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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
H is for Hawk is a true story of how Helen Macdonald loses his father and decides to get a goshawk when trying to deal with her grief. Training the hawk is an fascinating adventure and all the different themes Helen discusses along the way are inspiring and insightful. She is also very skillful writer, the nature descriptions especially are quite breathtaking and as a biology student I found the information about hawks really useful. But the sad truth is that I was often bored. This is supposed to be a story where not much happens, I understand that, I just couldn´t help feeling that the book is a bit dull - there aren´t any big turning points in the plot. And there were these long parts about T. H. White and for me they just seemed to be there to fill up space, trying to add new perspectives when maybe the story would have been fine with just Helen´s point of view. I am in any case glad to have read H is for Hawk, it´s an emotional and beautiful story.
5/5⭐️ It’s funny, I was sure Orbital would take me away into the celestial realm to escape current events, but it was H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, the most earthy book I can remember reading, that actually did that for me. Being a self-declared ultimate city-boy, I was skeptical, but I couldn’t put it down. Through their own experience with Mable, the author’s goshawk, I found coping methods to deal with grief and a quickly changing world. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” definitely applies.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
Almost surprisingly good read. Didnt realize how fascinating hawks and their trainers could be. Macdonald is a masterful wordsmith, beautifully weaving her story with T.H. White's 'The Goshawk'. I like.
I had been intrigued by this book since I first saw it in a bookstore. Somehow I knew that the day would come that I'll buy and read it. And so I did. It's not a book you can read in one sitting. A chapter or two a day to start and a bit more once you get into the mindset of Helen and her goshawk. The book is essentially about grief and how you get through a loss of a loved one. A very personal topic for the author and also for me at this time in my life. We all deal with loss differently, and she chose to train a goshawk, probably the most challenging bird a falconer can pick. All through this process, she was also going through the motions of saying goodbye to her father and making peace with his sudden death.
It's a beautifully written and educational book. I did find out so many new things about hawks and falconers, and the whole training process of a wild bird. However, the author was drawing parallels with another falconer and writer - Terence Hanbury White throughout the book. And it kinda didn't work for me. They were both struggling with things in their lives, but they were so different that it didn't fit together organically. Therefore, I would probably give this book something like 3.5 stars.
It's a beautifully written and educational book. I did find out so many new things about hawks and falconers, and the whole training process of a wild bird. However, the author was drawing parallels with another falconer and writer - Terence Hanbury White throughout the book. And it kinda didn't work for me. They were both struggling with things in their lives, but they were so different that it didn't fit together organically. Therefore, I would probably give this book something like 3.5 stars.
I didn't quite finish the book, but I got most of the way through it so I am putting it on my 'read' shelf, instead of my abandoned. My book club selected this read and, as much as I found it interesting, I was equally bored of the hawk by the time I got to the end. The book is beautifully and poetically written and I think Macdonald is a brilliant author. I was just a little too overwhelmed with Hawks by its end.
Helen Macdonald writes an amazing memoir of her desire, since childhood, to become a falconer. Through the process of working with the hawk the author begins to understand and live with the grief of losing her father and finds herself, a true falconer to be sure. The audio is great- the British accent is paramount to hearing the author's voice. After reading this book, i understand the appeal, the terror and the fear of raising a goshawk, a serious predator, with whom the falconer develops an intimate and personal relationship.
Grief is a very serious topic, and it should come as no surprise to find this memoir written in a very serious tone. I call it a memoir for convenience, but it's more than that; "H is for Hawk" successfully blends elements of biography and field guide into a distinct and original narrative. Macdonald's story is unique yet universal, in the way that stories of family and loss always are.
The story and its lessons are compelling, but the style doesn't always appeal. I don't want to say "pretentious" because I get the sense that her intent is only to share her thoughts openly, not to impress us. But it is... well... Let's call it "overwritten." Certain passages are exquisite, poetic, masterful and breathtaking. Others are wearisome. Macdonald uses so many adjectives and unique word choices, displaying the lexical vocabulary of a seasoned Scrabble player, and as a consequence her voice is sometimes stiff or stuffy.
In the end, I fear I must brand it with that ultimate passive-aggressive, backhanded compliment: I liked it, I really did like it a lot. But I didn't love it.
3.5 stars out of 5.
