I am an unabashed and terrible birder of 30 plus years. I'm never looking at the right part of the bird to make the right identification. Nonetheless, I love it. I was interested to read Mr. Cooper's journey as a birder, but the book is so much more than that. It's an autobiography that traces his life from an adolescent boy wrestling with his homosexuality through his (somewhat) hedonistic life as a young man with his dream job in the graphic novel industry, to the Central Park birding incident tat catapulted his face into the news (and changed his life). Through it all weaves the changing landscape of his relationship with his father. So while birders may find his descriptions of birding interesting, those not interested in his journey of self-discovery may find too little birds, too much Christian in here. But Black people, birders from different underrepresented communities, and autobiography lovers will enjoy this well-written self-reflection.

I deeply enjoyed this* collection of stories about the life and antics of Christian Cooper. I learned so much about bird watching and the audiobook has the additional bonus of not only being read by Cooper but also including bird calls at the beginning of each chapter. The stories in this memoir are heartwarming, enraging, and full of good advice about life.

*the weird side chapter dedicated to dissing the police abolition movement through a paper thin straw man and limited enagement with the broader movement or acknowledgment of the movements Black origins felt extremely out of place to me. I think it also deeply dated this book and not necessarily in a good way.

Fantastic. Best nonfiction I read all year. Cooper is such a great storyteller, and for the audiobook, his narration is excellent with his energy and joy for life coming through.

It's not a book about birding, and I think many people will miss out on this because of the title. It's about life, love, friends and family, and passion. It's about all the wild paths that life can take you, and a little bit about what happened one fateful day when Cooper walked down one specific path.

I am not one to be into Birding. To be honest, I don't know many people who do this as a Birding hobby. But Christian Cooper, I do know of, and his story is something I know well and one that should be told: a Marvel comics lover, traveler, a birder, and a black man. Christian Cooper tells his story. I think he had an interesting take on life and the book style gives me more about what kind of man Christian is. It is not just about the black man who was in Central Park and accused by a white woman. It is so much more.

This book was not what I expected. I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. The title can be a bit deceiving. This is the story of Christian’s life with birding tips scattered in. I loved hearing about the life of someone who was “not famous” just living their life. Christian’s journey with his father was especially impactful for me.

This was astounding. Most of us know of him from one viral video, but I think we should all know him for the wildly interesting life he's had (and hopefully will now that he has his own show!). I never thought I would care about comics or birding, and yet they way he weaves both in with stories from his life had me mesmerized (and bonus that he's hilarious!). This book reads like a hike through the forest, and I highly recommend it!

Christian Cooper’s compelling voice throughout this book shows his experience as a storyteller. He effortlessly ties together such seemingly discordant topics of birding, writing comics, and life as a Black, gay nerd, in an open, entertaining, but still thought-provoking, way. His passion on any topic comes through, which is ironic considering his self-professed adoration of Mr. Spock and putting logic before emotion. I went into this book not knowing what to expect, and it’s now easily one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

Birding memoir with travel? Yes please! The book's story telling is very well done. Only a couple points were a bit slower for me but that didn't sour my experience. The humor and insights into nature and our world are not to be missed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy of this book.

I really loved this book. It was a wonderful mix of memoir and birding enthusiasm. I also liked that, for a change, this was not really a celebrity, but an ordinary person, who has had a interesting, but regular, life. He wove in anecdotes about race, life, his life as a gay nerd, all into his enthusiasm and expertise in birding. Wonderfully done, and very easy to read, even for someone like me who enjoys birds but knows nothing about them except they are like tiny dinosaurs.

At times it felt like I was reading two entirely separate stories, but it ended up not mattering. Whether talking about his life or his birding adventures, Cooper had me hooked. This well-written, engaging informational memoir will cater to birders and the uninitiated alike with its charm and honesty. I found myself emotionally connecting with multiple aspects of his story, whether celebrating new freedoms or mourning familial losses.

Better Living Through Birding is a thoughtful, informative, and reflective read by Christian Cooper. While he may have achieved notoriety in an infamous moment, Christian's life is filled with unique, distinctive experiences that he guides and teaches the reader about in intimate, intelligent prose. By the end of reading, I was left wanting to read more about his perspective and experiences, and would love to read more from him and continue to learn from him. Highly recommended to those who may be interested in birding or those looking to read a well-written memoir. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Autobiographies can be hit or miss but this one was a winner for me, one of those books where you look up and you've read 200 pages. Christian Cooper is probably one of the most well known birders around, and I can't imagine too many who are more passionate on the subject.

