Better Living Through Birding
Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
“Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World
A Washington Post and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.
Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Christian Cooper isn’t your average bird-watcher, and in this insightful, entertaining memoir, he describes his extraordinary life in the outdoors. Cooper got 15 minutes of unwanted fame in 2020 when a video of him being confronted by a racist woman in Central Park went viral, but this book draws us into his rich journey before and after that incident. The debut author shares his passion for bird-watching and his profound observations on how these remarkable creatures shape his view of the world. We also learn about his experiences growing up Black and gay and his political activism, along with how he introduced a gay character into the Star Trek canon, found romance in Argentina, and mended his broken relationship with his father. You don’t have to love birds to get caught up in this remarkable true story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cooper, a Black birder who first gained media attention after sharing a video of him being falsely accused by a white woman of threatening her in Central Park in 2020, debuts with a lively, thoughtful memoir in which he defines himself by the hobby he was pursuing the afternoon he made headlines. Identifying himself as a "Black gay activist birder," Cooper recounts his longtime love for the winged creatures, nurtured during his Long Island childhood and college years at Harvard. With colorful and sometimes snarky commentary ("southern screamer" birds are "not to be confused with a vocal Alabamian in the throes of excitement"), Cooper reflects on how his hobby provided skills, including sensory sharpness he's since deployed at protests and other potentially hostile confrontations, that have helped him navigate the world as a gay Black man. In addressing the Central Park incident, he elegantly frames it within both his own bird-focused narrative and a broader conversation about racism and police brutality: "I have lived my whole life as a Black man in the United States. I don't have to go all the way back to Tulsa and Rosewood and Emmett Till to know what it means for a white woman to accuse a Black man, and who would likely be believed." These more sweeping arguments are never made with a cudgel; instead, they organically emerge from his captivating personal story. Meanwhile, his passion for birding could make hobbyists of even the most avian-agnostic. This rewarding memoir adds heft and heart to the headlines.
Customer Reviews
a rare bird
i was a little daunted in the beginning of the book by the somewhat analytical birding descriptions, but that soon gives way to an account of a truly remarkable life that i found challenging to put down. Christian’s work at marvel comics and his time in social justice i found especially engaging.