There is something about getting back out to nature -- especially when we are at home right now -- that is so appealing and calming. While it might be harder to escape right now, this collection of short essays will at least allow you to imagine you're breathing in fresh air, listening to bird call, and getting away from the rest of the world for a little while.

Vesper Flights has essays about nature -- trees, volcanoes, many kinds of birds. And those essays are really good. Learning about research on the environment and how quickly the physical world is changing, the birds that fly above the Empire State Building and how lights can have a negative effect on migrating birds, and the vesper flights of the swifts who sleep 10,000 feet in the air while flying was interesting, and I really enjoyed learning new things about the natural world around us.

But I found the human elements of the story even more magical. From "Inspector Calls" about an 8-year-old boy with autism who forms a deep connection with the author's parent during a house tour to "Goats," a sweet and funny memory about the author's late father and a goat, when the author shared specific stories about her own personal (human) experiences, I just felt more connected with what she was sharing and found it endearing.

I also appreciated the social commentary she shared in her essays. The most poignant was probably in the essay titled "Vesper Flights," where she talks about the swifts that take these vesper flights as a flock to and who rely on each other for their immediate and long-term safety. She says: "Swifts are my fable of community, teaching us about how to make right decisions in the face of oncoming bad weather, in the face of clouds that sit like dark rubble on our own horizon." Working together for the betterment of the community as a whole is an important message, especially for where we are in society today. Perhaps if we took our influence from nature, we'd have a better chance of breaking through some of this chaos and changing things for the better.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. It did not influence my opinion.

In a collection of essays that could only be written by someone with a history in the sciences, Macdonald accomplishes exactly what she says literature should do: she “shows us that we are living in an exquisitely complicated world that is not all about us” and at the same time communicates what the science means on a personal, social, and global level. As in H is for Hawk, Macdonald’s prose is rich and fluid and contemplative. There is much to absorb in each brief essay. While I did miss the linear narrative found in H is for Hawk, Vesper Flights is a skillful and satisfying read.

From the award-winning author of H is for Hawk, a brilliant and insightful work about our relationship to the natural world. Our world is a fascinating place, teeming not only with natural wonders that defy description, but complex interactions that create layers of meaning. Helen Macdonald is gifted with a special lens that seems to peer right through it all, and she shares her insights--at times startling, nostalgic, weighty, or simply entertaining--in this masterful collection of essays. From reflections on science fiction to the true story of an Iranian refugee's flight to the UK, Macdonald has a truly omnivorous taste when it comes to observations of both the banal and sublime. Peppered throughout are reminisces of her own life, from her strange childhood in an estate owned by the Theosophical Society to watching total eclipses of the sun, visits to Uzbek solar power plants, eccentric English country shows, and desert hunting camps in the Gulf States.

These essays move from personal experiences into wider meditations about love and loss and how we build the world around us. Whether more journalistic in tone, or literary--even formally experimental--each piece is generous, lyrical, and speaks to one another. Macdonald creates a strong thematic undertow that quietly takes the reader along piece to piece and sets them down, finally, at a place they've never been before. The inimitable Helen Macdonald returns in style with her unmistakable passion and enthusiasm for mother nature and the awe-inspiring natural world woven throughout the narratives. There are some real takeaways from this book and I know I will remember many of the interesting anecdotes for a long time to come. Relatable, raw, real and thought-provoking, this anthology truly cements Macdonald’s position as one of the most refreshingly original and profoundly perceptive writers of our time. Many thanks to Grove Press for an ARC.

My mother used to tell me that when I was a toddler, I used to say the word 'Pakhi' (Bengali for bird) and constantly watch the sparrows coming to the balcony. I grew up listening to beautiful Bengali songs about birds and observing them from the windows. There is something quite wonderful about watching wildlife around you, the silence and cacophony of living things growing and frolicking about all around you. You watch, you listen and you forget about the details later but you always remember the awe you felt seeing the sunsets, flights of the cranes, crows cocking their heads at you from the neighbour's tin roof. A beauty that we humans long for and yet keep destroying bit by bit. Vesper Flights took me back to my childhood, the constant wonder at all the fey beauty of nature. Helen McDonald writes with such haunting grief and awe, the shards of her emotions rush out and pierce into my heart.
This book is a collection of essays where the author reminisces about a variety pf topics from mushroom-picking in Suffolk, watching migratory birds plunge into and out of the night sky from the Empire State Building, starlings mistaken as angels in the radar system back during the war, birds attacking stuffed cuckoos and so many other strange and amazing things about our natural world. I wish I could describe more but I really can't do justice to this beautiful book.
Highly recommended for nature lovers and people seeking beauty in the world around us. Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the e-ARC.
(Just a tiny issue: the .mobi format was a bit hard to read in the sense that it was difficult to differentiate the essays based on the topics. There was no clear heading.)
But I am definitely going to get the physical copy for myself. A must-add to your bookshelves.

