You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Read Harder 2018: a book about nature
I'm going to finish Read Harder this year if it kills me. I've only got two books left and almost two full months in which to do it, but I keep picking up things that are fluffy escapism, and therefore not conductive to reading harder. (Last two categories: a children's classic published before 1980, and genre fiction in translation, which I already tried and failed to complete once.)
I liked H is for Hawk. Falconry-type things are not something I've ever given much consideration to, and I enjoyed learning about Mabel and the various things you have to know and do for your hawk in order to be able to fly it. Also that goshawks play and are finicky about their diets and really like trespassing when pheasants appear. I also understood so much Macdonald's need to escape from herself a little after her father died, and dealing with grief in ways that don't totally feel rational.
I get why she talked so much about the other guy, White, whose goshawk was lost because he wasn't a very good hawk-owner, but I think I would have liked it more if there was a bit more autobiographical material, or at least material from more than just the one hawking book.
The audio was read by the author and was very good.
I'm going to finish Read Harder this year if it kills me. I've only got two books left and almost two full months in which to do it, but I keep picking up things that are fluffy escapism, and therefore not conductive to reading harder. (Last two categories: a children's classic published before 1980, and genre fiction in translation, which I already tried and failed to complete once.)
I liked H is for Hawk. Falconry-type things are not something I've ever given much consideration to, and I enjoyed learning about Mabel and the various things you have to know and do for your hawk in order to be able to fly it. Also that goshawks play and are finicky about their diets and really like trespassing when pheasants appear. I also understood so much Macdonald's need to escape from herself a little after her father died, and dealing with grief in ways that don't totally feel rational.
I get why she talked so much about the other guy, White, whose goshawk was lost because he wasn't a very good hawk-owner, but I think I would have liked it more if there was a bit more autobiographical material, or at least material from more than just the one hawking book.
The audio was read by the author and was very good.
First welcome-to-London book I bought. (Waterstones extra chapter, after all.)
Excellent reminder that I still owe The Goshawk a read.
One down...
One down...
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
beautiful.
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Much has been written in praise of this original, lyrical memoir about a historian and falconer who decides to train a goshawk in the dark days after her father's death. I sometimes loved it very much and always appreciated her ability to bring history, nature, animal literature to vivid life. I also felt it dragged, especially toward the end, and I was dispirited by her dysfunction, especially when she turns down a decent teaching job in Germany because she's training the hawk even though she has no money and no job. It's probably a tribute to her writing I had to keep reading even though she started to annoy me: "Oh, I'm so strange and different from everyone, I have to hike in the pewter-frosted woods with my HAWK. But wait, going to a party might be FUN! What a revelation." Not that she isn't perfectly sincere in her hermitage and her grief and her devotion to the hawk, but her depression is difficult to deal with. But of course depression is very difficult to deal with. So reading the book is almost like having a depressed friend who is a very good writer and, of course, trains hawks.
P.S. I tried to listen to it but since I wasn't very interested in her discussion of TB White's The Goshawk, I kept having to skip ahead and it wasn't as good. She really is a wonderful writer though.
P.S. I tried to listen to it but since I wasn't very interested in her discussion of TB White's The Goshawk, I kept having to skip ahead and it wasn't as good. She really is a wonderful writer though.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I adore nature writing, and I adore melancholy. This book fit me perfectly. I'm still processing, but there's so much here that relates to working with fearful dogs, too. Noted for a future post.
2 1/2 stars. Beautiful prose but story is disjointed and hard to get through . Jumps around between her dad, some author dude named white and her hawk Mabel. So much of book is just describing the flights and behaviour of the hawk. Was glad to be finished. The short chapters helped a lot.