You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Incredibly gripping and interesting subject matter. A great mix of true crime, natural history, and biology.
Weary of his important but exhausting and often frustrating work assisting Iraqi refugees in getting resettled, author Kirk Wallace Johnson goes on a fly-fishing trip with a friend to get away from it all. While fishing, his friend tells him a true story about a young man named Edwin Rist, a story that seems so outlandish and remote from Kirk's daily life he can't help but want to know more. Thus begins his investigation into the world of fly-tiers and their obsession with exotic and rare birds.
Part exploration of natural history and part true crime as well as memoir, Kirk takes the reader along with him as he becomes obsessed with the obsessed. Edwin Rist had become enthralled with fly-tying as a talented home-schooled teen. He became one the world's most admired fly-tiers in the community of fly-tiers at the same time that he was working hard to become a world-class musician playing the flute. When he won a spot in a music conservatory in England, his proximity to the British Natural History Museum was too much to resist. They had birds. Lots of dead exotic birds. More than he thought they needed. So, he hatched a plan to relieve them of many of them one dark night.
This was a compelling read and I recommend it for fans of Susan Orlean or the late Tony Horwitz.
Part exploration of natural history and part true crime as well as memoir, Kirk takes the reader along with him as he becomes obsessed with the obsessed. Edwin Rist had become enthralled with fly-tying as a talented home-schooled teen. He became one the world's most admired fly-tiers in the community of fly-tiers at the same time that he was working hard to become a world-class musician playing the flute. When he won a spot in a music conservatory in England, his proximity to the British Natural History Museum was too much to resist. They had birds. Lots of dead exotic birds. More than he thought they needed. So, he hatched a plan to relieve them of many of them one dark night.
This was a compelling read and I recommend it for fans of Susan Orlean or the late Tony Horwitz.
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
This story was wild. Learned a lot about someone studying birds at the same time as Darwin, but who I had never heard of and independently came up with the theory of natural selection and evolution. But also then the story of a kid more than a century later stealing the specimens he collected, not for the historical scientific value, but because he was super into a hobby that involved pretty feathers.
Also get some history of the author's work in trying to help refugees from Iraq that had assisted the US, but mostly to explain how he came to this story.
Wild
Also get some history of the author's work in trying to help refugees from Iraq that had assisted the US, but mostly to explain how he came to this story.
Wild
I read this book for the non-violent true crime category of the 2019 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I overall liked this book but.....
Firstly, if you're used to reading great long-form journalism or nonfiction, this book is slightly awkward. The author includes a lot of information about his interview and research process, and it's kind of interesting but mostly it's just very clear that he is not a professional journalist. Why on earth would you hire a bodyguard to interview someone, and also bring your wife to that interview? I was very baffled by that whole part of the book, I thought someone was going to get shot but then nothing happened and I wondered why even include that? I don't know. It was weird.
So we get a lot of information about the author's process but he left out other information that would have been helpful for this book. The book is about a fly-tying hobbyist who steals bird specimens from a natural history museum so he can sell their feathers to fly-tiers. Natural history museums, the history of European bird collections (specifically Alfred Russel Wallace), the impact of the millinery trade and the founding of the Audubon Society, and the international and U.S. laws protecting bird species are discussed. Those are all relevant, but there is really not a lot of discussion of the birds themselves, or really......nature? I felt like more could have been included about the threats to those species now, and their ecological significance.
The author obliquely discusses how the demand for feathers impacts species, but I wish he had more directly focused on it. At one point in his interview, Edwin says that he thinks that he probably saved some birds by stealing birds from the natural history museum. The author at this point should have pointedly said, "Stealing birds from the natural history museum to sell to fly-tiers in fact increases demand for these feathers, which in turn increases the threat of hunting to these particular species." The fly-tiers apparently need it explained to them that what they are doing is detrimental to rare species in a direct way.
It made me really sad and angry that the fly-tiers all said that natural history museums were just hoarding these birds for no purpose. Johnson did an ok job describing the use of these birds to modern science, but he really didn't put enough emphasis on it. We obviously need better ambassadors to share the importance of natural history museums. Of course, the fly-tiers will continue to delude themselves no matter how many times it's explained to them.