For fans of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, this book is very much a naturalists exploration of the world around you.

This is like having a long conversation with an intelligent, knowledgeable friend. It rambles a little bit but is always worthwhile. Eventually it has to end, but you are already looking forward to your next meeting. A lovely book to be treasured and enjoyed. Have fun with this.

I’ve never read anything like this before. Macdonald writes about the natural world and the way it has been infused with so many historically-contingent, contextualized, derived meanings. She also writes of her own feelings about nature and why it resonates with her. Along the way, you contemplate categories of social and scientific thought (“concepts of same, and different, and series”). It’s rare to read a book that makes all these connections with wonder, rather than cynicism or self-congratulation, but it's awe and wonder which drive this book.

I read more fiction than essays, but these essays had the draw I find in fiction. Full of character and revelation. I wanted to know how each essay would end, but I was also happy to just sit with and enjoy what I was reading.

Like many other readers, I loved Helen Macdonald's memoir, H is for Hawk, and for that reason I was excited to pick up this new collection of essays. And what a lovely collection it proved to be. The content varies—there are musings on migratory patterns, essays about particular species of birds (I learned a lot about swifts!), stories of Macdonald's time working on a secluded farm, and even a short anecdote involving her dad accidentally getting aggressive with a goat. Truly, something for everyone.

There isn't as strong of a sustained emotional core as we see in H is for Hawk, but the same curious, earnest spirit is there, along with Macdonald's subtle humor and wit. I truly enjoyed each of these forty-one treasures and I'm looking forward to getting a physical copy soon so I can share it with some of my nature-loving family members.

(A small note on the formatting of the Kindle version of this e-galley: most of the essays had no visible break at all to separate them. Often, the topic would drastically change mid-paragraph and I'd wonder what was going on, only to flip back to the table of contents and realize that I must have started the next piece in the collection. Once I got used to the fact that this was happening, I started being able to identify these shifts, but it definitely made things confusing at first.)

I have fallen in love with her writing. It's rich, vivid and lyrical. She invited you to come in and sit for a while as she tells fascinating stories about aspects important to her. Flawlessly written this gem of a book deserves top spot on your TBR stack. A must read. Happy reading!

In this book, Helen Macdonald does a fantastic job of bringing the reader into the natural world with her rich, detailed descriptions and she helps us imagine what it might be like to experience that world from completely different perspective. In several personal examples, Macdonald reveals how nature and wildlife can shape us whether by finding solace in a quiet wood, identifying a part of ourselves from watching and studying a bird, or being acknowledged and comforted by another animal. Wild animals and their habitats offer plentiful allegories that can help us understand our relationship with the world and others in it. However, even more important than seeing ourselves in the nature and other animals is seeing them as their own entities.

Macdonald fiercely calls for us to put aside our anthropocentric mindset and imagine what the world might be like for another species. Only by thinking outside of ourselves can we begin to understand many important aspects of nature (or human development) that we take for granted. For instance, Macdonald examines the effects that major cities with their lights and skyscrapers have on birds. She also explores how the practice of feeding birds may affect their flight patterns. Through interesting interviews, compelling adventures, and personal accounts, Macdonald demands that we consider our human impact on the natural world. This book will make a pleasurable read for the nature lover, but we should all read it to gain a better perspective of the world we not only live in but share with numerous other animals and lifeforms.

I got an ARC of this book.

I need to be clear, this book is amazingly written and it would probably be the exact sort of book that some of my friends would like. It just didn’t work for me. This is all on me.

The writing is gorgeous. This is the second book by Macdonald that I have read. Well, the first was an audio book. It is THE audio book I suggest to everyone who is looking for something that is peaceful. It is the best audio book I have ever listened to, because Macdonald read it and she has the best voice for her books. They match perfectly. If I had been listening to this as an audio book, I have no doubts I would have fallen in love with it. The words always felt exactly right and they described things in a way that brought magic to them. Some of the time I was brought into the magic, but I missed it a lot.

