Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
“Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World
A Washington Post and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.
Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.
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Christian Cooper. (2023). Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Christian Cooper. 2023. Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World. Random House Publishing Group, 2023.
MLA Citation (style guide)Christian Cooper. Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World. Random House Publishing Group, 2023.
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There are 15 holds on this title.
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- bioText: Christian Cooper is a science and comics writer and editor and the host and consulting producer of Extraordinary Birder on National Geographic. One of Marvel’s first openly gay writers and editors, Cooper introduced the first gay male character in Star Trek, in the Starfleet Academy series, which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. He also introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel and created and authored Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic. Based in New York City, he is on the board of directors for NYC Audubon.
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- NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
“Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World
A Washington Post and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.
Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen. - reviews
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April 15, 2023
A celebration of the delights of watching birds. On Memorial Day 2020, Cooper was bird-watching in Central Park when he asked a dog walker to comply with the park's rules and leash her dog. Her angry response prompted him to video the interaction on his phone--including her call to the police claiming that "there's an African American man threatening my life." Posted by one of Cooper's friends, the video ignited a "firestorm of attention." That racist incident brackets the author's engaging debut memoir chronicling his transformation from a nerdy kid on Long Island in the late 1960s, who confessed that he was gay only to one friend, into a Black, queer activist who revels in bird-watching. Cooper became a birder on nature walks with his father and during the family's yearly summer camping trips to national parks. As they drove, he read Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds, surprising his parents when he could identify some of the species they encountered. Birding was an immediate pleasure. "One of the best things about birding," he writes, "is how it pulls you out of your inner monologue and forces you to observe a larger world." Feeling like a misfit in high school, Cooper found Harvard more welcoming. He discovered the Harvard Ornithological Club and the Gay Students Association, and he came out to his three roommates. The author recounts many remarkable bird sightings in his travels in Central Park and around the world, and he peppers the text with birding tips--e.g., don't learn birdsongs from recordings but rather from attentive listening. As the author shows, birding was a constant amid personal tumult: affairs and a brief marriage; renewing his relationship with his difficult father; the deaths of his mother and grandmother; protesting racism and anti-LGBTQ+ violence; and introducing the first gay superhero when he wrote for Marvel Comics. Candid reflections from an appealing guide to the birding life.COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from April 17, 2023
Cooper, a Black birder who first gained media attention after sharing a video of him being falsely accused by a white woman of threatening her in Central Park in 2020, debuts with a lively, thoughtful memoir in which he defines himself by the hobby he was pursuing the afternoon he made headlines. Identifying himself as a “Black gay activist birder,” Cooper recounts his longtime love for the winged creatures, nurtured during his Long Island childhood and college years at Harvard. With colorful and sometimes snarky commentary (“southern screamer” birds are “not to be confused with a vocal Alabamian in the throes of excitement”), Cooper reflects on how his hobby provided skills, including sensory sharpness he’s since deployed at protests and other potentially hostile confrontations, that have helped him navigate the world as a gay Black man. In addressing the Central Park incident, he elegantly frames it within both his own bird-focused narrative and a broader conversation about racism and police brutality: “I have lived my whole life as a Black man in the United States. I don’t have to go all the way back to Tulsa and Rosewood and Emmett Till to know what it means for a white woman to accuse a Black man, and who would likely be believed.” These more sweeping arguments are never made with a cudgel; instead, they organically emerge from his captivating personal story. Meanwhile, his passion for birding could make hobbyists of even the most avian-agnostic. This rewarding memoir adds heft and heart to the headlines. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.
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October 15, 2023
When New Yorker Cooper was birding one spring morning in 2020 in Central Park, as he has often done for many years, a disturbing incident, captured on videos that went viral, catapulted him into the public eye and (speaking for the public) we should be forever grateful. Cooper, a self-professed ""Black queer nerd,"" is an avid birder and in this beautifully written memoir he brings the reader along on his life's journey. As the author says, birds are always available and are for everyone to enjoy, and his tales of urban and international birding more than make this point. Mentored in his youth by the leader of local Audubon bird walks, Cooper found his place in the ranks of birders. He also found escape and inspiration in science fiction and comic books, ultimately landing a job editing and writing for Marvel Comics where he was the first to introduce gay story lines. Cooper recounts global forays around the world that immersed him in the natural world, sharing birding tips throughout, while his honesty about relationships and family make him feel like a friend. When the trajectory of his life leads to the fateful encounter with a racist white woman in Central Park, we understand his decision not to seek revenge for her false accusation, but rather to share his experience. This remarkable story will resonate with birders, nature lovers, and everyone who has been made to feel as though they're outside the mainstream.COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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“Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World
A Washington Post and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal
Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years... - sortTitle
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