March Book Club – March 18th
March 18 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Join us as we discuss Graeme Gibson’s The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany, Reprinted in 2021 with a foreword by Gibson’s wife and writer, Margaret Atwood. Atwood writes: “What he was after [in this book] was the many ways birds have affected people throughout many centuries and many cultures.”
And Gibson himself explains: “It is about the richly varied and sometimes very intimate relationships that we have established with them [avian life] during the hundreds of thousands of years that we have shared life on earth.”
Many good bird books have been published in recent years, but this 20 year labor of love is different. Canadian novelist and birdwatcher Gibson has assembled all manner of artistic forms that our affinity for birds have been expressed in; paintings, poems, essays, stories, creation myths, scientific observations and even recipes. Contributors are legion: ancient and modern, primitive and accomplished, famous and obscure…. Gibson’s own graceful and erudite essays are as satisfying as are the other texts and illustrations. The literature is as diverse as Ovid, Thomas Hardy, Kafka, Thoreau and T.S. Eliot. Birds figure charmingly and tellingly in the work of such nature writers as Gilbert White, Peter Matthiessen, Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez. The book contains more than 100 stunning images of birds depicted in bestiaries, folk art, ancient sculpture and works of artists such as Audubon, Landsdowne, and Catesby.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) which judged this a Best Book of the Year states: “Put this on your list for those who love birds, for those who appreciate fine writing and beautiful art, and for those who wish to accompany a noble mind on a journey into the heart of things.”
We meet the third Wednesday of the month through April at Hope Lutheran Church, Room 123 from 6:30 to 7:45 PM. We will meet this month on March 18th and hope to see you there. If you have any questions please call or email Hilary Johnson at (406) 599-1446 or ralphhilary@gmail.com. To join virtually please email Sarah Paulos ahead of time at Sarahmarilynpaulos@gmail.com.