The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (2023) by Margaret Renkl @NonFicNov26

🐦 This nature journal is just the perfect read to kick off my #NonFicNov26! As I have said before, this month I picked nature-related topic as the main reading theme. I am sick of being cooped up at home all the time, and these nature-related book make me feel like being outdoor again, breathing fresh air and listening to birdsong. Margaret Renkl did a fabulous job of both writing and narrating (I listened to the audiobook) her backyard creatures and plants over the year. It's divided into 52 chapters, each following Margaret's observation of both her personal and the backyard lives. 🐦 This book isn't all about crows, there's quite a nice biodiversity in Margaret's backyard in the southern of USA. She keeps a pollinators garden at the back of her house; keeping it more to the wild side than the current fashion of manicured green lawns. She calls it her messy yard, and I liked it. For instance, Margaret loves tiny wild flowers that people call weeds - just like me! In one of my nature journals, I was excited over a tiny weed called Tridax Daisy I found on the roadside; it even taught me about resilience. You can read more of it here. What some people think as pestilence, is actually created by God as equal as any other plants. I therefore endorsed Margaret's disgust of her neighbors using poisons, pesticides, and what not, to keep their gardens "neat", which could kill or harm other unintended creatures like insects, birds, or even, humans.

"What you call the wild flowers will tell you who you are."

🐦 Intertwined with her observation of the backyard garden, Margaret also reveals many anecdotes; they are both from her current life as amateur naturalist, as well as - and these are my favorite - from her childhood in Alabama. One of these anecdotes is the one when she found something spherical-shaped on the deck, which looked like owl's pellet - or was it coyote's dung? Hot discussion emerged on the naturalist group in Facebook. But it's Margaret's husband who finally found the truth - and it was so unexpected and hilarious, that it felt like a plot twist in a novel! I also liked her story about growing toads with her brother, back when they were children in Alabama; or how she rode miles to her brother's house just to watch his night blooming cereus bloomed - I could almost feel the growing anticipation, and finally the serene moment of watching it bloomed. 🐦 I think what I love about this half memoir half journal, is Margaret's poetic narration and her beautiful storytelling. One of my favorite chapters is And Then There Were None - well, you know perfectly well why the title caught my attention in the first place - but more than that, I loved Margaret's admission of her regret of having rescued a bluebird chick, rather than leaving the nature took its own course. I always believe, that leaving wild creatures being wild with least intervention from human being is the best course to take. Another of my favorite is when Margaret witnessed a caterpillar changed into a butterfly under her own eyes, and let it fly, after she rescued it from wasps. It's what I love about reading nature journals - moments when we feel the awe about how natural world works, and how that experience make us appreciate more of our own life, and our Creator.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Nonfiction November 2026 hosted by Heather, Frances, Liz, and Deb