I expected this to be more memoir and less nerding out over nature. I can get behind some serious nerding, the section about hunting for mushrooms was fascinating. I would have loved to read more about mushrooms and how she got involved in hunting them. I think the issue was, I just wasn’t as excited as I should have been about the nerding out. I think the audio would have given me that level of excitement. Again it comes down to the medium. The written book just isn’t for me, despite how cool some of the passages are. It just felt like I was slogging through and the only reason I can pinpoint is that it was written and not verbal. Even during the nerding sessions, which were many, Macdonald had a clear voice and it never felt like I was being talked down to. There was this assumption that her passion was shared which I love. I learned so much about birds in H is for Hawk. I learned a lot about a lot of things in this one. It just didn’t hit me emotionally the same way.

This felt a bit more disjointed than I was expecting. I think it was because it was a collection of writings instead of one big piece. This is again, my issue, the description and the table of contents were very clear that this was a collection of writings.

Overall, I am sad that I missed getting the audio book. Macdonald is a wonderful author and her twitter is one that I am amused by. All the birds and the excitement that I came to imagine she is surround by is evident. I will try this again as an audio book when I can find it, I think Macdonald might just be the best audio book author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for an eARC of this terrific, learned, and pointed book.

This collection of 41 short essays by the author of H is for Hawk takes some time to begin having an impact. A few of the first very short essays feel rushed to make a point, but end up not doing that at all. Nevertheless, Vesper Flights begins to pick up weight and power as MacDonald shifts around to show her amazing knowledge and wonder at the world, adding political and social dimensions that set this book far apart and above its peers. The title essay left me breathless with MacDonald’s descriptions of groups of swifts fly higher and higher on summer evenings, eventually going too high to see or be heard. Vesper Flights the book has several passages that bring human perceptions of the spiritual to our natural surroundings, but Vesper Flights the essay makes this connection concretely real.

Perhaps unfairly, even though the book is perhaps 3/4 devoted to essays involving birds, I still wanted more. And we have to wait until very near the end to get a mention of Mabel, the goshawk from H is for Hawk, amid beautiful and insightful writing that wrestles with all of the meaning that we as humans ascribe to all things capital-N-Nature.

One can’t look past the number of times that MacDonald laments the loss of numerous species of animals from their former haunts that are now the province of settled humans. She also points out how small things that humans do in order to take greater pleasure in the animal kingdom can utterly change the behavior of entire types of birds through, for example, the popularity of bird feeders in England.

Vesper Flights is a wondrous, troubling, amazing book.

I regret that I've never gotten around to reading H is for Hawk so I jumped at the chance to read Macdonald's latest book, Vesper Flights--a collection of essays that are mostly personal memoir and how she came to be so in love with the natural world around her, but also sprinkled with tidbits of British history and modern day politics. Her experiences and thoughts on birds, nature and the environment are fascinating. Is our ignorance of what we are doing to the Earth rather like frogs in a pot of water not noticing that it is reaching the boiling point? Let us fall in love with nature ourselves and take action to improve things before it is too late.

As I have mentioned before, I am fascinated by titles of books and 'vesper flights' in this case refers to the amazing flights of swifts on summer evenings as they arise higher and higher into the air en masse as if summoned by a call. Lovely vision.

I received an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A heartfelt thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To say that I deeply enjoyed reading this book would be an understatement. I was enthralled. Helen Macdonald has not only a profound understanding of the natural world but also great communication skills that make her an extraordinary storyteller. Her writing is as evocative as it is thrilling, and spellbinding prose paints a fantastic world full of sounds and wonder. Vesper Flights is a revelation of the magic that exists all around us, and to which many, myself included, are impervious either because of ignorance or lack of interest. The book is as moving as it is informative, and it is narrated with a familiar, easy-to-follow style.

Macdonald doesn't only show you what you don't see, she also draws connections between that fascinating world and our own identities, from her first-hand experiences, making her essays both timeless and painfully contemporary: "And as the weeks of this summer draw on, I can't help but think that this is the weather we are all now made of. All of us waiting. Waiting for news. Waiting for Brexit to hit us. Waiting for the next revelation about the Trump administration. Waiting for hope, stranded in that strange light that stills our hearts before the storm of history.".

