Vesper Flights Hardcover by Helen Macdonald 2020 Nature Essays-image
Vesper Flights Hardcover by Helen Macdonald 2020 Nature Essays-image

Vesper Flights Hardcover by Helen Macdonald 2020 Nature Essays

$ 2.08

gtin13: 9780802128812 Intended Audience: Trade Publisher: GROVE/Atlantic, Incorporated brand: GROVE/Atlantic, Incorporated LC Classification Number: PR6063.A1686V47 2020 ISBN-10: 0802128815 Format: Hardcover Item Length: 8.2 in Book Title: Vesper Flights Dewey Decimal: 508 Number of Pages: 288 Pages Genre: Nature, Science, Literary Collections Dewey Edition: 23 ISBN-13: 9780802128812 Synopsis: 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., 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, 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., 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. Helen Macdonald's bestselling debut H is for Hawk brought the astonishing story of her relationship with goshawk Mabel to global critical acclaim and announced Macdonald as one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers. H is for Hawk won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction and the Costa Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, launching poet and falconer Macdonald as our preeminent nature essayist, with a semi-regular column in the New York Times Magazine . In Vesper Flights Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved pieces on the human relationship to the natural world, along with incredible new essays on topics and stories ranging from nostalgia and science fiction to the true account of a refugee's flight to the UK; to watching total eclipses of the sun, visits to Uzbekistan, migraines, and the magnificent strangeness of birds' nests. Moving from her personal experiences to wider meditations on love and loss, and how we build the world around us, Vesper Flights is an arresting collection of generous, lyrical pieces guaranteed to transport their reader to places they've never before been. Language: English LCCN: 2020-026753 Publication Year: 2020 Topic: Natural History, General, Ecology, Essays Reviews: Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe, Praise for Vesper Flights Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, and Literary Hub "[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary writing about the intersection of the animal and human worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An inviting collection... infused with wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy." -- Publishers Weekly "Gorgeously composed, complexly affecting, and stunningly revelatory."-- Booklist (starred review) "An essential writer on nature, humanity, and loss. Macdonald fills her narratives with vivid descriptions of the wildlife that surrounds us."-- TIME "A profound meditation on life and freedom."-- Entertainment Weekly Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe, Praise for Vesper Flights Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times , Entertainment Weekly , TIME , and Literary Hub "Macdonald experiments with tempo and style, as if testing out different altitudes and finding she can fly at just about any speed, in any direction, with any aim she likes, so supple is her style. She writes about migration patterns and storms, nests as a metaphor for the domestic and the danger of using nature as metaphor at all. I was reminded of the goshawk, so thickly plumed, so powerful that it can bring down a deer, and yet it weighs only a few pounds. These are the very paradoxes of Macdonald's prose -- its lightness and force."-- Parul Sehgal, New York Times "[E]xhilarating... No one describes the everyday natural world with greater power or beauty." -- Slate "Dazzling... Ms. Macdonald reminds us how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us, even as we continue to diminish it." -- Wall Street Journal "[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary writing about the intersection of the animal and human worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An inviting collection... infused with wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy." -- Publishers Weekly "Gorgeously composed, complexly affecting, and stunningly revelatory."-- Booklist (starred review) "An essential writer on nature, humanity, and loss. Macdonald fills her narratives with vivid descriptions of the wildlife that surrounds us."-- TIME "A profound meditation on life and freedom."-- Entertainment Weekly Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe, Praise for Vesper Flights Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, and Literary Hub "[E]xhilarating... No one describes the everyday natural world with greater power or beauty." -- Slate "Dazzling... Ms. Macdonald reminds us how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us, even as we continue to diminish it." -- Wall Street Journal "[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary writing about the intersection of the animal and human worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An inviting collection... infused with wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy." -- Publishers Weekly "Gorgeously composed, complexly affecting, and stunningly revelatory."-- Booklist (starred review) "An essential writer on nature, humanity, and loss. Macdonald fills her narratives with vivid descriptions of the wildlife that surrounds us."-- TIME "A profound meditation on life and freedom."-- Entertainment Weekly Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe, Praise for Vesper Flights Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times , Entertainment Weekly , TIME , and Literary Hub "Macdonald experiments with tempo and style, as if testing out different altitudes and finding she can fly at just about any speed, in any direction, with any aim she likes, so supple is her style. She writes about migration patterns and storms, nests as a metaphor for the domestic and the danger of using nature as metaphor at all. I was reminded of the goshawk, so thickly plumed, so powerful that it can bring down a deer, and yet it weighs only a few pounds. These are the very paradoxes of Macdonald's prose -- its lightness and force."-- Parul Sehgal, New York Times "[E]xhilarating... No one describes the everyday natural world with greater power or beauty." -- Slate "Dazzling... Ms. Macdonald reminds us how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us, even as we continue to diminish it." -- Wall Street Journal "For many this year, the great outdoors has been the great beyond, rendering it impossible to feel at one with nature. For this reason, Vesper Flights is essential reading right now. But it is also a book to relish at any time, both for its intelligence and grace, and its ability to edify and enchant in equal measure." -- Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis Star-Tribune "[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary writing about the intersection of the animal and human worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An inviting collection... infused with wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy." -- Publishers Weekly "Gorgeously composed, complexly affecting, and stunningly revelatory."-- Booklist (starred review) "An essential writer on nature, humanity, and loss. Macdonald fills her narratives with vivid descriptions of the wildlife that surrounds us."-- TIME "A profound meditation on life and freedom."-- Entertainment Weekly Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe, Praise for Vesper Flights "[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary writing about the intersection of the animal and human worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) ""An inviting collection... infused with wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy." -- Publishers Weekly Praise for H is for Hawk : "Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor's fierce essence--and her own--with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don't notice their astonishing engineering." -- New York Times Book Review (cover review) "Beautiful and nearly feral... H Is for Hawk reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well." -- New York Times "Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut." -- Chicago Tribune "Captivating and beautifully written, it's a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." -- People (Book of the Week) "One of the loveliest things you'll read this year . . . You'll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly "Dazzling." -- Vogue "Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." -- New Yorker "An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." -- Washington Post "Glows and burns." -- Wall Street Journal "Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." -- Boston Globe Author: Helen Macdonald Item Width: 5.5 in

Description

  1. Absolutely loved this book! Helen Macdonald’s writing is breathtaking—thoughtful, lyrical, and deeply moving. Each essay feels like a small masterpiece, blending nature, science, and personal reflection in a way that’s both profound and accessible. The hardcover edition is beautifully made, perfect for keeping on your shelf to revisit again and again. A must-read for anyone who loves nature writing or just beautiful prose. Highly recommend!

    Daniel Collins

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