His autobiography starts with a reference to the event that made him famous; a woman visiting New York's Central Park with her unleashed dog became upset with him because he asked her to leash her dog. I was tickled when he photographed her and her dog right by the sign that said that leashes were required. He was there to see and hopefully photograph a rare bird for the area that another birder had spotted in this exact location. Migratory birds would frequently stop in the large park on their way elsewhere.

What captivated me so much about the book was Christian's enthusiasm and fascination with birds, as well as his stories about growing up with his family. Christian realized that he was was attracted to other boys from a very young age, something he knew made him different. Christian grew up with a volatile, short-tempered dad, peacekeeper mom, and a sister.

His father was a biology teacher, and the family spent a lot of holidays visiting National Parks. I was so envious about the cross-country trip all the way to California and into Canada. And everywhere they travelled Christian spotted birds, and surprised his family when he knew their names.

I highly recommend this appealing and interesting book about birds and how and when to watch them. I've already checked and there are plenty of birding groups in my area.

I received an e-ARC of this book from the author and publisher Random House via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed it.

This guy is incredible… he is so endearing and entertaining- he’s humble and fun. I’d like to go birding with him.

I'm glad he was able to take an awful incident and parlay it into a book to tell his story. I like reading about birds but even if I didn't, his story was interesting and fairly compelling. He did a good job tracing the nerdy threads of this life, current events and how they shaped him as a person.

I enjoyed reading Copper's story, and I applaud his generosity of spirit with regard to the woman who falsely claimed he was assaulting her in Central Park. But I was hoping the story would focus more about birding, and less on his sexuality.

Remember that awful case back in 2020 when a white woman called the police on a Black birder in Central Park? Christian Cooper sure does — it happened to him — but it’s just one piece of a much bigger story and an entertaining, thought-provoking book that celebrates nature, both wild and human, and offers life lessons we should all embrace.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an Advanced Readers Copy of Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper. I really like Cooper as a travel writer and his passion for birding really shone through his memoir.

You might know Christian Cooper as the Black birdwatcher who was verbally assaulted by a white woman in Central Park in a viral video. But I could tell right away from the first chapter of this book that Cooper is a very talented writer with a fascinating story that would have made for a great memoir without his unexpected viral moment. Cooper shares his travels and love of nature, tales of his time writing for Marvel, his experiences growing up in an a family full of activists and sci-fi nerds, and so much more. And through it all, of course, he ties everything back to birds. I've never been particularly drawn to birds, but I was completely drawn in by the way Christian Cooper talks about them. He does a fantastic job of showing what birds can teach us about ourselves and the world around us.

Memoirs are very much not my thing, generally, but I was intrigued by a book combining both birding (a casual but growing hobby for me), LGBTQ+ experience, and racism. I loved the interplay of bird facts, birding observations that were easily translatable to real lived experience, and snippets of Cooper's life. He has a fascinating background and offers the perfect amount of introspection as he details realizing he was queer as a child, working his dream career at Marvel, traveling the world, and navigating a tricky relationship with his parents. I found it poignant that the racism he endured in Central Park was relegated to the final chapters - he made it very clear that this one viral EVENT did not define his life. I appreciated the background he shared about his protesting and arrests, a passion for social justice handed down from his parents. Racial undercurrents line the majority of the stories Cooper shares as his Blackness is an integral part of his life. Being threatened by a specific white woman in the Ramble is just another blip in the radar. He's honest and direct, and has lived a robust life so far. I appreciated knowing more about him.

Honestly, it's probably a disservice to constantly introduce Christian Cooper as the Black birder from The Incident in Central Park 2020, but I understand that's going to bring many to the book who may not otherwise read it. This is a memoir of which The Incident is only one chapter, and it is a fascinating and full life to learn about. From birding to comics, growing up gay and Black in America--Cooper is able to draw together history and contexts that inform his own place (grudgingly occupied, but put to the best use he can find) in American history.