As she wrote in what is one of the most beguiling quotations, "So often we think of mindfulness, of existing purely in the present moment, as a spiritual goal. But winter woods teach me something else: the importance of thinking about history. They are able to show you the last five hours, the last five days, the last five centuries, all at once. [...] In them, potentiality crackles in the winter air.". And this is exactly what she accomplishes in this collection of essays.

Well, this is unfortunate.

I want to preface my haven't-managed-to-finish-this-one-and-have-decided-to-set-it-aside-for-now review with the caveat that, with the virus, all of us are likely experiencing some dramatic changes in our reading habits and desires. Which is part of the reason I'm giving a book that I cannot finish a (current, for the moment, in case I return to it) three star rating, when most that I can't finish get less than that or none at all. That, and the luminous writing.

Although these altered states of reading are heightened by COVID, it remains that we all go through these states even in non-virus times. I'd like to think this one would appeal more at a different time, but it's difficult to say. It could appeal more to so many people right now for it's slow, lush tones and coziness, which are the things that I simultaneously liked and were ultimately the reasons, I think, that I just kept repeatedly not picking it back up.

I requested an ARC of this one from Grove Atlantic not only because I read and loved H is for Hawk, but I was so excited by it that I'd even special-ordered it from the UK before it was available and really took off here. Although I love books of essays, I have to wonder whether the difference between these and the one-piece memoir narrative of H is part of its attraction.

As soon as I began reading Vesper, I began highlighting passages, such as:

"What science does is what I would like more literature to do too: show us that we are living in an exquisitely complicated world that is not all about us. It does not belong to us alone. It never has."

It's weird to proclaim love for the language and ideas and philosophy, and yet... just not be compelled to return to the book. Which is why I'm not convinced I won't eventually feel in the right headspace to return to this in the future; it's just that I've tried for several weeks now and haven't made it past the first quarter mark. If escaping into contemplative, gorgeous, and slower reading is what you need right now, though, don't hesitate to consider this one.

Helen Macdonald’s "H is for Hawk" has been called “an instant classic,” “beautiful…[reminding} us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times). In "Vesper Flights," her new collection of new and previously published essays (The New York Times, The New Statesman, others), she turns her poet-naturalist’s eye to people (“Field Guides”), places (“Winter Woods,” “Dispatches From the Valleys,”) and things (mostly birds, of course, including falcons once again, and other animals, such as ants, hares, goats). Her title essay presents a lyrical look at swifts, who rise from their daytime dens to the early evening sky, fittingly coinciding with the Christian canonical service. What a special treat it is to see the world through Helen Macdonald’s eyes once again!

I loved Helen Macdonald's book, H is for Hawk, and was excited to read this new piece. She is a fantastic writer. Vesper Flights was filled with essays that are rich and mesmerizing to read, capturing the spirit of nature so eloquently. Gorgeous collection.

While I don't think anything can really touch the masterpiece that was H is for Hawk, this collection of essays is very well written and would be a great recommendation for any fans of nature writing, especially fans of Sy Montgomery. I especially liked "Nests," "Tekels Park," "Winter Woods," "Eclipse," "Deer in the Headlights," "A Cuckoo in the House," "Birds, Tabled," and "The Numinous Ordinary." When Macdonald combines her nature writing with cultural and/or historical commentary, I think this collection is at its best. I, like many others, am getting tired of reading depressing and pessimistic accounts of how climate change is killing everything, including us, but I recognize that it is important and necessary for any collection which focuses on the natural world to include this reality. To ignore the effect of climate change in a book of nature writing would be irresponsible and render the picture painted incomplete. But for those who are tired of reading that kind of thing, I would say that it isn't necessarily a heavy-handed theme in this collection; and Macdonald gives us reason to hope as well. Overall I was not disappointed.

You might be temped to swallow this slim volume of essays and notes in a single gulp but don't. Slow down and treat it like a short story collection- dip in and out- and you'll appreciate the lessons Macdonald is giving even more. She's fascinated by nature; birds are her particular interest but she also thinks about mammals. And spring. It's a thoughtful and beautifully written book. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This was just what I needed during this pandemic summer inside.

If you love the natural world you will love this book. The author's descriptive essays allow you to feel as if you are following along with her as she explores and discovers the world around us.
The copy I was given through NetGalley had some issues with the separation of the essays, so I found it a bit difficult to read. I would love to read it again in print form.