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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
This is a tough book for me to process. I'll have to come back to review it.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I would have loved an essay about Mabel, or grief, or both. But I wasn't a fan of the very large TH White elements, or the awkward shifts from grief and goshawks to White and back again. I'm really sad that I had to force myself to finish this because I adored Vesper Flights.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Sad. Well written slog. Not enough character action. All birds no people. She writes of grief beautifully but I don't want to read that.
See full review at: http://thisisthewayiread.tumblr.com/post/131616655972/h-is-for-hawk-review
I hate birds. I think they are creepy and gross. I've made occasional exceptions in the past when visiting the San Diego zoo with my mother for some of the cuter brightly colored varieties (from a distance), and also for penguins. I love penguins, but I count them as extraordinarily cute fish rather than birds to avoid cognitive dissonance in the blanket statement, “I hate birds”. . . .
I hate birds. I think they are creepy and gross. I've made occasional exceptions in the past when visiting the San Diego zoo with my mother for some of the cuter brightly colored varieties (from a distance), and also for penguins. I love penguins, but I count them as extraordinarily cute fish rather than birds to avoid cognitive dissonance in the blanket statement, “I hate birds”. . . .
I tried. I really did. This was a book club book and on most lists for best nonfiction in 2015, but after 4 weeks and only 120 pages I gave up because I was so bored. For the first time in my life, I flipped ahead to read the last two chapters and called it done.
The author paints herself as a socially awkward outsider who thrills with minute details of obscure topics, and that is exactly how her writing reads. I had a particularly hard time slogging through the sections of the book that described and imagined a falconer and author whose book she was fixated upon.
Great books can make the reader thrilled to learn about unfamiliar topics that do not usually interest them. This book made me less interested in its subject matter.
The author paints herself as a socially awkward outsider who thrills with minute details of obscure topics, and that is exactly how her writing reads. I had a particularly hard time slogging through the sections of the book that described and imagined a falconer and author whose book she was fixated upon.
Great books can make the reader thrilled to learn about unfamiliar topics that do not usually interest them. This book made me less interested in its subject matter.
This is a beautifully written book. It shows the close relationship between the author and her goshawk that develops as she trains her. It all takes place in the context of her father's death and the downward spiral of her life as she loses her job and her house. It's disturbing to see her life fall apart and her insecurities in her role as trainer. The book closely parallels the 1951 book by T H White "The Goshawk" and his experiences in training his goshawk. It was a beautiful but disturbing book.
Quite an incredible book. I was at times perplexed by the author’s obsession with her hawk and I struggled to understand the allure of her lifestyle, but I suppose that’s one of the things I love about reading— the glimpse into the minds and lives of those unfamiliar to me.
Beautifully written, there are poetic turns of phrase on nearly every page. More than a memoir, and different than much nature writing, there is substantive history presented here. Most moving, though, is Macdonald's attention to natural detail, and the laying bare of her grief following her father's death. Her vulnerability is stirring.
We are the beneficiaries of Macdonald's range of talents. This may prove to be a hallmark of 21st century memoirs, because it weaves together centuries and disciplines.
We are the beneficiaries of Macdonald's range of talents. This may prove to be a hallmark of 21st century memoirs, because it weaves together centuries and disciplines.