Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir

Available
Product Details
Price
$18.95  $17.62
Publisher
Douglas & McIntyre
Publish Date
Pages
256
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.4 X 0.8 inches | 0.8 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781771622486

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.

Become an affiliate
About the Author

Julia Zarankin is a writer and self-proclaimed birdsplainer with a particular fondness for sewage lagoons. Her writing has appeared in The Walrus, Orion Magazine, Threepenny Review, Antioch Review, Birding Magazine, Maisonneuve, The New Quarterly, Ontario Nature and The Globe and Mail. Zarankin's essays are also featured in several anthologies. She won the Eden Mills Writers' Festival nonfiction prize and has been first runner-up for PRISM International's nonfiction prize, a finalist for the TNQ Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest and twice longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize. Her birding/life aspirations: "To sport the hairdo of a Cedar Waxwing, acquire the wardrobe of a Northern Flicker and develop the confidence of a Ross's Goose." She lives in Toronto, ON.

Reviews

"...one of the best books of the year." --Kenn Kaufman

"Charming and funny memoir." --Margaret Atwood

"Life-affirming, thoughtful, and thoroughly delightful, this book celebrates self-acceptance and the joy of living an unexpected life." --Kirkus Reviews

"This sense of wonder in the ordinary permeates Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder, a thoughtful, engaging and sometimes humorous memoir." --Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Everyone who loves birds has arrived at their interest by a unique route, but few can describe their journey with the eloquence that Julia Zarankin brings to this sparkling memoir. With humor and poignancy, she tells a deeply personal story that manages to shine a light on universal themes." --Kenn Kaufman, author of A Season on the Wind and Kingbird Highway

"Bird watchers will adore this painting of their craft, while other readers might be tempted to raise their eyes and perk their ears to better see and hear the birds." --Aron Row, Portland Book Review

"This moving, quirky memoir isn't about birds so much as falling in love with the world, its everyday wonders and absurdities. With refreshing candour and curiosity, Julia Zarankin shows us how to pay attention--to what we hope to see, and above all, to the unexpected." --Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders

"Julia Zarankin is a delight, and so is her witty, charming, self-deprecating memoir, Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder. By turns hilarious and moving, it traces Julia's journey--almost against her will--into the world of birds and birding, where she ultimately finds a reflection of herself in the feathered migrants by which she becomes enthralled." --Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind

"A love song to the beauty of birding and a reminder that we should all spend more time looking up." --Anne Bokma, author of My Year of Living Spiritually

"I found the book to be a most enjoyable read, with multiple benefits including plenty of miles following along with the author on her birding adventures, both of us gaining insight as she goes." --Jim Lyons, Golden Eagle Audubon Society