Reviews - The Comfort of Crows (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Backyard Year

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The Comfort of Crows (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Backyard Year

“Apocalyptic stories always get the apocalypse wrong. The tragedy is not the failed world’s barren ugliness. The tragedy is its clinging beauty, even as it fails. Until the very last cricket falls silent, the beauty-besotted will find a reason to love the world.”

This book perfectly described my feelings of hopelessness for the future of the planet, and yet focused on the glimmers of hope beneath the despair. It was a strong reminder that we can’t just give up. There is still so much beauty in the world that is worth protecting, and there are so many little things we can choose to do every day that make a difference! I will always do my best to be a voice for the voiceless, and I will do whatever I can to keep my yard wild for the bees, the bears, the birds, and anyone else who I’m lucky enough to have wander through.

lucyseward's review against another edition

4.25

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

An eloquent and passionate meditation on nature and its perseverance in the face of climate change. At first, I tried to read this short book in a sitting or two, but that approach just didn't work. Margaret Renkl, amazing writer that she is, waxes, by her own admission, "earnest" and seems not to have a snarky streak or an irreverent note in her lexicon. Accordingly, although her essays work as a much-needed weekly balm in the New York Times for this reader, they became a little too treacly when consumed seriatim. However, once I shifted my approach to reading one (never more than two!) a few mornings a week, the butterflies began to flit, the birds began to sing, and the compost began to simmer once again. I was hooked.

The world needs humans like Margaret Renkl to remind us that our precious world is also precarious, but also that we can do what we can do - like save a snail. Seems like a tiny event now that I'm typing these words, but, in Renkl's world (into which I was invited), her efforts are heroic and meaningful and motivate me to find my own metaphorical (or literal) snails to save.

I'll end with her book's last words: "The night sky is full of stars best seen from a dark place."

These earnest words land just right.

emilyabb's review against another edition

4.0

Nature therapy in a book. I loved learning about Renkl’s garden and the critters that inhabit it. Beautiful observations and descriptions that made me appreciate nature in a new way.