Elizabeth H.

Add friend
Sign in to Goodreads to learn more about Elizabeth.


Law-and-Order New...
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 39 of 362)
Mar 24, 2025 02:18AM

 
News, Crime and C...
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 60 of 240)
Jul 08, 2025 11:34PM

 
Wonderstruck
Elizabeth H. is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 404 of 640)
Jul 05, 2025 04:41AM

 
See all 5 books that Elizabeth is reading…
Loading...
Jennifer Ackerman
“If you happened to find yourself at the foot of the stairs in the White House on a typical afternoon sometime around 1804 or 1805, you might have noticed a perky bird in a pearl-gray coat ascending the steps behind Thomas Jefferson, hop by hop, as the president retired to his chambers for a siesta. This was Dick. Although the president didn’t dignify his pet mockingbird with one of the fancy Celtic or Gallic names he gave his horses and sheepdogs—Cucullin, Fingal, Bergère—still it was a favorite pet. “I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the Mocking bird,” Jefferson wrote to his son-in-law, who had informed him of the advent of the first resident mockingbird. “Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird.” Dick may well have been one of the two mockingbirds Jefferson bought in 1803. These were pricier than most pet birds ($10 or $15 then—around $125 now) because their serenades included not only renditions of all the birds of the local woods, but also popular American, Scottish, and French songs. Not everyone would pick this bird for a friend. Wordsworth called him the “merry mockingbird.” Brash, yes. Saucy and animated. But merry? His most common call is a bruising tschak!—a kind of unlovely avian expletive that one naturalist described as a cross between a snort of disgust and a hawking of phlegm. But Jefferson adored Dick for his uncommon intelligence, his musicality, and his remarkable ability to mimic. As the president’s friend Margaret Bayard Smith wrote, “Whenever he was alone he opened the cage and let the bird fly about the room. After flitting for a while from one object to another, it would alight on his table and regale him with its sweetest notes, or perch on his shoulder and take its food from his lips.” When the president napped, Dick would sit on his couch and serenade him with both bird and human tunes.”
Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds

Jennifer Ackerman
“A frigate bird with a seven-foot wingspan has a skeleton that weighs less than its feathers.”
Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds

Brandon Sanderson
“Oh! You’ll find this amusing. I just translated the name of their ship. In their language, it roughly means, ‘Big Enough to Kill You.’ ”
Brandon Sanderson, Starsight

Jennifer Ackerman
“I love this idea, that nature dreamed up the same kind of sleep in both humans and birds, fostering the growth of big brains in creatures so far apart on life’s tree.”
Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds

Brandon Sanderson
“Unfortunately, Alanik, the game takes no care for your interest. It plays you either way”
Brandon Sanderson, Starsight

152458 Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge — 42990 members — last activity 9 hours, 56 min ago
This group is for people participating in the Popsugar reading challenge for 2026 (or any other year). The Popsugar website posted a reading challenge ...more
395343 A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2018 — 41 members — last activity Jan 05, 2019 11:55AM
This is a group to track progress of this particular reading challenge for 2018. The challenge consists of 20 books (no doubling up on categories!) an ...more
year in books
E
E
4,734 books | 71 friends

Lina
524 books | 55 friends

Bethany...
971 books | 122 friends

Daria
893 books | 36 friends

Philip ...
59 books | 4,650 friends

Mashrif...
541 books | 40 friends

Kam
Kam
637 books | 40 friends

Toroia
141 books | 35 friends

More friends…
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria RemarqueThe Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-ExupéryAll Creatures Great and Small by James HerriotA Storm of Swords by George R.R. MartinShip of Destiny by Robin Hobb
Best Books Ever
77,912 books — 290,639 voters




Polls voted on by Elizabeth

Lists liked by Elizabeth