From the New York Times bestselling author of H is for Hawk and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction, comes a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world. Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves. In Vesper Flights, Helen … Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife. By one of this century’s most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
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Read 4.19.2021
NOT nearly as good as “H is for Hawk” [and I have never been overly fond of essays], but still a mostly really good read [some of the essays were just not my cup of tea] with some of the essays being laugh out loud funny. Glad I read this – I find real comfort in both her writing and physical [she narrates the book] voice.
“Extraordinary” isn’t an adjective I fling about, but this essay collection by Helen Macdonald deserves that description. The author uses her extensive knowledge and curiosity about the natural world–birds, in particular, but not exclusively–as a springboard to explore her feelings and offer observations on a wide variety of subjects. And what a vocabulary
A compelling book about taking on an interesting challenge as a way to cope with the loss of a parent.
Absolutely loved these thoughtful nature essays by the esteemed Helen Macdonald in this haunting and thought provoking collection.
The essays in Vesper Flights include a broad range of subjects including climate change, species extinction, migraine headaches, bird migration, and solar eclipses. The wonder of the natural world is beautifully experienced through Macdonald’s words.
When Macdonald talks about viewing the migration of birds from the top of the Empire State Building, I remembered one of the most extraordinary sights of my life. My husband and I were at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania when we saw the sky darkened with migrating birds, an endless stream that filled the sky! To this day, forty years later, I remember the dark silhouettes winging against a sky filled with streaks of dark clouds backlit by an autumn sun.
A chapter that caught my attention describes her trek with Nathalie Cabrol, an explorer, astrobiologist and planetary geologist specializing in Mars. They went to the high altitudes of Antofagasta, Chile, to an environment that may be like that of Mars. “They higher we climbed, the further we’d go back in time–not on Earth, but on Mars,” Macdonald writes.
I love armchair travel that takes me to such extraordinary places. Cabrol takes the author to the desert salt flats and gypsum sands, a brutal environment with its dangerously high UV radiation, thin atmosphere, and volcanic activity.
“Above me, the Southern Hemisphere stars are all dust and terror and distance and slow fire in the night, and I stare up, frozen, and frozen in wonderment,” MacDonald recalls.
Cabrol says the Earth will survive us after we have destroyed what has made our existence possible. It offers little comfort to humans. But we ourselves have created this legacy.
I have savored the book a little at a time, delving in when I need a break from the sad news of the world.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Unpopular opinion but I just didn’t like it. It could very well be the ecopy I have. She would be talking about one thing and then without a break, she would start on another topic. I was so confused reading it, I just finally had to give up and move on. Like I said I’m the only one who didn’t care for it. Give it a try, you may enjoy it like a lot of people did.
Thanks Netgalley for the copy for my honest opinion.
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald is very aptly titled! The book of personal essays should be considered as the author’s personal flights of memories and experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed reading H is for Hawk and although Vesper Flights is a very different type of book, it is extremely interesting. I wish the book had photographs of the places and the themes of the essays because it would be a perfect display or coffee table book. The writing is filled with emotion and the careful thought of one who is serious about nature, birding, and how our environment changes the lives, habitation, and migration patterns of birds.
There are so many pages I read which had me wanting to get outside and look again to the skies and woodland areas trying to spot birds in flight. I felt it was so appropriate as I read of the author watching the night sky with Andrew Farnsworth of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology during a migratory season. I am reading this during May 2020 migratory week and following the live migration map on BirdCast.
Publication Date: August 25, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
If you can’t go outside to nature bring nature inside with you. Review of Vesper Flights.
Quarantine is a perfect time to read this collection of essays about nature. It brings you the experience of nature with its descriptive, vivid scenes and storytelling. I got lost in the narrative loving the different essays. Some I thought were too short. I wanted more and didn’t want it to end. The others were long and satisfying. I especially liked the one with the goat. It made me laugh. ( I forget the title). lol. This collection is also perfect for Earth Day to remind us how fragile and beautiful nature is and to protect it by any means necessary. I truly am happy that I found this title and this author and will be looking for more titles by this author. Id like to thank NETGALLEY.COM as well as the author for providing me an ARC copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
An enjoyable collection of essays that are a song to the benefit of observing everything in nature. Sometimes we can’t get to places where nature rules, but we can hold it dear in our hearts. The author’s descriptions are so clear that the reader feels as if watching and meandering alongside the author and appreciating everything more with her words. I loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Grove Atlantic/Grove Press via NetGalley. Thank you!