Three In One: A Story of a Bird, a Woman, and a Man

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a really excellent memoir. The author was really vulnerable about herself and the impact her father's death had on her life. She just pretty much lays it all out there. For me, that would be tremendously hard to do.

Additionally, the way Macdonald writes about birds of prey and their habits, was just so interesting and fascinating. Hawking seemed like a romantic sort of hobby to me, but it is really a lot of work for the owner. The building of trust between human and bird is a tenuous thing.

There's another layer of the story which is basically an autobiography of T.H.White, author of "The Once and Future King". The way she ties his story to her story was done pretty much seamlessly.

Her language is lovely:

"Looking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don't get to say when or how"

I highly recommend this book to the avid reader.


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