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carolinethereader's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 out of 5 stars
Kyo Maclear undertakes a year of bird-watching as a way to recentre and deal with anxiety surrounding her father's poor health. She tours Toronto with a bird-loving musician as her guide and uses their experiences as jumping points to reflect on various things- relationships, her father, art, birds, grief, life and death.
There's a lot to love about this book. Some of the prose is beautiful and I think the thread of 'take the time to appreciate the little things' woven through the book is lovely. There are descriptions of nice moments of community in the bird-watching community which were wholesome. It was also nice to feel the author appreciating the hobby more as the book went.
However, I was always waiting for this book to make a point. For it to hammer something home and it never did. This book is 259 pages but it felt much longer to me. I feel a little guilty rating this 2 stars because although I didn't enjoy this book there were some great moments and I think it could be the perfect book for some people at the right moment in their life. Just not for me.
Kyo Maclear undertakes a year of bird-watching as a way to recentre and deal with anxiety surrounding her father's poor health. She tours Toronto with a bird-loving musician as her guide and uses their experiences as jumping points to reflect on various things- relationships, her father, art, birds, grief, life and death.
There's a lot to love about this book. Some of the prose is beautiful and I think the thread of 'take the time to appreciate the little things' woven through the book is lovely. There are descriptions of nice moments of community in the bird-watching community which were wholesome. It was also nice to feel the author appreciating the hobby more as the book went.
However, I was always waiting for this book to make a point. For it to hammer something home and it never did. This book is 259 pages but it felt much longer to me. I feel a little guilty rating this 2 stars because although I didn't enjoy this book there were some great moments and I think it could be the perfect book for some people at the right moment in their life. Just not for me.
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Birds Art Life Death focuses on a very different sort of birding. Going through a challenging time the author felt drawn to birds and shadows a birdwatcher for a year as he seeks out bird life within their city. This was quiet and contemplative, philosophical and meditative, looking not just at birds and the highs and lows of birding, but also at the human condition and the benefits of paying attention. Birding wise I enjoyed seeing the author’s skills develop and loved the message that there is plenty of nature to be seen in big cities and that we need to value that more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness and Grief
reading_leaf's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
4.0
lanternheart's review against another edition
2.0
It's hard to say how much I enjoyed this book: not necessarily because it was bad, but rather that it's hard to define. "Birds, Art, Life" is an elusive read: the writing slips this way and that between anecdote and memoir, reflection and philosophizing and moments of historical connect-the-dots. At times, this pattern makes sense in closeness, but at others, Maclear's writing seemed to me to almost be deliberately slippery: refusing categorization because the author had an unclear voice.
This was contrasted with some moments of, surprisingly to me, absolute beauty in spots. However, these were few and far between, and while I enjoyed my time in this book generally, I don't know how often I'll pick up the whole thing to read again so much as pick individual moments. I perhaps have learned to look at birds differently, but I struggle to articulate what (if anything) I exactly have come away with knowing or viewing differently about art and life.
This was contrasted with some moments of, surprisingly to me, absolute beauty in spots. However, these were few and far between, and while I enjoyed my time in this book generally, I don't know how often I'll pick up the whole thing to read again so much as pick individual moments. I perhaps have learned to look at birds differently, but I struggle to articulate what (if anything) I exactly have come away with knowing or viewing differently about art and life.
joaniemaloney's review against another edition
4.0
'I would have kept the bird in my room and fed it moistened seeds and mealworms. It would not have been heroic. I could have made a fuss. I could have risked being a cliché of earnestness, risked trying and failing.
Deep down I think I knew the remorse would not be large and crushing. It would be small and manageable, just a tiny bird, embarrassingly little. Not a crisis. And that's why I regret it. Because the attitude that somehow, without our acting, the little things will take care of themselves does not ring true anymore.' (p. 202)
A delicate, thoughtful memoir that brims with joy and sorrow, soaring like birdsong. Kyo Maclear's tentative foray into the world of birds with a musician friend is touching in its earnestness and honesty as she learns about this other side of the city, allowing herself to see the vibrancy and hear the songs that she missed out on before. There's a beauty she describes in her surroundings - even in a city where it seems even the buildings that replaced natural landscape have been razed for newer buildings - that I found so lovely and calming to read about. (I do live in the same city and beyond the pigeons and sparrows and seagulls, I hardly notice the birds at all, so this did help to open my eyes.)
In terms of the personal, I could relate so much to her being a fretful person: always prioritizing the 'what ifs?' and expecting the worst, cutting the future down to size and never to plan too far knowing that disruptions were inevitable. Birding as a way of coping with that, and all of her concerns being acknowledged in words, were like a balm. The relationships she had with her family, with her ailing father in particular (this was the main driver for her grief), were very lovingly sketched.
I didn't expect to pick up a book that mixed memoir and birding, but the design throughout just drew me in (love all the illustrations and photos!), with the promise of a sort of meditation. I can see myself revisiting this one someday. I feel that my temperament is so close to the author that there was no way I would've not been comforted by this, somehow.
kickpleat's review against another edition
5.0
I'm returning this book to the library on the weekend, but if it was my own, I'd be highlighting passages and re-reading the dickens out of it. So good. A perfect read if you're interested in art, life and birds and even if it's only 1 of the 3, you'll probably find so much to be inspired by. Loved it.
becmatho's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, exceptional. Very pertinent to these times.