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The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds
An illustrated pocket field guide that enables anyone to quickly identify psychotic, violent or mentally unstable bird species. We are only just discovering the reality of our avian adversaries, with their reptilian brains, their appetites for mayhem and the fact that they fly mostly to spite us. To ignore the information found within this volume may be at the peril of your very life.
64 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2012
30 people are currently reading
1417 people want to read
About the author
Matt Adrian
7 books20 followersMatt Adrian's lush acrylic paintings of birds range from the delightfully cute to the decidedly sinister. The distinctive titles of the paintings juxtapose the primal existence of birds with the often awkward folly of modern human existence.
His artwork is collected worldwide and has been featured in SUNSENT magazine, BUST magazine, COUNTRY LIVING magazine, the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, the BOSTON GLOBE, the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, DECOR8, APARTMENT THERAPY and on the television shows DEAR GENEVIEVE, NCIS: LOS ANGELES, DEXTER, and MODERN FAMILY. His work has appeared in the films THIS IS 40, THE HANGOVER PART III and will appear in the upcoming Johnny Depp film TRANSCENDENCE and the Spike Jonze film HER.
There have been two books published that collect his artwork: IT IS FOLLY TO ASSUME MY AWESOME LIES DORMANT: THE PAINTINGS OF THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD VOLUME ONE and I HAVE HEARD MY PRAISES SUNG IN SCREAMS: THE PAINTINGS OF THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD VOLUME TWO. His book THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD GUIDE TO TROUBLED BIRDS will be published by Penguin in June 2014.
He lives in California with his wife, artist Kim Bagwill.
Source: .
His artwork is collected worldwide and has been featured in SUNSENT magazine, BUST magazine, COUNTRY LIVING magazine, the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, the BOSTON GLOBE, the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, DECOR8, APARTMENT THERAPY and on the television shows DEAR GENEVIEVE, NCIS: LOS ANGELES, DEXTER, and MODERN FAMILY. His work has appeared in the films THIS IS 40, THE HANGOVER PART III and will appear in the upcoming Johnny Depp film TRANSCENDENCE and the Spike Jonze film HER.
There have been two books published that collect his artwork: IT IS FOLLY TO ASSUME MY AWESOME LIES DORMANT: THE PAINTINGS OF THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD VOLUME ONE and I HAVE HEARD MY PRAISES SUNG IN SCREAMS: THE PAINTINGS OF THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD VOLUME TWO. His book THE MINCING MOCKINGBIRD GUIDE TO TROUBLED BIRDS will be published by Penguin in June 2014.
He lives in California with his wife, artist Kim Bagwill.
Source: .
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews
May 9, 2020
so for all of you who have been questioning my stance on birds and how they are evil
yeah. now you're willing to listen, aren't you??
this book delights me.
it's just a collection of illustrations of various horrible winged creatures with accompanying stories declaring itself to be a reference guide to be consulted in the event of an infant or small child being torn apart by a murder of crows.
because it's going to happen, make no mistake.
for such small little things, they sure do get lippy (beaky?)
and always with the threats.
and this particular one:
comes with the following chilling story:
yikes.
and you do not want to know what the hens did to the dog in a later story.
birds do not mess around. and even though you might think they are all pretty with their colors and tweetings and their adorably disgusting behavior,
generally, creatures that exhibit that degree of drunkenly inappropriate and antisocial behavior are the ones you need to fear the most.
dear god…
don't say i haven't been warning you all for years.
oh my god and look at these other books he has of evil bird paintings. i adore them i neeeed them:
come to my blog!
yeah. now you're willing to listen, aren't you??
this book delights me.
it's just a collection of illustrations of various horrible winged creatures with accompanying stories declaring itself to be a reference guide to be consulted in the event of an infant or small child being torn apart by a murder of crows.
because it's going to happen, make no mistake.
for such small little things, they sure do get lippy (beaky?)
and always with the threats.
