Better Living Through Birding
Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Ratings4
Average rating4.5
15
Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Ratings4
Average rating4.5
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
“Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World
A Washington Post and Chicago Public LibraryBest Book of the Year • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.
Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.
Reviews with the most likes.
Loved it. So much more than I thought it would be. While the author is happy to describe birds and the adventures and process of birding, this memoir delves into not just experiences of racism, one of which brought him to public attention, but also growing up a sci-fi nerd, coming out as gay, fleeting and romantic entanglements, queer and Black activism, working at Marvel comics, world travels, spirituality, relationships with and deaths of parents. A resiliently joyful read.
Highly recommend the audio book as it includes bird song/sounds! Perfect for walks in the park.
⚠️suicidal ideation, homophobia, racism, the author never quite couches it in these terms, but it appeared to me that there was a history of verbal/psychological child abuse in earlier years as a result of his father's rages, even if the relationship was healed/improved later
