Book of Birds
Spells and prose set against Jackie Morris watercolours, rigorous about ornithology and unembarrassed about wonder. The follow-up to The Lost Words, made for reading aloud.
Macfarlane and the painter Jackie Morris follow The Lost Words with a book devoted entirely to birds, spells and prose set against Morris’s watercolours. Rigorous about ornithology and unembarrassed about wonder, made for reading aloud. Seven years in the making, it addresses each bird directly as a subject rather than describing it as an object, which turns identification into something closer to greeting.
Recommended by 1 Person
Maria Popova
It is love that radiates from the pages of Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris’s exquisite Book of Birds (public library) — a passionate and rigorous subjectifying of the wonder of the winged, seven years in the making, part field guide and part ode, animated by an I/Thou relationship that implicates both reader and read by addressing each bird directly as a subject rather than explicating an object.
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