Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

6 reviews

unluckycat13's review

This book is too long. I get the goal of laying out the entire history of preservation and hunting, but it wasn't necessary and it takes up like 25% of the book. I admire the authors work with refuges (at least taking his word on it) but I don't particularly like the author? 

This book overall feels very unexamined. Many things are taken at face value, and often presented in a romanticized light. The author comes off as a bit of a yuppie type. I'm simply not shocked or intrigued by the things he is. 

There are moderately severe descriptions of what really amount to animal torture and neglect as well. I keept trying to give it a chance, but I think I'm done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Racism, War, Colonisation, and Xenophobia

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced

4.5

This is a really informative book about a crime that, at first glance, almost seems to be comical. The fanatical devotion to using the feathers from exotic and endangered birds is disgusting, especially when the look can be mimicked with dying feathers from more common birds already being slaughtered for meat. Similarly disgusting is their closing of ranks when called out for buying and selling stolen skins, furs, and corpses. Especially heinous is the wildlife protection agencies' inaction.

Edwin Rist, and his peers in fly making are heinous in their disregard for the sanctity of the scientific and historical record. Their lack of remorse deserves far more punishment than any have received.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, and Trafficking

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, and Ableism

Moderate: Death, Islamophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcohol, Deportation, Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, War, and Xenophobia

dominicangirl's review

informative sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Colonisation

aezlo's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Colonisation and Mental illness

thechadow's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.75

This book would be 4.5/5 stars from me if it ended after part 2. Unfortunately, the author spends part 3 inserting themselves into the pursuit of "justice unserved." The author on many occasions calls into question the suspect's Asperger's diagnosis which was central to their legal defense.

The author, an American researching a crime committed in the United Kingdom, is incapable of imagining restorative justice, and is focused exclusively on punitive measures. Part 3 is really filled with the American & colonialist ideal of exporting one's own beliefs onto a situation which does not involve oneself.

During an interview he conducted, the author quotes himself in the book as having said: "Emotionally, wouldn't [jail time & withholding the suspect's degree] have been somewhat satisfying?"

No. It wouldn't be.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation and Mental illness