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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
I saw this book recommended by BookTuber abookolive and thought it sounded intriguing. Helen Macdonald is experienced with training and flying hawks, but decides to take on one of the tougher birds to fly, a goshawk, after her father dies. Simultaneously, she re-reads "The Goshawk" by T.H. White. She read the book as a girl, but it takes on new meaning for her when she's older and flying her own goshawk, named Mabel.
This is some really gorgeous nature writing that makes me want to seek out more by Macdonald. I listened to it as an audibook read by the author. It was lovely. Highly recommended.
This is some really gorgeous nature writing that makes me want to seek out more by Macdonald. I listened to it as an audibook read by the author. It was lovely. Highly recommended.
I couldn't finish this book, maybe giving up 3/4 of the way through. I was excited to check this out because it's a nature memoir about grief, and one of my favourite books is similar, Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. Having lost my mother at a young age and as an environmental studies student, I thought this book would be right up my ally. Maybe I simply have no interest in falconry, but I found this book a total bore. Some of the prose was pretty, but that's the only reason I kept reading. It didn't seem to have much of a plot and I had no interest in the narrator. It won a lot of awards, but life is too short to continue reading something just because of high praise.
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I was seriously disappointed by this book. I listened to the audio, which is read by the author. This book rambles on and just doesn’t get anywhere. Yes it was interesting to hear of her her goshawk, but she kept saying how she had all this experience with falconry yet didn’t seem to really know what she was doing. She tried making connections between this and the shocking death of her father, but I don’t see it. I have no idea how long ago this happened, how old she was when her father died, how old he was, or really any info on who she was - she kept talking about being a student, but also her job? I had the most difficult time getting through this book. 2 stars is probably being generous.
informative
sad
slow-paced
I enjoyed learning about falconry by someone that clearly loves her hawk. Helen McDonald seems to be an intelligent writer who shares much information on falconry, the history, her experience and technical aspects. I didn’t like how often she talks about White’s book The Goshawk, frankly I didn’t pick up the book to learn about some other guys old falconry book. While I enjoyed learning about her hawk, I was very disappointed by this book. I understand grief of losing a parent and I wanted more of the connection between her grief experience and the hawk. I felt as though she was not facing her grief and ignoring all her emotions behind the hawk. (Ex: just randomly feeling bad and going on SSRIs) I never felt like she actually faced her grief and instead distracted herself. If this book was just advertised as a book about raising a hawk it would have been fine, but since it was also about grief, I thought it was one of the worst commentaries on grief I’ve ever read.
I’ve owned this for a while but the constant mention of grief when people talk about it put me off. It is sad but also very honest. Grief about her father, grief about the historical White and his awful hawk training. I’m fascinated by birds and love her connection with Mabel but can’t help but think taming wild animals seems wrong.
reflective
slow-paced
Minun olisi pitänyt rakastaa tätä kirjaa. Brittiläistä maaseutua, herrasmiehiä tweed-puvuissa ja metsästyshaukkoja. Kuitenkin kirja osoittautui niin pitkäveteiseksi ja hitaaksi lukea, että vaihdoin kesken kaiken äänikirjamuotoon. Kuuntelemalla sain tarinan loppuun.
Suurin osa kirjasta oli joko "filosofista pohdiskelua" tai tietoa entisaikojen haukkametsästäjistä. Ihan okei teemoja sinänsä, mutta kirjoitustyyli oli sellainen, että minun oli hyvin vaikea pitää mielenkiintoa yllä. Mitä kertojan omaan haukkaharrastukseen tulee, sitä oli loppujen lopuksi aika pieni osa tarinasta, mihin hieman petyin. Plussaa kuitenkin hyvästä tunnelman luomisesta pitkin kirjaa.
Suurin osa kirjasta oli joko "filosofista pohdiskelua" tai tietoa entisaikojen haukkametsästäjistä. Ihan okei teemoja sinänsä, mutta kirjoitustyyli oli sellainen, että minun oli hyvin vaikea pitää mielenkiintoa yllä. Mitä kertojan omaan haukkaharrastukseen tulee, sitä oli loppujen lopuksi aika pieni osa tarinasta, mihin hieman petyin. Plussaa kuitenkin hyvästä tunnelman luomisesta pitkin kirjaa.
Ended up DNFing at 84 pages. I tried, but I just could not get into this book. It really lacked focus and cohesion. The author jumps from thought to thought and quotes T.H. White way too often. I get that the White was a major influence, but I wanted more focus on the author's journey through grief and bonding with the hawk. Plus, if the author is going to reference White, it would have worked better if they had done so by tying it into how it relates to something specific with their own hawk. I didn't pick up this book to get a biography on White. When the author does talk about their hawk, it is disjointed, as are the memories of their father. I really had high hopes, but after struggling through the 84 pages and having to force myself to even pick it up, I decided this book wasn't for me.
Really interesting, unique, and well-written. More of a 3.5.
FYI you can stream this for free on Audible if you have Prime.
FYI you can stream this for free on Audible if you have Prime.