Raising Hare: A Memoir | 
pickA nonfiction account of a woman who finds an injured leveret and manages to save it. She ensures it remains wild and does not become a pet but forges enough of a bond with it so that she is able to observe and examine it as it grows and also ruminate on its effect on her like. This book was a gift to read at a time when I seem unable to settle into most books.
The variety encapsulated by my reading month makes me happy. It‘s a pretty accurate snapshot of my literary life as a whole.
StoryGraph tells me I‘m 14 books ahead of my reading goal. It‘s possible I set the bar too low but it still gives me a flush of pleasure!
I‘m enjoying this book SO very much, and have already learned quite a bit. That being said, here is my #weirdwordwednesday choice: agouti. I‘m referring to the coloration, but an agouti is also a type of wild rodent (where the name for the coloration came from). Here‘s a Wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti_(coloration)
#weirdwords
pickDalton, a political adviser forced into a rare period of inactivity by the pandemic, finds an injured leveret on the path behind her country home and nurses it back to health. Though she never closes the door to the fields & meadows beyond her threshold, the hare chooses to spend pieces of each day with her. Dalton‘s cottage is viewed as a safe haven — so safe that the hare eventually opts to give birth to her wild babies in the author‘s bedroom.
“The atmosphere of calm suffused by her throughout the house lingers even when she is gone. I hope always to be able to summon it at will, along with the memory of the light and trusting touch of her paws in the palm of my hand, and her steady…gaze. And when one day I can no longer see her, I will watch the hares in the field knowing that her being is woven into theirs, and I only have to look up at night to see her symbol etched in the stars.”
pickThis amazing tale about the bond between a British woman and a wild hare is currently shortlisted for the Women‘s Prize for Nonfiction. I loved it.
I talk about the tagged book and 6 others in my latest booktube video, as well as International Trans Day of Visibility and doing touristy stuff in Victoria BC. #LGBTQ+
https://youtu.be/wLpbL6QsA_k?si=2llFEuO2vFFcfT6H
pickI loved Dalton‘s memoir of her time with a hare. I loved her respect for the wild creature and her earnest determination to both accommodate the hare in her home but keep herself at a distance in order to build trust. I loved the relationship between wild creature and human—something that‘s been written about often in memoirs at the present (Me and Alfie, etc). I‘m not sure this will win the Women‘s Prize (NF), but I wouldn‘t be sad if it did.
pickMemoirs are a hard sell for me, but this one worked because the focus here is on hares. Beautiful nature writing!
But, is it prize worthy? 🤷🏼♀️
pickBook 10 of the #wpnf25 longlist.
In this heart-warming book the author finds an abandoned leveret at the start of COVID lockdown. I appreciated that she was unsure initially whether to even take it in or not and it never felt like she was ‘playing God‘ throughout the book.
I particularly liked how she was able to watch the hare at such close quarters that she turned accepted/assumed knowledge about hares upside down.
On my shortlist for sure!
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Delightful memoir of a woman who came across a struggling, abandoned juvenile hare and went on to raise it after realizing it couldn‘t be returned to its mother. I really enjoyed both her experiences and the documentation of the hare‘s behaviors, and the interweaving with biological and historical information. The end dragged a bit with the inclusion of some ecological advocacy, but overall a great #WPNF25 pick!
pickThis is the most marvelous book! Dalton details the relationship she developed with a tiny baby hare (leveret) during COVID lockdown and how things moved forward from there. If you have even a speck of tenderness for animals, I‘m pretty sure you‘ll love this as much as I did. #WPNF25
pickI‘d been eyeing this before it made it to the #wpnf25 Longlist, I‘m so happy it was on it
This was so cozy and heartwarming, and I hoped it would never end
At the beginning of the pandemic, Dalton finds a young leveret in her garden. She can‘t see the mom so she decides to take care of it
A book that shows how little we know about nature and wild animals. A book that shows that it‘s possible for people to change & do better for other creatures
Hooked_on_books, Jas16, youneverarrived, Chelsea.Poole, squirrelbrain, BarbaraBB, ImperfectCJ, ChaoticMissAdventures, fredthemoose, AllDebooks
Looking for spoilers!!
Have you read this? Does the hare die?
I can't find the answer in my normal places. This is getting a lot of talk in predictions for the Women's Prize Nonfiction and I just cannot handle a dead bunny at the moment so would love if someone could use the spoiler button below and spoil it for me.
Thanks so much!!
