Welcome to Litsy!

Just a lovely time. Really all about one person's observations of the birds in her backyard. Wasn't sure what the tone would be from the preface, since it had a memoir feel, and mentioned her mother's repeated threats of self-harm, but the rest of the book is full of faithful reproductions of excerpted journal entries and truly gorgeous illustrations by the author.1/?

Emotive! 😆

I have tried a few of Amy Tan‘s fiction books and didn‘t connect well with them. This journal and collection of drawings however was delightful!

She‘s an incredibly talented artist, and I found her observations and commentary on her backyard visitors funny and interesting. Highly recommend if you also like birdwatching or feeding your locals.

Oof, the entry packs a punch, but the ending sentence really knocked me out.

Hee hee. Spicy for birdy, not for squirrel! 🌶️

This isn't book related, but I have to share my newest obsession. I got a birdfeeder with a camera for Christmas. So far, it has "caught" 14 different species. Here are a few of my favorite pictures so far.

What a wonderful #jolabokaflod package! Thank you @Readergrrl 🙂. I love that you sent local chocolate, and the mustache is really fun.

I love bird watching and I‘ve heard this is terrific. Definitely looking forward to reading it. Thank you!

Another pleasant little book about birds, but make it by Amy Tan!?! Yes please! This is just a delight for nature lovers and the illustrations are superb, which Tan taught herself to do. This is another one of those to dip in and out of throughout the year as it doesn‘t need to be read in one go. I did lost n to her narrate it though which also added some extra depth to the experience. So I guess do bot: print and audio!

Loved it!

#CoverLove

Late to post today as I was in Hilo & waiting for my flight home to take off. For today‘s #TanBeige prompt, how about a book by Amy #Tan with a #Beige cover?! 😉

I saw&heard Amy Tan talk about her new book The Backyard Bird Chronicles. I didn‘t know she learned how to draw and paint animals only a few years ago!I‘m not sure why but I was a bit disappointed. She was witty&the audience loved her. But I had the feeling the jokes were a bit rehearsed &she probably says the same thing to every audience on her book tour?Then again I guess that‘s normal? Anyway, not worth over 40$ in a shitty seat.

I‘m not a birder, and I only picked it up as it‘s Amy Tan. It‘s glorious. Not too science-y, yet informative, and with Tan‘s ability to create stories, each journal entry about her observations becomes stories with characters and personalities. Who knew Tan is an exceptional artist? This has humor, beauty, and Tan‘s writing. Perfect.

My kids say my thorough enjoyment of this book means I‘m officially old. Pictured: the owl that used to hang out in our yard.

“With both fiction and birds, I think about existence, the span of life, from conception to birth to survival to death to remembrance by others. I reflect on mortality, the strangeness of it, the inevitability. I do that daily, and not with dread, but with awareness that life contains ephemeral moments, which can be saved in words and images, there for pondering, for reviving the bird and my hear…”⬇️

Turns out that not only is Amy Tan a great writer, she‘s also a terrific artist. She recently rediscovered her joy in drawing when she was drawn in by watching the birds in her yard. In this book, she chronicles 6 years of bird watching and feeding with her own illustrations, whether formal portraits or alongside less formal jottings. This book is a complete delight (and I‘m not necessarily very interested in birds).