Welcome to Litsy!

Took a day off today and walked my usual trail this morning. First time I‘ve ever seen one of these guys just sitting there so calm and unbothered!

This was recommended to me by one our best customers. I've heard about this book quite a lot, but thought it wasn't for me. When I started it, I still thought it wasn't for me. But the more I listened to the audio book, the more I got invested. It's interesting how the author mixes up memoir, biography and biology in one book. Without it being overloaded.

@PuddleJumper #roll100

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!)

When you‘re waiting for the storm to pass but you don‘t mind because you brought your book!!!

#NeverLeaveHomeWithoutOne #AlwaysBePrepared

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 🙂🐕