There’s a reason you’re seeing a lot of books about birds — watching them, feeding them, training them, enjoying them. They’re just fascinating creatures and stupidly easy to coax into your life. If bird-enjoying seems like anything but a thrilling pastime to you, well, then, you’ve never texted with my friends Kelly, Emily, or Jeff or my nibling Miki. And you’ve certainly not discovered the Merlin app, which is one of the greatest gifts of modern technology, besides, like, mRNA vaccines and BritBox.
I was medium into the bird populations that cruise through my decent-sized city yard until the gift of Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles book pushed me right over the avian madness edge. Because I want you to find that joy — or delight those on your gift-giving list who have already found it — I bring you three books by authors who have nailed the connection between noticing bird patterns and reflecting on our own lives. These are listed in order, from “birds and wildlife you observe are poetry” (contains no actual poetry) to “hmm OK shall I feed these birds chili suet or what.” Even if you care not about birds, the first two on the list are worth the time of particular readers as explained herein!
Ruby-crowned kinglet, it’s just you and I, defying gravity!
🎶 Good newwwwwwwws! I have all my past EELS recommendations with links to all my past EELSes in one easy-to-scan spreadsheet! Click the button below, hit “request access,” and if you’re on the subscriber list, I will give you access! Pro tip: It is excellent for finding a gift.
🐤 Late Migrations
Margaret Renkl, 2019
What is this feeling, so sudden and new? It’s the feeling you will get when you look at the little ecosystem in your neighborhood closely over the course of a year.
I have about a 50% success rate in recommending this book, which is a series of tiny (and when I say tiny, I mean hummingbird-sized, one-page) essays alongside gorgeous illustrations about life and death and nature and birds and a few flowers in Margaret Renkl’s Tennessee backyard. It is brief and beautiful. I don’t really get why everyone doesn’t love it, but various people DO NOT. You might be one of those people. My mom was like “too depressing” and tried to donate it after I gave it to her, but then I rescued it for my friend Merry who loved it very hard. I found it incredibly uplifting and reassuring. Nature is going to cycle on, death is a part of life, birds migrate, some of them return, it’s glorious.
Renkl is an absolutely fantastic writer, and you may have seen her all over The New York Times and such. There’s a follow-up to this, too, which I have not read, but it’s probably great. Buy this for everyone. I love this book.
Recommended for: Those who like to ponder life. Buddhism fans. Nature fans. Bird fans, obviously, but I wasn’t a bird fan when I read this. But it was during the pandemic and I was taking a ton of walks and marveling at how life was just going along for all the flora and fauna and that comforted me to no end. It’s just fun to watch!
Absolutely essential format: Hard copy.
🦅 H is for Hawk
Helen MacDonald, 2015
What a pair you’ll be, your goshawk and you! That is, if this book inspires you to take on what seems like the wildly difficult task of training a bird of prey. Helen MacDonald wrote this H is for Hawk partly about her experience training Mabel, a goshawk, as she was grieving her father (birds and mental healing, man! What’s the connection!?) But partly it’s about the novelist T.H. White and his own checkered experience training a goshawk.
T.H. White! You may remember me talking about my deep love for The Once and Future King (see EELS: Who can even remember that long ago?), and it turns out White was a way better writer than hawk guy. I did not expect this book, which came highly recommended by my child’s grandmother and book lover Roxanne, to be so illuminating about the specific failures of White and what it all means about life and perseverance. And yes, OK, it was on that NYT list.
Recommended for: Those who like a wild, wonderful memoir, and just something really different. Those who liked Why Fish Don’t Exist (see EELS: Human behavior).
Recommended format: Audiobook!
🐦⬛ The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Amy Tan, 2024
Trust me, backyard bird enthusiasts, this pleasantly boring book will make you popular (with birds, not people). You’re going to be pop-youuu-lar. And it’s because reading novelist Amy Tan’s little diary about how much she feeds and watches and draws birds will have you staring at your birdfeeder setup and being like “Hmm, I really need to add some more mealworms to my setup.” And suddenly you’re a member of your Wild Birds Unlimited paid program and you’ve got five feeders in your yard and everyone at work is like “Please stop talking about your birdbath.”
Whatever! The real triumph is that Amy Tan manages to write about her bird observations without putting me to sleep. I mean, sure, birds are fascinating, but let’s be real. I like to read fiction or at least highly narrative or poetic nonfiction like the two above. Yet I was so sad when this ended, and the way it ended was awesome. It’s neat to read about the different birds in California, where I do not live, and have her be so thrilled to see a robin. LOL robins! They’re like junk birds out here! Thank you so much, Laura, for giving me this as a gift! It has cost me so much money in new gear and seed!
Recommended for: Those who are already at least somewhat into birds. This is a great book for the bird people in your life. For the half-bird/half-people in your life, get them some good suet.
And now, a bonus recommendation
Listen, I could give you holiday reads. OK fine, I will. Here’s my EELS: Christmas ghosts from last year, featuring my very favorite DALL-E art. But also, here’s a recommendation from my newest book pal Justine.
🏨 The Hitchcock Hotel — Stephanie Wrobel, 2024
“It was engrossing, and I thought it was a perfect book for when you want something light and whodunit-y.” She also said “It would make a good airplane read” a “good before bed read” and is good for those who are “into Hitch, which I am.” I like all of those things!
That was the fifty-fifth EELS! If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend and like it by hitting the heart! It’ll help others find it and maybe they’ll like it, too.
If you get this via email: send any questions, feedback, or thoughts about a book, by hitting reply.
If you read this on Substack: leave a comment!
📚 Susan
I earn a small commission from books purchased on Bookshop.org through links from this post.
If you ever visit Ithaca, please come visit the Lab of Ornithology! Happy to do a tour! :)
Excellent recommendations! I need to read The Backyard Bird Chronicles—it's one I know is up my alley, and it's on the reading list, but maybe it should be higher up. Light Migrations is definitely on the list now too.
Also love your description of robins as junk birds. They're common in parks and woods here too, but I don't see them as often near my apartment, so I welcome the junk when I can get it :)