Dangerous Birds: A Naturalist's Aviary

by Janet Lembke

Book by Lembke, Janet

Genres: Nature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Janet Lembke (2 March 1933 - 3 September 2013), née Janet Nutt, was an American author, essayist, naturalist, translator and scholar. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio during the Great Depression, graduated in 1953 from Middlebury College, Vermont, with a degree in Classics, and her knowledge of the classical Greek and Latin worldview, from Homer to Virgil, informed her life and work. A Certified Virginia Master Gardener, she lived in Virginia and North Carolina, drawing inspiration from both locales. She was recognized for her creative view of natural cycles, agriculture and of animals, both domestic and wild, with whom we share the natural environment. Referred to as an "acclaimed Southern naturalist," she was equally (as The Chicago Tribune described her) a "classicist, a noted Oxford University Press translator of the works of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus". She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate Virgil's Georgics, having already translated Euripides’ Electra and Hecuba, and Aeschylus’s Persians and Suppliants.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[India Mackinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love an ode to eastern North Carolina’s natural resources, but the treatment given to the author’s neighbors, many with ties to coastal NC going back generations, made me put this book down. As a dingbatter with little authority on the rhythms of rural NC communities, her musings on her neighbors, even on those she calls her friends, come across as elitist. Obviously, her neighbors aren’t perfect stewards of the Neuse, but she’s swift to condemn them without properly considering their indispensable heritage and knowledge that can only come from growing up on the river.

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less about birds, as the author notes, than about impressions of life on the NC coast revealed by interactions with birds. And those impressions are well-rendered. Lembke has an entrancing writing style even on subjects that I couldn't care less about (which happened in a few of the essays.)

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good used bookstore find, this is a slender collection of nature essays and observations about birds. The author takes the approach of a scholar rather than a birder--lots of classical references and philosophical musings. A bit dry at times, but definitely worth the read.

[Maris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love Lembke's writing. What a damn intelligent woman.

[Betsy]

I swear this book jumped of the library shelf at me as I walked through the stacks. How did it know?

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book-Ms. Lembke gives a good overview of a year at her home on the Neuse River in South Carolina. I'm jealous. Ms. Lembke describes the American Beauty bush growing in the wild.