|
|
Loading... The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (edition 2023)| 180 | 13 | 151,497 | 
(4.47) | 11 | "In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons -- from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring -- what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author--and from us. For, as Renkl writes, 'radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.' With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world." --… (more) |
▾Book information ▾LibraryThing Recommendations ▾Will you like it?
Loading...
 Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) No current Talk conversations about this book. » See also 11 mentions ▾Series and work relationships
|
|
| Canonical title |
|
| Original title |
|
| Alternative titles |
|
| Original publication date |
|
| People/Characters |
|
| Important places |
|
| Important events |
|
| Related movies |
|
| Epigraph |
"Nature" is what we see--
The Hill--the Afternoon--
Squirrel--Eclipse--the Bumble bee...
--EMILY DICKINSON
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
--MARY OLIVER  | |
|
| Dedication |
For my children, who give me faith in the future | |
|
| First words |
Stop and look at the tangled rootlets of the poison ivy vine climbing the locust tree. | |
|
| Quotations |
According to birding tradition, the first bird you see on the first day of the new year sets the tone for your next twelve months. One year, the first bird I saw was a downy woodpecker, or possibly a hairy woodpecker--the two species look virtually identical, particularly to a person who spies her first bird of the new year before she has had her first coffee of the new year. Because I couldn't sort it out in the instant before the woodpecker got spooked and flew awa, my theme bird that year was neither species of woodpecker. Instead it was a robin, the second bird I saw that morning. As the robin stood on the edge of the birdbath, watching me as I watched it, I found myself wondering if birds play a New Year's game called "First Human." (p. 5) Always I find more answers in a forest than I find in my own hot attic of a mind. Scientists have made studies of the walking brain, and the results are dumbfounding. Given a test that measures creativity, college students sitting at a table produced unremarkable results. But when scientists put them on a treadmill, or sent them for a walk around campus, their brains lit up like the night sky. The students who walked produced 60 percent more original ideas than the students who were sitting. (p. 162) | |
|
| Last words |
|
| Disambiguation notice |
|
| Publisher's editors |
|
| Blurbers |
|
| Original language |
|
| Canonical DDC/MDS |
|
| Canonical LCC |
|
▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions "In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons -- from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring -- what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author--and from us. For, as Renkl writes, 'radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.' With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world." -- ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
Current DiscussionsNone Google Books — Loading... |
)
)
3
It is for his photographs, paintings, drawings, and composition that the book will be kept, not for the words.
From the beginning - "Lord what fool this mortal be..." where I have no clue which metaphor she means -
then onto the constant, unremitting phases of death: Is there really no Love for Life without Death?
Deadwood, dead December, all the dead and dying animals, including her personal experiences
with killing them
(WHY the author needed to share ALL this? Does it heighten anyone's Joy? - or even help to avoid repeating her mistakes?
our Monarchs raised on the kitchen table survive well and depart our backyard with strong flying wings to head south),
endless reminders of stupidity of human exploitation, poisoning, and destruction -
yet with NO clues at to what Actions she will take!
More second guessing when she actually braves the forces of nature and helps an animal -
aren't we part of nature and so contribute our help?
Onto horrible images of dead rat snake, dying mealworms, dead car driver,
little mole hands in coyote scat, dead "baby chick" "story" -
feeding live crickets and "roll-poly" to toads with zero compassion for death of live creatures -
Gerbil "story" should make your day...along with the dead cottontails and the three birds...
Endless handwringing with no Links to organizations that will help animals and the environment,
not even an invitation to join her in writing to Joe to ask him to stop Daylight Savings after we earn the good Hour... (