The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
Written by Margaret Renkl
Narrated by Margaret Renkl
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a “howling love letter to the world” (Ann Patchett): a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.
In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.
Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”
With fifty-two original color artworks by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.
Margaret Renkl
Margaret Renkl is the author of Graceland, At Last and Late Migrations, which was a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show book club selection. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly. Her work has also appeared in Guernica, Literary Hub, Proximity, and River Teeth, among others. She was the founding editor of Chapter 16, the daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee, and is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina. She lives in Nashville.
More audiobooks from Margaret Renkl
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Comfort of Crows
Related audiobooks
Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5George: A Magpie Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chronic Resilience: 10 Sanity-Saving Strategies for Women Coping with the Stress of Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Council of Dolls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hawk's Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Bunny: How a ""Talking"" Dog Taught Me Everything I Need to Know About Being Human Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Creep: Accusations and Confessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excuse Me While I Disappear: Tales of Midlife Mayhem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sad Happens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Earth Sciences For You
Krakatoa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salt: A World History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Underland: A Deep Time Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Socialism: Utopian and Scientific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized To Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Traverse: Tragedy and Resilience in the Winter Whites Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Children's Blizzard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forces of Nature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of the El Faro Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cascadia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where You'll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the Last Climb of Kate Matrosova Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Young Men and Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assembling California Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Humans Nearly Vanished: The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Comfort of Crows
23 ratings0 reviews