The Genius of Birds

By Jennifer Ackerman,

Book cover of The Genius of Birds

Book description

“Lovely, celebratory. For all the belittling of ‘bird brains,’ [Ackerman] shows them to be uniquely impressive machines . . .” —New York Times Book Review 

“A lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence.” —Scientific American

An award-winning science writer tours the globe to reveal what makes birds capable of…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Genius of Birds as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Each chapter was focused on a particular type of bird intelligence.

Each of the five books on my list come at what’s happening to birds from a very different angle.

The Genius of Birds, a blockbuster by one of the world’s leading nature writers, tells a string of stories that help us understand why birds are both so remarkable and so crucial to the globe.

The thrust of the book is that birds are far smarter than once thought. But these chapters go much deeper than that into how birds are crafty, have tremendous memories, and are even capable of deceit.

Ackerman followed up The Genuis of Birds with an equally…

From Anders' list on what’s happening to our birds.

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Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

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