and this particular one:
comes with the following chilling story:
"I've taken an eye from a cat for every hummingbird brother and sister lost to their feline featherlust. And I'll take them until the burning furnace of rage that flares in my breast dies like the implosion of a sun. Until then, cat blindness will increase incrementally until every goddamned cat on the block is walking in circles."
yikes.
and you do not want to know what the hens did to the dog in a later story.
birds do not mess around. and even though you might think they are all pretty with their colors and tweetings and their adorably disgusting behavior,
generally, creatures that exhibit that degree of drunkenly inappropriate and antisocial behavior are the ones you need to fear the most.
dear god…
don't say i haven't been warning you all for years.
oh my god and look at these other books he has of evil bird paintings. i adore them i neeeed them:
come to my blog!
Want to read
December 14, 2016Just the sight of these feathered creatures of evil gives me the heebie-jeebies, but then when I see this...
BIRDS ARE LUV, BIRDS ARE LYF.
BIRDS ARE LUV, BIRDS ARE LYF.
Read
July 19, 2014
Picked this up on a whim. Perfect for anyone who has ever felt unnerved by a flock of birds. Are they watching me? Will they kill me? The answer is apparently…yes.
August 15, 2014
Absolutely hilarious. I am SO glad that I bought this as a gift so I could read it first, like the cheap-ass that I am.
Want to read
August 16, 2015You had me at "profusely illustrated."
February 24, 2017
I have no idea what I just read but it was fucking hilarious.
July 25, 2025
I did not like this book. Who would like making birds nasty and scary? Not me. No fun at all, and I would not recommend this book to anyone.
August 16, 2023
TLDR: Wouldn't recommend. This book was published in 2012 and it shows in its sense of humor.
---
I wanted to like this book because I love the images of "troubled birds" that float around online. But, alas, anyone like me would be better off looking up those images rather than reading this book.
To my surprise, this book isn't a collection of bird memes (probably should've read the description more carefully, I just assumed and got excited). Some of those are included, but they're sparse seasoning sprinkled between warnings and tales of woe from the perspectives of troubled birds or people who interact with them. All of these are less than a page long, some no longer than a few lines. Most are also written in different styles without consistent tone, style, formatting, or even punctuation.
Now, I enjoy dark humor, so many of these odd, little vignettes were amusing. A few, like "F--- your windshield," verged into a cool, cerebral space like a clip from an Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling collab. One, "The Wind Carried Away My Words, Rendering Them Useless," was emotional and kind of profound. The style of the pages and cover were also cool making the book look like a worn, discarded library book.
However, I can't give this above one star because a significant number of these stories punch down relentlessly. There was transphobia, degrading portrayals of mental illness, slut shaming, sexual harassment, and more. Perhaps the author wanted an "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" vibe, but, if anything, it felt like someone who watched that show without truly understanding how that style of humor is intended to work. For instance, in "This Is a Bird Feeder, Not a Chinese Buffet", the reader wasn't meant to laugh at the narrator for being insensitive and cruel to a bird with an eating disorder, they were meant to laugh with the narrator at a binge-eating bird.
This book is meant to be disconcerting—it states almost explicitly that its *primary* intent is to disturb—but it repeatedly made me feel uncomfortable for reasons I did not expect. Furthermore, even the (relatively) inoffensive humor grew tiresome and predictable by the end.
So, I would not recommend this book to anyone. If you like "troubled bird" images, just look them up online. Don't trouble yourself with this.
---
I wanted to like this book because I love the images of "troubled birds" that float around online. But, alas, anyone like me would be better off looking up those images rather than reading this book.
To my surprise, this book isn't a collection of bird memes (probably should've read the description more carefully, I just assumed and got excited). Some of those are included, but they're sparse seasoning sprinkled between warnings and tales of woe from the perspectives of troubled birds or people who interact with them. All of these are less than a page long, some no longer than a few lines. Most are also written in different styles without consistent tone, style, formatting, or even punctuation.
