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patkay85's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.25
lujonik's review against another edition
5.0
Eye opening essays. I enjoyed Mr. Frazen's essays. Engaging and thought provoking.
I 've always been interested in nature and environmental causes but need to do more and to educate mysefl on the subject. This book is a great introduction, plus, we get to learn about the author and his lifestyle and loved ones...which makes the book less preachy and more relatable to those like me, without science.
I 've always been interested in nature and environmental causes but need to do more and to educate mysefl on the subject. This book is a great introduction, plus, we get to learn about the author and his lifestyle and loved ones...which makes the book less preachy and more relatable to those like me, without science.
ericfheiman's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.25
What seems at first like it will be an incisive treatise on the hypocrisies of dealing with climate change is instead…an ode to birding. Birding, alas, has made Jonathan Franzen a little boring. Oh well.
exuberant_crow's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
Sad and frustrating. Beautifully written. It makes me want to go on walks and really see the beauty that’s around me while it’s still here. Ecological grief.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
veposve's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
kristianawithak's review against another edition
5.0
Me trying to read this in November 2018: We get it Jonathan Franzen, you love birds!
Eye roll. Doesn't finish book.
Me reading book in November 2020: I GET IT Johnathan Franzen, we LOVE birds!
Me crying over the chapter on seabirds and explaining Albatross mating to my best friend.
This collection of essays has a lot to do with birding, and how birding today says a lot about climate change. It also has a lot to say about humanity. Not every essay involves birding. One essay has a plot not unlike the villain in UP searching years for a bird few believe exists. I knew Franzen and Margaret Atwood were crazy about birds, and I never got it. I love being depressed about climate change as much as the next girl, but I didn't think I was ready to care about birding. I'm glad I gave this collection another go, it was, against all odds, compulsively readable.
Eye roll. Doesn't finish book.
Me reading book in November 2020: I GET IT Johnathan Franzen, we LOVE birds!
Me crying over the chapter on seabirds and explaining Albatross mating to my best friend.
This collection of essays has a lot to do with birding, and how birding today says a lot about climate change. It also has a lot to say about humanity. Not every essay involves birding. One essay has a plot not unlike the villain in UP searching years for a bird few believe exists. I knew Franzen and Margaret Atwood were crazy about birds, and I never got it. I love being depressed about climate change as much as the next girl, but I didn't think I was ready to care about birding. I'm glad I gave this collection another go, it was, against all odds, compulsively readable.
sterlingisreading's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Some of these essays interested me more than others. My favorites were about technology, literary criticism, and Franzen’s more personal stories. There’s a lot about birds in here, which felt a little tedious in some essays, but in others it worked beautifully to illustrate the realities of climate change. Franzen’s birding obsession feels like an enthusiastic plea: a plea for all of us to create a passionate, personal, active connection to the natural world for ourselves. Maybe if we can all love the world just a little bit more, it may not end so swiftly.
kevin_milne's review against another edition
3.0
Franzen’s a good, intelligent, well-rounded writer, and essays are an under-appreciated medium. The literary equivalent of stand-up comedy, artists lay themselves bare for others to pick apart. Lots of good, motivational insights here, however the interplay of (admirably passionate) bird watching discourse with grand pontificating of the state of the modern world in this form comes across as a tad messy and unfocused.