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Title: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers : A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos ISBN: 0-446-67749-3 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.88 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Perched in the soul...
Comment: ...From the second line of the Emily Dickinson poem that both inspired Cokinos and gave him his title for the book. It is only natural that a poet would look to Dickinson and it is appropriate that it is this form which guides this book. HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS is indeed a poetic and lyrical description of the symbolic significance of six vanished species of North American birds.
The Carolina parakeet, Heath Hen, Great Auk, Passenger pigeon, Labrador duck and Ivory-billed woodpecker have with their passing come to represent for Cokinos a lot more than simply another group of vanished species. They are emblematic of lost time, effort, habitat, environment, and are missing slice of life. Poignant as his descriptions of their loss is, there is always an element of hope that suffuses each of his chapters.
Cokinos with this book successfully blends history with a little bit of biology and adds just enough personal observation and insight. The mix works and his writing is excellent. There is enough science here to satisfy those who wish to remain at a respectable distance. For those who don't mind getting close there is sufficient reason - through what these birds represent about our past and future on this planet - to allow them to come and perch in your soul.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellen Book with tons of information
Comment: Cokinos, an amateur birder, explores the life histories and conservation problems of North America's extinct birds, and then visits some of the famous zoos and nesting sites that marked the end of a species. Each section is filled with personal stories about the birds to give the reader a better feel for how the birds reacted to their habitats.
The book covers the Passenger Pigeon, Heath Hen, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Labrador Duck and Great Auk. Every birder has seen large flocks of Cedar Waxwings practically stripping all the berries from a tree- but imagine a flock of 3,000 Passenger Pigeons (considerably larger than a Mourning Dove, and much noisier) flying into a forest and deciding to nest there. That would be a small colony. It was the most populous bird on earth just a hundred years ago- and now it's gone.
The book is filled with interesting, and sometimes witty stories that will keep the reader from closing the cover. Sometimes, though, Cokinos drags on with information that doesn't seem necessary to the rest of the text- but this, by no means, should discourage you from buying the novel. I definitely recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: A wonderful book - definitely required reading
Comment: Although it chronicles several chapters of bull-headed human stupidity, this book also documents the painstaking efforts of the many people who worked hard to save these vanished creatures, and offers some hope that the future need not repeat the past. At times sad, but also funny, and even joyful despite the material.
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Title: The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul ISBN: 0374246645 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker by James T. Tanner ISBN: 0486428370 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul ISBN: 0865475911 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Silent Sky : The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon by Allan W. Eckert ISBN: 0595089631 Publisher: Backinprint.com Pub. Date: 28 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Feather Quest : A North American Birder's Year by Peter Dunne ISBN: 0395927900 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 30 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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