As seasons change and the days become shorter, I often find myself reaching for books about the natural world. While I’m not an avid nonfiction reader, short books about someone’s love for the outside are among my favorites.
“This is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature” by Joanna Brichetto is just that. Brichetto, a naturalist and writer from Tennessee, has written a collection of 52 seasonal essays that blend her life experience with chronic illness with observations of nature in urban areas and the human relationship with it.
From the beginning, I could sense that Brichetto and I were kindred spirits. While I am not a naturalist by training, I can certainly talk about native bee populations and the beauty of a cottonwood tree (a keystone species!) with anyone willing to listen.
Her essays about the importance of hackberry trees, the function of dandelion clocks, and the beauty of samaras were a balm to my soul. I saw the reflection of my own tendency to engage with the outside world and the seemingly commonplace.
In one particularly poignant essay, Brichetto details her astonishment at the imprints left by fallen leaves on the sidewalk after a rainshower. A man working nearby notices her looking at them and offers to power wash them away. She writes “We speak at the same time while looking at the same thing, though we do not see it the same way. I want to capture the art. He wants to wash it away.”
As humans, we interact with nature in a multitude of ways each day–whether by watering our house plants, walking the dog, or driving past color-changing trees. In this collection, Brichetto invites readers to see beauty in the often ignored and mundane, to slow down and realize the miraculous ways that nature moves and adapts around us. She stated, “Nature is under our feet, over our heads, and beside us—the very places we need to know first.”
An ode to the virtues of our everyday lives and the nature that exists all around us, “This is How a Robin Drinks” is a moving, funny, and approachable book that urges us to take care of our world and the creatures we share it with.
“This is How a Robin Drinks” can be found at your closest Denver Public Library location or as an eBook at denverlibrary.org. Already read it? Check out these read-alikes: “The Book of Delights” by Ross Gay, “World of Wonders” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, “Earth Keeper” by Scott Momaday or “The Comfort of Crows” by Margaret Renkl.
Ashley Love is a librarian at Denver Public Library’s Central branch. She spends her free time gardening, hiking, and reading long fantasy books.
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