Welcome to Litsy!

I enjoyed this - a story of a grey seal that spends the summer of 1961 in a Dorset cove, playing with the locals and holiday-makers. I found the change in attitudes to today quite fascinating- the author‘s main concern is that the seal will get shot. I don‘t think a book - or experience- like this one could happen today.

#bookspin (for February), #SomethingAboutAnimals #NonFiction2021, #Booked2021 #ContainsPhotos

A very interesting book: interweaving themes of legal and illegal global pet trade, cultural insights from Asia and South America, biology, and a hard look at human greed, especially that of wealthier countries, leading to a decrease in species and habitats. The “dragon” is the wildly valuable arowana aquarium fish, which the author unexpectedly finds herself tracking and researching almost obsessively.
#Nonfiction2021 #somethingaboutanimals

“There is something religious about the activity of looking up at a hawk in a high tree. It turns one‘s eyes up to the heavens”

I always assumed this book was a grief memoir, but it‘s MUCH MORE than that. Part nature journal, part academic literary analysis, Helen Macdonald seamlessly transitions from man to bird to depression to loneliness with stunning prose. I definitely believe hearing Helen read her book elevated the memoir.