Now, I enjoy dark humor, so many of these odd, little vignettes were amusing. A few, like "F--- your windshield," verged into a cool, cerebral space like a clip from an Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling collab. One, "The Wind Carried Away My Words, Rendering Them Useless," was emotional and kind of profound. The style of the pages and cover were also cool making the book look like a worn, discarded library book.
However, I can't give this above one star because a significant number of these stories punch down relentlessly. There was transphobia, degrading portrayals of mental illness, slut shaming, sexual harassment, and more. Perhaps the author wanted an "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" vibe, but, if anything, it felt like someone who watched that show without truly understanding how that style of humor is intended to work. For instance, in "This Is a Bird Feeder, Not a Chinese Buffet", the reader wasn't meant to laugh at the narrator for being insensitive and cruel to a bird with an eating disorder, they were meant to laugh with the narrator at a binge-eating bird.
This book is meant to be disconcerting—it states almost explicitly that its *primary* intent is to disturb—but it repeatedly made me feel uncomfortable for reasons I did not expect. Furthermore, even the (relatively) inoffensive humor grew tiresome and predictable by the end.
So, I would not recommend this book to anyone. If you like "troubled bird" images, just look them up online. Don't trouble yourself with this.
August 7, 2014
Picked this up on a whim to read on the plane. Nicely designed, a quick read of 1-page essays that almost read like poems and captioned illustrations. But only a few were funny to me. For many, it was unclear who was the narrator (the bird, or a person? The author?) and they left me more confused than entertained.
October 2, 2024
Some birds are ok, but the others are pretty annoying. This is a good book to use to identify all those others and to laugh at them. The most annoying are now trying to give us the flu.
December 31, 2022
This book feels like a hallucinating dream.
January 15, 2024
Picked this up on a table post-Christmas… must have been a gift to someone in the family meant to be funny…satirical…sardonic? It was mostly not. More like tasteless and boring. I’m only adding a review to warn off my bird loving friends.
March 26, 2022
1.5 / 5
Summary
The book is a collection of acrylic paintings of birds accompanied by text superimposed over the image, a caption beneath the image, a short vignette, or a combination thereof.
Pros
- The book contains a number of meme-worthy imagines that have made the rounds on the internet (e.g. the bird that would sell you to Satan for a single corn chip)
- The paintings are fine, I guess?
- The book can be completed very quickly, if that's your jam.
Cons
- The book is only about 60 pages long. The going rate for this book is $15 (for the hardcover), meaning the book costs $0.25 per page.
- There is a fair amount of punching down in the book, with everything from, "The week in Tijuana with Manuela the junkie lady who was really a man, was, in hindsight, a mistake," to, "I sure wish I could get out of this huggin' suit so I could fill my shoes full of applesauce."
Conclusion
Edgy meme-lords may enjoy this book, but most would be better off just looking at the pictures included in other reviews of this book. I was neither moved nor impressed by this work, and find it hard to recommend it to anyone (especially for the asking price).
See more reviews at Quinn's Curios.
Summary
The book is a collection of acrylic paintings of birds accompanied by text superimposed over the image, a caption beneath the image, a short vignette, or a combination thereof.
Pros
- The book contains a number of meme-worthy imagines that have made the rounds on the internet (e.g. the bird that would sell you to Satan for a single corn chip)
- The paintings are fine, I guess?
- The book can be completed very quickly, if that's your jam.
Cons
- The book is only about 60 pages long. The going rate for this book is $15 (for the hardcover), meaning the book costs $0.25 per page.
- There is a fair amount of punching down in the book, with everything from, "The week in Tijuana with Manuela the junkie lady who was really a man, was, in hindsight, a mistake," to, "I sure wish I could get out of this huggin' suit so I could fill my shoes full of applesauce."
Conclusion
Edgy meme-lords may enjoy this book, but most would be better off just looking at the pictures included in other reviews of this book. I was neither moved nor impressed by this work, and find it hard to recommend it to anyone (especially for the asking price).
See more reviews at Quinn's Curios.
