A review by julis
In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John M. Marzluff, Tony Angell

2.0

 Me, wistfully as I got towards the end of this book: When will I get to read a good book again?

Two problems with this book, one of which is not its fault but also impossible to overlook: It was published in 2006 which with publishing times means it was largely written in 2004 and 2005. I interned in a crow lab in the early 2010s and did my Masters in animal behavior in the late 2010s, ergo, 99% of the interesting things in this book I was already told as part of my coursework 5 or more years ago.

Even if you’re not an animal nerd, a lot of what he presents is common knowledge* by 2024: Crows can transmit information about people to others in their community; crows mob to drive off predators. Like…yeah?

Anyway problem 2 is the writing style, which is somewhere between “academic review paper” and “wikipedia page”. He** is very, very concerned with being neutral and not overstepping his conclusions but like…these are crows. This is a crow book. This is a pop-sci book at best, please tell me more funny crow stories.

*My idea of “common knowledge” is not necessarily common because I am friends with a lot of fucking nerds

**Yes it was cowritten by Angell but my impression is that Marzluff did most of the writing and Angell came along with drawings.