Haupt is an exceptionally good writer/stylist. Oddly, she chose her topic bec. her editor essentially asked her to take it on.

The book is of interest to anyone who is aware that we only observe a narrow slice of our daily lives. ( )

Not exactly what I expected. I thought the entire focus of the book would be on crows but in fact I think the main focus of the book was how this woman, or how you can become a backyard or urban naturalist. ( )

This book isn't really about crows. It is about becoming an urban naturalist and exploring the space around you. I enjoyed it very much. And it will mmake me pause a bit on my neighborhood walks and do some observing of my own. ( )

nonfiction; memoir of a ornithologist. I guess I thought this would be more about, you know, crows? And I know there is a lot of info about these animals in here, I just didn't feel like wading that far in. I do respect the author though, for writing the thing whilst recovering from clinical depression (or "seeing and feeling too much," as her therapist put it)--a major accomplishment by any means, but yeah, I guess I was expecting something else. ( )

“Most of us in urban and suburban places live, however unwittingly, in a multilayered zoöpolis.”

In a lopsided, human-dominated world, crows flourish alongside us when other species are reduced by our proximity.

I picked the book up at Powell’s when I was in Portland, and when I started reading it I was initially disappointed that it wasn’t primarily about crows. It’s a bit memoir, a bit rumination on being an urban naturalist, a bit reflection on ecology and the human role in nature, and only partly about crows. It rambles at times and is very personal in tone, but there are also passages that are startling and telling. For instance, “In our everyday lives, we see remarkably little evidence in support of the obvious fact that all living things die.”

Recommended.

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