A review by foggy_rosamund
Birds Art Life Death: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant by Kyo Maclear

4.0

An understated piece of nature writing about paying attention to urban birds, and urban wildlife generally. Maclear writes in an insightful way about the creative process, our preoccupation with constantly appearing to work, and how to cope with death and terminal illness in a world that doesn't give you space to mourn. This book really spoke to me as someone who wants to celebrate my immediate environment, and to get to know nature deeply, rather than explore widely. It's also a very reassuring book to read if you are a creative person who has perpetual lulls in your creative abilities. A very quiet book about a very internal subject: it's not trying to make a big point, and sometimes it's so understated it almost gets in its own way. But if you take it on its own terms, it's beautiful and resilient. To appreciate an urban birds becomes an act of resistance in our ever-moving world.