(Read in 2017, the eighth book in my Alphabetical Reading Challenge)
The story and its lessons are compelling, but the style doesn't always appeal. I don't want to say "pretentious" because I get the sense that her intent is only to share her thoughts openly, not to impress us. But it is... well... Let's call it "overwritten." Certain passages are exquisite, poetic, masterful and breathtaking. Others are wearisome. Macdonald uses so many adjectives and unique word choices, displaying the lexical vocabulary of a seasoned Scrabble player, and as a consequence her voice is sometimes stiff or stuffy.
In the end, I fear I must brand it with that ultimate passive-aggressive, backhanded compliment: I liked it, I really did like it a lot. But I didn't love it.
3.5 stars out of 5.
(Read in 2017, the eighth book in my Alphabetical Reading Challenge)
Well, I obviously liked it. Hence the 5 stars. Thing is, I don't actually read a lot of non-fiction (I'm a bit ashamed to admit), but this absolutely blew me away. I found it as riveting and as suspenseful as a novel, but learned more than perhaps I ever expected about hawks and falconry in the process.
I can understand intellectually why some people really bounced off this. She doesn't give you a straight-forward narrative; it's a patchwork, cramming little bits of just about everything in it. You get amazing descriptions of nature, obsessive, detailed descriptions of the hawk, but also riffs on loneliness, the environment, family, human connections, depression, and more than just a riff about grief. Really it could be called G is for Grief. But the hawk is important too.
The book opens with the death of the author's father. She was obviously extremely close to him and learned from him a lot of her appreciation for the countryside and the natural world. His death knocks her sideways. So, (as you do) she decides to try to tame a hawk. Not just any hawk, but a goshawk, which is reputedly the most difficult to work with. Hers is called Mabel, and one of the things you learn reading this is why she has such a silly name. The narrative is also interwoven with the biography of T.H. White (he of The Sword in the Stone fame), who also tried, and failed to tame a goshawk.
Helen Macdonald is a poet, as well as a historian and an expert on falconry (she didn't just say 'oh I'd like to tame a hawk' - she'd been working with them almost since she was a child). I think what made this book so electrifying was the amazing writing. The obsessive detail and the poet's eye. Reading this book, you know what it's like to hold a hawk on your wrist. She tells you what Mabel's breath smells like and what the blinking of her eyes sounds like. One of my favourite things was Mabel playing with balls of rolled up paper; hawks aren't supposed to, um, play... but Mabel did.
I really loved this book, and Mabel, and the story and even T.H. White (who doesn't come across all that well, but you understand why Helen Macdonald is so obsessed with him). I can't recommend it highly enough.
I can understand intellectually why some people really bounced off this. She doesn't give you a straight-forward narrative; it's a patchwork, cramming little bits of just about everything in it. You get amazing descriptions of nature, obsessive, detailed descriptions of the hawk, but also riffs on loneliness, the environment, family, human connections, depression, and more than just a riff about grief. Really it could be called G is for Grief. But the hawk is important too.
The book opens with the death of the author's father. She was obviously extremely close to him and learned from him a lot of her appreciation for the countryside and the natural world. His death knocks her sideways. So, (as you do) she decides to try to tame a hawk. Not just any hawk, but a goshawk, which is reputedly the most difficult to work with. Hers is called Mabel, and one of the things you learn reading this is why she has such a silly name. The narrative is also interwoven with the biography of T.H. White (he of The Sword in the Stone fame), who also tried, and failed to tame a goshawk.
Helen Macdonald is a poet, as well as a historian and an expert on falconry (she didn't just say 'oh I'd like to tame a hawk' - she'd been working with them almost since she was a child). I think what made this book so electrifying was the amazing writing. The obsessive detail and the poet's eye. Reading this book, you know what it's like to hold a hawk on your wrist. She tells you what Mabel's breath smells like and what the blinking of her eyes sounds like. One of my favourite things was Mabel playing with balls of rolled up paper; hawks aren't supposed to, um, play... but Mabel did.
I really loved this book, and Mabel, and the story and even T.H. White (who doesn't come across all that well, but you understand why Helen Macdonald is so obsessed with him). I can't recommend it highly enough.
4.5 rounded down because I think it’s only a 5 for folks with particular interest in birds, grief, and Arthurian academics (which I kinda do).
I did the audio which I considered to incredibly high quality. Beautifully written and read. I loved this. I will look for more by her... but see previous note about birds, grief, etc. Maybe not for everyone.
I did the audio which I considered to incredibly high quality. Beautifully written and read. I loved this. I will look for more by her... but see previous note about birds, grief, etc. Maybe not for everyone.