While I'm throwing out complaints I'll add in that the language about collectors going out into the world to "discover" new species was Euro-centric in a way that sounds very out of date in 2019.
So that is a lot of complaints about a book that overall was very good and educational and well-written. I definitely recommend it, and the audio was very good.
Firstly, if you're used to reading great long-form journalism or nonfiction, this book is slightly awkward. The author includes a lot of information about his interview and research process, and it's kind of interesting but mostly it's just very clear that he is not a professional journalist. Why on earth would you hire a bodyguard to interview someone, and also bring your wife to that interview? I was very baffled by that whole part of the book, I thought someone was going to get shot but then nothing happened and I wondered why even include that? I don't know. It was weird.
So we get a lot of information about the author's process but he left out other information that would have been helpful for this book. The book is about a fly-tying hobbyist who steals bird specimens from a natural history museum so he can sell their feathers to fly-tiers. Natural history museums, the history of European bird collections (specifically Alfred Russel Wallace), the impact of the millinery trade and the founding of the Audubon Society, and the international and U.S. laws protecting bird species are discussed. Those are all relevant, but there is really not a lot of discussion of the birds themselves, or really......nature? I felt like more could have been included about the threats to those species now, and their ecological significance.
The author obliquely discusses how the demand for feathers impacts species, but I wish he had more directly focused on it. At one point in his interview, Edwin says that he thinks that he probably saved some birds by stealing birds from the natural history museum. The author at this point should have pointedly said, "Stealing birds from the natural history museum to sell to fly-tiers in fact increases demand for these feathers, which in turn increases the threat of hunting to these particular species." The fly-tiers apparently need it explained to them that what they are doing is detrimental to rare species in a direct way.
It made me really sad and angry that the fly-tiers all said that natural history museums were just hoarding these birds for no purpose. Johnson did an ok job describing the use of these birds to modern science, but he really didn't put enough emphasis on it. We obviously need better ambassadors to share the importance of natural history museums. Of course, the fly-tiers will continue to delude themselves no matter how many times it's explained to them.
While I'm throwing out complaints I'll add in that the language about collectors going out into the world to "discover" new species was Euro-centric in a way that sounds very out of date in 2019.
So that is a lot of complaints about a book that overall was very good and educational and well-written. I definitely recommend it, and the audio was very good.
Wow, what a depressing book, especially at this time of Donald Trump trying to completely destroy the environment and all life in it before he leaves the White House.
I found this book very hard to read because I'm a birdwatcher and the mass slaughter of birds is very upsetting. I cannot imagine thinking it fashionable to wear a dead animal on your head. And birds are still in great peril from so many dangers. So it was difficult for me to get into this book because I was distracted by so many real world issues.
The book was exhaustively researched - I was also a little put off by the ability of the author to focus obsessively on this case. (What money was he living on?)
No matter what HE says, Edwin Rist is a thief and a liar and a coward and probably a psychopath as well, now living his happy life as a flautist under a pseudonym having paid no price and learned no lesson from his selfish actions.
So, it is well written but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. Weird hybrid in-person/Zoom book discussion today probably won't help improve my conflicted feelings about The Feather Thief.
I found this book very hard to read because I'm a birdwatcher and the mass slaughter of birds is very upsetting. I cannot imagine thinking it fashionable to wear a dead animal on your head. And birds are still in great peril from so many dangers. So it was difficult for me to get into this book because I was distracted by so many real world issues.
The book was exhaustively researched - I was also a little put off by the ability of the author to focus obsessively on this case. (What money was he living on?)
No matter what HE says, Edwin Rist is a thief and a liar and a coward and probably a psychopath as well, now living his happy life as a flautist under a pseudonym having paid no price and learned no lesson from his selfish actions.
So, it is well written but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. Weird hybrid in-person/Zoom book discussion today probably won't help improve my conflicted feelings about The Feather Thief.
informative
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
This book is like a bell curve: dry beginning, interesting middle, and unsatisfying ending.