Addison Public Library Online Book Club discussion

June Weekly Discussion coming soon.

Hello all,
We will be posting our first week questions this Friday. You will have week from this Friday to answer. Hope you are enjoying the book.

Hear from you soon.

Hi all, Hopefully you are ready to discuss the first few chapters. Let's start --

1. "The wild can be human work". - what does the author mean by that?

2. "It's my story...it's not a biography of T.H White" - What does Helen mean by that.

Hope to hear from you by Monday.
Stay safe and have a wonderful weekend.

Hi all, here is my two cents -

1. We know that humans are cause of destruction of eco system and of many species. But in the case of hawks, it was the humans who turned around the dwindling population of the hawks in England. Many falconers would order two birds from other European countries, one to train and the other to set it free in the wild. The author feels falconers were the cause of saving the hawks from perishing.

2. Helen was fascinated by T. H. White from childhood. She read his book about his goshawk when she was 8-9 yrs old, and then later again in life, when she becomes a falconer. Her childhood admiration of White later turns into almost disgust as she learns how much he didn't know about training a hawk and how many mistakes he made while training his gos. She comes to know his personality, character as she pursues to read about him. When she starts training her own goshawk, Mabel, Helen realizes her reasons for choosing the gos, the wildest and most difficult to train bird (the way she chose to grieve for her father), are very similar to that of White. Helen feels that he is a constant companion while grieving for her father. She finds him an equally tormented soul as she is in her grief. But it is still her story in which White has becomes an integral part.

Here is a question or two for next week -

1. Her description of goshawk - what kind of a raptor is it according to her?

2. What is the significance of 'hood' to her?

Stay safe!!!

Ready for the final question?
Did you like the book? If yes, why? If no, why? give reasons briefly.

I personally, liked the book, learned a lot about goshawks or hawks, English countryside, different vocabulary and mainly how different people react and process grief.
Some part of the book were lengthy and unrelated (I felt) but the language and style of writing is very lyrical and raw. New York Times reviewed it as "very English", I agree. I had to research to find what she is referring to sometimes. Overall, great book! So glad I read it.

Thank you all, have a wonderful and safe summer.

Just wanted to apologize for my absence. Been busy with home repairs, and could not fit this book into my reduced reading time this month. Will try to participate better going forward. Thanks for running this. Warm regards & stay well, Howard