August 31, 2014
Jack Handey as an Angry, Pugnacious Drunk in a Bird Suit
Remember Jack Handey and his "Deep Thoughts" from the old Saturday Night Live? Slightly off-kilter, vaguely inane and sort of gormless, but somehow deeply insightful, musings? Well, take that same sort of one-liner humor, but make it psychotically angry and twisted and use it to caption pretty, but intense, bird paintings. That's more or less what you get here.
Usually you don't have pretty, colorful, cute birds telling you "I'll Even Kill Your Soul". The occasional brief, unnerving comments and observations and stories that lead you from picture to picture just add to the wild wrongness of the whole setup and make this a deeply satisfying and essential guide. You ignore it at your peril.
Remember Jack Handey and his "Deep Thoughts" from the old Saturday Night Live? Slightly off-kilter, vaguely inane and sort of gormless, but somehow deeply insightful, musings? Well, take that same sort of one-liner humor, but make it psychotically angry and twisted and use it to caption pretty, but intense, bird paintings. That's more or less what you get here.
Usually you don't have pretty, colorful, cute birds telling you "I'll Even Kill Your Soul". The occasional brief, unnerving comments and observations and stories that lead you from picture to picture just add to the wild wrongness of the whole setup and make this a deeply satisfying and essential guide. You ignore it at your peril.
April 17, 2014
This is a delightful, hilarious, "profusely illustrated" guide to birds...Troubled Birds. There are plenty of amusing details to savor in this short guide. It's one of those books that as I read it I keep thinking of some of my odd friends (who are the BEST) that would enjoy a copy of their own. Probably why they call it a 'gift book'. Figured that out on my own!
*I received a complimentary copy from the publisher.
*I received a complimentary copy from the publisher.
May 14, 2022
I've loved the occasional Mincing Mockingbird funny quote painting online, but this was . . . well I have no idea what the hell this was. I'm confused and a little angry. I feel kinda like one of those bird drawings myself.
Read
February 24, 2018Lol.
August 12, 2018
Wow. Tongue in cheek with a discarded library book motif. Loved it.
February 9, 2019
A little creepy
March 11, 2019
I'm.......
May 7, 2020
Really funny. In a bloodthirsty way.
December 27, 2020
First three stars ... then four ... but still unsure because ... is this a coffee table book, an actual read or ...? I find it difficult to say because I liked the book enough to care - being married to a bird lover and having become one myself, I will say there’s some real wit in some of these avian “vignettes,” for that’s what this collection contains (mostly). Let me know if you feel you can firmly pin this one down.
November 21, 2022
finally found the source of this meme
June 25, 2017
This book made me crack up several times. I loved it.
December 29, 2018
I bought this book for my husband for the illustrations and the snarky tone when I peaked inside. He didn't like it at all. As a bird lover he found the satire over the top and even offensive. And it is true, there are nasty references here and the level of bird violence reaches the absurd, hence the dropping of a star.
Mostly I appreciate the author's humor, and I still like the notion of vindictive birds paying us back for putting windows in their flyways and a single chicken proving fatal to intruders. It is the rowdy, sarcastic version of Hitchcock's The Birds.
What is missing is the promised guide that "enables anyone to quickly identify psychotic, violent or mentally unstable bird species." You will still be guessing about that sparrow.
Mostly I appreciate the author's humor, and I still like the notion of vindictive birds paying us back for putting windows in their flyways and a single chicken proving fatal to intruders. It is the rowdy, sarcastic version of Hitchcock's The Birds.
What is missing is the promised guide that "enables anyone to quickly identify psychotic, violent or mentally unstable bird species." You will still be guessing about that sparrow.
January 1, 2022
Recommended to me by my friend Danielle Buie, this darkly humored short book is very funny (especially the beautifully malevolent illustrations) - most definitely should be avoided by ornithophobics!
May 11, 2022
The only true drawback is that it is so brief. I would have happily had it twice as long. Highly amusing.
October 22, 2016
Very good for a quick read and a good laugh.
February 2, 2023
A weird and surprisingly short book, but one that has made some truly legendary memes 👌
August 16, 2022
I may never look at a bird in the same way ever again!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews