The Comfort of Crows

August 7, 2023
New York Times columnist Renkl (Late Migrations) invites readers along on a year of loving outdoor observations in this gently moving memoir. In 52 essays—one per week—Renkl reflects on what she saw and experienced in her Nashville garden over the course of 2022, ruminations that sometimes give way to sense memories of urban parks, a borrowed cabin, and her childhood home in Alabama. Balancing lyrical descriptions of unusual insects and bird-feeder maintenance (“The only thing to do when a Cooper’s hawk stakes out a feeder is to take the feeder down.... The hawk and the owl must eat, too, I know, but I don’t wish to make their bloody work any easier”) with rigorous environmentalist queries, she nudges readers to interrogate their place in the natural world. Quandaries abound: Are people more important than the wild foxes made ill from poisons set out to kill their prey? Should people interfere to rescue a baby bird or let its natural predators claim it? Rather than answer those questions, Renkl lets them hang, leaving readers to think them through for themselves. This gorgeous reflection on humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the outdoors will transform the way readers interact with their own backyards. Agent: Kristyn Keene Benton, ICM/CAA. (Oct.)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly suggested that the author owned a cabin.

August 15, 2023
Serene reflections on the changes of the seasons. In her third book of essays, following Late Migrations and Graceland, At Last, Renkl turns her attention to her own backyard. In 52 chapters, she contemplates the changes that take place in the wild over the course of the four seasons. Although she views her life as a "linear narrative," she experiences the natural world as a "repeating pattern." Rather than writing about a single year, Renkl gathers bits from across several years, and offers insightful observations related to those repetitions. By immersing herself in the natural world, the author maintains that she is able to cope with the toxic politics of today's world--not to hide, but to achieve balance. Particularly during the early days of the pandemic, she found that while TV news was "full of terror," the trees were "full of music" from blue jays, chickadees, and redbirds. One polarizing topic that Renkl cannot avoid by a trip outdoors is climate change. Throughout, she discusses the shifts she witnessed in nature as a result, including the reduction in the bee population. This is one reason she does not use poisonous chemicals on her lawn and prefers planting wildflowers to maintaining a manicured landscape. "I can't change Americans' love affair with poison, and I can't solve the problems of climate change," she writes, "but I can plant a garden." Among the touching and relatable moments that nature lovers will appreciate are Renkl's memories of catching tadpoles in spring with her brother as a child in Alabama, the sound of summer thunderstorms and cicadas, and the unparalleled beauty of autumn light, "the loveliest light there is." Despite the death that comes with winter, which she once considered her least favorite season, she finds comfort that there "will always be a resurrection." A welcome escape from the hectic world.

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September 15, 2023
Renkl's book of 52 short essays written in the style of religious breviaries is designed to cover a year. She focuses largely on the flora and fauna around her Tennessee home, where she encounters an owl pellet, only to discover it is merely discarded vacuum fluff. At times, she casts back to the natural world of her Alabama childhood, when she picked berries amidst the rattlesnakes. While full of memories, her essays also fixate on the present--the COVID era, and the political landscape in particular. Renkl recalls feeling overwhelmed by child-rearing while she also mourns her currently empty nest, making for her assertion that one can ""want two contrary things at once."" Sprinkled liberally throughout are ""praise songs""--little sub-essays--one of which describes spying exquisite mole hands in a mound of coyote scat. These little extras, just like the epigrams at the beginning of each essay, pack an extra punch into this tidy volume billed as a ""literary devotional."" Indeed, readers can return to these pages often, through the seasons of their own lives.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.