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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Audiobook narrated by the author. Given that it’s a memoir, that was especially cool. But given that many of the chapters are historical asides or commentaries on another author/hawker who used hawking as an escape, the audiobook was a bit of a challenge. It’s not the kind of book I wanted to listen to speed up due to its contemplative nature, but I also didn’t care so much about TH White (author of Sword and the Stone )…. And yet…. I kept returning to the book, and learned a lot: about hawking and TH White and the grieving process.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
My enjoyment of this book was tempered by the author's poor choices, making me anxious about the welfare of the hawk.
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
informative
slow-paced
A lot about White’s training of his goshawk which was not that interesting. Unless you’re into training hawks , this one can be skipped.
***An eARC was provided of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***
This is an extraordinarily beautiful book, and well deserving of the awards that it has won.
After the death of her father, Helen Macdonald fulfils a lifelong ambition: to train a goshawk. "H is for Hawk" follows her through the training of the goshawk, whom she named Mabel, and through her own healing from grief for the loss of her father. Running parallel to Macdonald's story is the story of T.H. White and his own goshawk, Gos, which Macdonald discovered through White's book "The Goshawk".
Macdonald's use of language is absolutely wonderful - throughout the book, she evokes the English landscape so vividly that the reader might be walking along the tracks with her, their own goshawk on their glove. And Mabel herself is realised exquisitely; the reader can feel the love that Macdonald had for her goshawk, and feel the despair when Mabel is thought lost, or Macdonald doubts her own training.
I am in debt to the friends who reviewed this book and brought it to my attention. It is a glorious book full of truth and beauty, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about nature, animals, or simply memoirs.
This is an extraordinarily beautiful book, and well deserving of the awards that it has won.
After the death of her father, Helen Macdonald fulfils a lifelong ambition: to train a goshawk. "H is for Hawk" follows her through the training of the goshawk, whom she named Mabel, and through her own healing from grief for the loss of her father. Running parallel to Macdonald's story is the story of T.H. White and his own goshawk, Gos, which Macdonald discovered through White's book "The Goshawk".
Macdonald's use of language is absolutely wonderful - throughout the book, she evokes the English landscape so vividly that the reader might be walking along the tracks with her, their own goshawk on their glove. And Mabel herself is realised exquisitely; the reader can feel the love that Macdonald had for her goshawk, and feel the despair when Mabel is thought lost, or Macdonald doubts her own training.
I am in debt to the friends who reviewed this book and brought it to my attention. It is a glorious book full of truth and beauty, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about nature, animals, or simply memoirs.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I loved the story of this book - her response to the slap of grief is interesting and relatable. The taming of wild birds as the process to the other side of grief demonstrates the work it takes to wade through it. I struggled when things became entangled with the reflection on another goshawk owner. It lingered quite a bit and the pace froze.
I understand falconry is a long-standing cultural tradition but I'm uncomfortable with keeping wild animals captive as a general rule. It was also slow paced. I only listen to audiobooks so perhaps it was the author's slow reading of the text as well.