Hi bookworms, how goes it? Anything going on in your neck of the woods? So far we’ve had mild and windy conditions here the past month, and you can see from this sunset picture that all the leaves are down.
We might even go for a bike ride later today since it’s supposed to be more than 60 degrees in the afternoon. It’s all pretty warm for our parts now. Just last week, I had the snow tires put on the car to get ready for the season, but who knows when the snow will actually hit.
Even the bears are still out and about. My husband and brother-in-law saw this family of a mama grizzly and three cubs last week when they went hiking in the local mountains. They were in the car and not on the trail at the time. A police officer told them that the bears had been seen along that stretch of road all summer.
It’s good the bears are all right and have not been hit by a car. When you see an amazing family like that, you definitely stop the car and watch them amble along, minding their own business. The cubs are getting big as you can see. Soon I hope they’ll be hibernating in a den and away from the road.
Meanwhile the Booker Prize winner will be announced Monday night. It could be a surprise pick or not. The judges seem to like to trick us, right?
I’ll wait to hear as I’ll be recovering from my knee replacement surgery that very day, argh. There’s nowhere to hide now. I’ve waited on a surgery list for almost two years and now the time has come. I’ll try to be brave. I offer this photo of a 1000-piece puzzle on rescue dogs that I finally finished after it was on our dining room table all summer long. I left it there in frustration as I couldn’t get much going on it for long a while. Then in October inspiration struck, lol.
And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald / Grove / 288 pages / 2015
This popular memoir was first published in the U.K. back in 2014 and then in North America in 2015. It was big then … about an English professor at Cambridge, a falconer, who details her year of training a young goshawk bird all the while navigating her grief over her father’s sudden death from a heart attack.
Many of you have read this one, and I had started it at various times but then got waylaid. So when Kathy at the blog Reading Matters reviewed it so favorably in August, I decided to add it back to my list. I thought it might help with my own father’s passing earlier this year.
My Thoughts: 4 stars. I loved the adventures the author has with her goshawk Mabel, especially when Mabel starts flying in wild habitats with the author following in dogged pursuit. Mabel is quite the hunter (as a bird of prey) and every pheasant and rabbit should beware … many end up dead in the book. I also liked hearing about how Macdonald comes to understand the bird and the training they go through, which is very gradual over time. The descriptions of Mabel and the woodlands where she thrives are terrific. And it’s evident how Macdonald’s time with Mabel helps her with the grief over losing her father, which is palpable.
I was less drawn to the parts she writes about of the author T.H. White and his 1951 bird-training book The Goshawk, which Macdonald draws parallels to throughout her memoir. White seemed to be fighting his own demons and for some reason these extensive parts in Macdonald’s memoir distracted me from the parts about Mabel that I wished to get back to. I could have used less about T.H. White and more about how her pursuits helped with her grief over her father, which could’ve been talked about a bit more.
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by the author who reads it wonderfully. I’m late to the party on this book but better late than never. It’s interesting to note that I have the ebook, the paperback copy, and the audio of this memoir (a trifecta of sorts), so I really wanted to get to it.
Also I had no idea there is the film H is for Hawk coming out this December (with wider release in January) with Claire Foy as Helen Macdonald. Yay! Author Emma Donoghue was a co-writer on the screenplay. Here is a peek at the trailer for it.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this and what did you think? What are you reading now?
Weather is everything in November. I just walked in the small amount of snow which is now turning to slush. Big splats are falling from the still-autumn-leafy trees. Clouds are not pretty today — grey and overhanging. Good luck with the weather where you are!