Vesper Flights
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Vesper Flights
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Narrated by:
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Helen Macdonald
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By:
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Helen Macdonald
About this listen
Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
By one of this century’s most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
©2020 Helen Macdonald (P)2020 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 688
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 588
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- Narrated by: Helen Macdonald
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,094
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,664
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,647
When Helen MacDonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer captivated by hawks since childhood, she'd never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators: the goshawk. But in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral anger mirrored her own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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Mabel The Hawk--The Fire That Burned The Hurts Away
- By Sara on 04-09-15
By: Helen Macdonald
-
The Peregrine
- By: J. A. Baker
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Phenomenal
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,786
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5 out of 5 stars
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unexpected
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,734
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Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect", about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eight legs and so much more!
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What listeners say about Vesper Flights
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LORETTA LIBBY ATKINS
- 06-16-24
Her well written prose
Loved the English accent and beautifully described birds and their habits. McDonald gathers the most salient details - very satisfying
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sheffield
- 10-07-21
Beautiful Reflections
Love this collection. Helen Macdonald is such a marvelous writer and narrator. Can't imagine listening to her words spoken by anyone else. Tremendously honest, heartfelt, and funny. Every reflection has something about it - large or small - that's moving. A great companion for long walks. Looking forward to her next work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Victoria Cofield-Aber
- 05-02-22
Insightful,funny,thought-provoking
Absolutely fantastic. Opens your senses to the snimal world in a very different way highlighting how we share this planet and how important it is to value the earth and its inhabitants. We are all sojourners here and have our own purpose. Excellent comparisons within the context of our lived socioeconomicpolitical experiences and our stewardship of the earth and all of its inhabitants.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dorianne
- 06-05-24
Learning about our world
The writing and the lovely reading of Vesper Flights is making me more conscious and curious of the communities of all animals in which we live.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jeff Koeppen
- 04-08-23
Excellent Collection of Nature Essays
After listening to Helen MacDonald’s excellent book H is for Hawk in 2016 I immediately added Vesper Flights to my TBR list and I finally got around to it. Unlike H is for Hawk, which is about her life with her goshawk Mabel, this book is a series of 41 nature essays which covers a wide variety of topics but primarily are about birds. I again listened in Audible. She has a great voice and her narration is excellent, and really adds to the book especially when she tugs at your emotions.
It seems like she’s been everywhere and has had encounters with a wide variety of beasts. She is British so we learn a lot of the issues faced on the island regarding the struggles of wildlife, birds in particular. But her travels took her all over the world and she seems to have a story for every location.
Some of my favorite essays were: her experience with an ostrich at a farm she worked at as a young person, the tale of Menesh the stork accused of being a spy and "arrested", the rise and fall of orioles in Great Britain, experiences with goats, the story of the arrow-stork, watching bird migration from the top of the Empire State Building, the effects of the 9-11 light beams on birds, and the tradition of swan upping. There are also chapters with interesting information about nests, swifts, wild pigs, mushrooms, cuckoos, berries, and a ton of other subjects. She also veers away from nature at times, writing about her migraines and her friend Nathalie Cabrol, a French NASA astrobiologist who studies lakes on Mars.
Some of the chapters inspire awe and some leave you with a lump in your throat and all you can say is “wow”. Great examples of this are her conclusion to the chapter Nests where she waxes poetically about an unhatched bird as she watches its shadow move around inside its egg and how it will someday rule the skies over our heads, and the whole final chapter What Animals Taught Me where she puts our relationship with nature in perspective. I think she's a great writer and she is the person you want to go on a hike in the woods with.
Like any collection, some topics held my interest more than others but overall this was excellent and listening to the brilliant author read her own words really added to the experience.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mama Lee
- 08-30-23
A wonderful book!
I read the authors book H is for Hawk a few years ago and enjoyed immensely and this book of essays was just as good if not better. Bravo!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cath
- 10-13-21
Stupendous.
Extraordinary. Exquisite. Profound. Macdonald puts into precise words her authentic experiences of herself and the natural world. She also is a gifted audio narrator with a deep and lilting voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cherilyn Parsons
- 12-31-20
Total delight - do get this book!
What a pleasure to dip and soar through these reflections on nature, animals, birds, perception, love, grief, and so much more. Each essay was quite different, but the overall collection was knit together beautifully. The language was stunning (Helen is also a poet). And humor was everywhere! A further pleasure: the author reading the book. Her voice with its gentle accent made the experience of listening to it feel all the more personal. She’s a gracious, self-deprecating, and very funny person.
This is a perfect book for enhancing your own experience of engaging with the natural world. The essay form allows you to dip into bits of writing, ideal for calming down at the end of the day or taking a break.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Pecky Woodpecker
- 08-19-21
The best narrator
This is my second Helen Macdonald audible. Frankly, I think I am as entranced by her performance as I am by her writing. She is simply a magnificent narrator. I hope she will always read her own work.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Secutor
- 11-09-20
Pure delight
Reading the title essay, printed in the NYT before the book's publication, I was floored by the beauty, depth, and clarity of Macdonald's writing. The rest of the book was equally impressive, and made richer by the author's pitch-perfect reading.
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8 people found this helpful