday. #audiowalk

No, Helen, the fact that your hawk keeps overshooting your fist when she returns to you does not mean that deep down she recognizes that you are a terrible person at heart! 🙄. I‘m loving this book because it‘s about more than training hawks; it‘s also about grief. #audiowalk. Trees are often way too close to sidewalks down here, so you often see broken sidewalks like this.

I wasn‘t expecting to learn so much about T. H. White in this memoir. I‘m really enjoying this. MacDonald reads her own book, and she does a good job. #audiowalk

This book is beautiful. I can see why they chose extracts from it for this year‘s English exam. Helen writes almost like a poet. I love her humility and sincerity.

Meh. I was expecting more of this book to be about the author and her hawk. Not T. H.White.

Do these new (used) nonfiction books make my brain look bigger? 😜🧠

I was right beside the closest Half Price Books today and couldn‘t pass up the chance to browse.

Thanks for the tag @Yuki_Onna

- My initial thought was that surely I had... but I can't think of a book I've read more than twice (unless you count books my Mum read to me when I was little)... recent re-reads include One Day by David Nicholls & The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist

- Yes, I am a sucker for a gorgeous cover ❤

- Tagged. I haven't read it yet, but I'm going to for #pop21 (A book set mostly outdoors)

My library‘s staff picks for this month! Chosen by a colleague, the theme is #TailsAndTales to coincide with the #SummerReadingProgram. Have you read or watched any of these?!

#LitsyLovesLibraries

4⭐️ || Part memoir, part history, part nature-writing, this explores Macdonald‘s experience of raising a goshawk, dealing with the grief of her father‘s death, and also the author TH White (Once and Future King). Such an interesting weaving of subjects!

#WindsofMarch #birdoncover

“There is something religious about the activity of looking up at a hawk in a high tree. It turns one‘s eyes up to the heavens”

I always assumed this book was a grief memoir, but it‘s MUCH MORE than that. Part nature journal, part academic literary analysis, Helen Macdonald seamlessly transitions from man to bird to depression to loneliness with stunning prose. I definitely believe hearing Helen read her book elevated the memoir.

This has been on my TBR audio shelf for a long time and for some reason, it‘s NOW calling to me. Have you read/listened @Megabooks ???

I absolutely loved this book 💯

I especially appreciated how Macdonald wove the story of T.S. White‘s attempt (and utter failure) to train a hawk in with her own hawk-training story. I found it utterly delightful and informative and now I really want to read “The Once and Future King”.

“I think of what wild animals are in our imagination. And how they are disappearing-not just from the wild, but from people‘s everyday lives, replaced by images of themselves in print and on screen. The rarer they get, the fewer meanings animals can have. Eventually rarity is all they are made of. The condor is an icon of extinction...And in this lies the diminution of the world. How can you love something if all it means is loss?”

Relaxing audiobook.

I think I might be entering a “memoir” phase. Started this book today. “Looking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don‘t get to say when or how”.

Loving the audiobook for this one.

Parts of this book were okay, but overall it was so boring to me. I wanted to DNF the book, but I honestly don‘t know an easy way to do that on my Kindle. So, my only reason for finishing was to not mess up my Kindle library; that‘s not exactly a ringing endorsement. I really wish the author would have just not focused so much on White. If I wanted to read about him/his book, I would have read his books.

#alphastack #letterH
So ‘H‘is for hawk, which is awesome, and made me ugly cry....
Also ‘H‘ is for a couple of well-used cookbooks from a goddess, a book I‘ve owned since I was 5 yrs old.... (Pooh of course), an all time fave (History of Love), and a couple of recent additions to my #tbr because of my a lovely book twin (The Housekeeper and The History of Rain) 📚💕 @BarbaraBB

It‘s official. I‘m DNF‘ing my #bookspin for August. I just can‘t get in to the writing and topic of grieving the loss of father is just too triggery for some of my own trauma. Just a case of it‘s not you, it‘s me. Adding to the donate bin.

I have this book on my shelf - one day I‘ll feel robust enough to read it. I have booked to hear her talk though at the Edinburgh Festival

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/helen-macdonald-the-natural-w...

I am confused why so much of this book was about TH White. If felt out of place in this book that is mostly about MacDonald and her hawking experience and journey, mixed with her depression and how she worked through the loss of her father. I feel the book would have been stronger without the added extra of White's story sprinkled through.

More book recommendations: https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/3/27/21197470/ask-a-book-critic-read-through-qu...

I have the tagged book. Sounds like this is the time to be reading it.