Better Living Through Birding

<b>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.</b><br><b><br>Wondrous . . . captivating.&#148;&#151;Ed Yong Pulitzer Prize&#150;winning author of <i>An Immense World</i></b><br><br>Christian Cooper is a self-described &#147;Blerd&#148; (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&#160;in the&#160;park one morning in May 2020&#160;Cooper&#160;was engaged in the&#160;birdwatching&#160;ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old&#160;when what might have been&#160;a routine encounter with a dog walker&#160;exploded&#160;age-old racial&#160;tensions.&#160;Cooper&#146;s&#160;viral&#160;video of the incident would&#160;send shock waves through the nation.<br><br>In <i>Better Living Through Birding</i> 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 <i>Better Living Through Birding</i> exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.<br><br>Equal parts memoir travelogue and primer on the art of birding this is Cooper&#146;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. <i>Better Living Through Birding</i> recounts Cooper&#146;s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life if only we would look and listen.