Reading Recommendation

If our lives become circumscribed, what can we make of them? If we stop looking to the exotic to dazzle us, can we find splendour within the small sphere of our neighbourhoods? If we slow down enough, stop distracting ourselves, pay attention to what is in front of us, might our lives become even richer and more beautiful? Can a small life be a majestic one?

Birds Art Life is an exquisite meditation on the peaceful beauty that can be found when we devote ourselves to simply noticing. It is also, for anyone looking to write a memoir, a fabulous lesson in structure and how to 'contain' large ideas into small, manageable pieces. It is also a wonderful example of how a quiet story can also be majestic one.

The vehicle for Kyo Maclear's exploration is a year-long dedication to birding in her urban home of Toronto, but this isn't a book about birds so much as it is an invitation to look up and connect to the quiet grandeur that is within reach of all of us, every day, everywhere, always.

It's also gorgeously written. A literary gift.

From the book jacket:

Birds Art Life celebrates the particular madness of chasing after birds in the urban environment and explores what happens when the core lessons of birding are applied to other aspects of art and life. Moving with ease between the granular and the grand, peering into the inner landscape as much as the outer one, this is a deeply personal year-long inquiry into big themes: love, waiting, regrets, endings. If Birds Art Life was sprung from Maclear’s sense of disconnection, her passions faltering under the strain of daily existence, this book is ultimately about the value of reconnection—and how the act of seeking engagement and beauty in small ways can lead us to discover our most satisfying and meaningful lives.