Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald
Nonfiction
Who’s it for: Bird watchers, wanna-be bird watchers, and anyone who wants to read a thoughtful examination of how humans interact with the natural world.
Tell me more: MacDonald’s collection of more than 3 dozen essays, many short enough to be read in quick chunks, include observations made over the period of her lifetime, from childhood to the present. She often shares how her initial observations may have been missed, or how new knowledge imparts a different perspective on a topic. The deep shadow of the climate crisis colors all the essays, imparting a melancholy tone to much that she observes. She makes visible what is unseen and unnoticed by so many of us—and urges us to hurry and notice it before it is gone.
But I want details: Many of the essays are about birds—swifts that spend most of their lives in flight, swans that belong to royalty and are counted annually in a practice known as swan upping, murmurations of starlings, cuckoos in the house, bird (and insect) flights in the upper skies observed by radar (far above city high-rises) at 10 to 12,000 feet. But she also shares thoughts and observations of “flying ant day,” deer and automobile collisions, development of childhood paradises, glowworms, and total solar eclipses. This beautifully written, poignant, and sobering collection will inspire you to get outside, now.
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