Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Join us as we discuss Helen Macdonald’s book, Vesper Flights, for this month’s interactive online book club. Macdonald, author of the award winning book H is for Hawk, offers a compilation of essays chronicling her astute observations about the natural world. Friends of China Camp naturalist Harold Hirsch will lead our online group discussion via Zoom.

Excerpt from Amazon.com:

Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves. In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife. By one of this century’s most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.

Date: Sunday, February 28

Time: 7pm – 8pm

Venue: Zoom meeting (details emailed once space is reserved )

REGISTER HERE

Space limited; reservations required.

Free (donations encouraged)

Questions?  Contact programs@friendsofchinacamp.org or call (415) 456-0766.

Cancellations notified via email.