Today's Featured Book:
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
by Margaret Renkl
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: October 24, 2023
Page Count: 288 pages
Summary:
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.”
Stop and look at the tangled rootlets of the poison ivy vine climbing the locust tree. Notice the way they twist around each other like plaits in a golden braid, like tendrils of seaweed washed to shore. Stop and look, but do not touch. Never, never touch, not even in winter.
Renkl, Margaret. The Comfort of Crows (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Backyard Year. Kindle Edition.
THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky.
“Something wonderful fell out of the tree next to the deck,” I said. “Guess what it is.”
He peered at the drenched object I was holding out on a teacup saucer.
A wary look crossed his face. He appeared to be choosing his words carefully: “What do you think it is?”
“I’m not absolutely sure, but I think it’s an owl pellet, most likely from a great horned owl. It’s awfully large for a pellet, even from an owl that big, but I’ve been looking at pictures online, and it’s definitely . . .”
My husband was visibly struggling for composure. I stopped. “What?”
Renkl, Margaret. The Comfort of Crows (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Backyard Year (p. 56). Kindle Edition.
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The Comfort of Crows is a collection of fifty-two short essays that follow the life in the author's backyard during the course of a single year. The author, Margaret Renkl, ties the happenings in her yard to the happenings in her family and larger community, and, in doing so, draws thoughtful observations about meaning and existence in the world.
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
March 21st - 27th - Sometimes, readers get into funks and maybe stop reading or feel like reading is work. What do you do to get yourself out of a reading funk? (submitted by Nicole @ The Christian Fiction Girl)
I have several strategies when I get into a reading funk. Sometimes I reread a favorite book. Sometimes I pick up a graphic novel or children's picture book. Sometimes I read what I call a browsable book, a big book that's easy to read in short pieces like a book of essays or an encyclopedia of birds.
What do you do?
