A Feathered Family: Nature Notes from a Woodland Studio

by Linda Johns

A successful painter and sculptor living in a woodland studio, Linda Johns has become widely known as the "Bird Lady" for her work in rescuing and caring for birds and other wildlife. She began by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578050561
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Sierra Club Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.9" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

If you love wild animals

This is an adorable book for all ages if you love animals. Funny and informative. I am now sharing this Lady's books with a friend of mine, and she usually read educational and informative heavy reading, but really enjoyed this book. I passed my book to her because she has done bird rehab for over 25 yrs. My friend is a LOT like Ms Johns and I have laughed at stories my friend has told about some of her memorial birds. READ if you love animals.

Mostly loved it.

One of my favorite genres of books these days includes the memoirs of people who share their lives with formerly-wild animals. I've got a Listmania list going, in fact, and I'll be including this book on that list just as soon as I finish this review. This book definitely rates among the better books of that genre. The author shares her home with a variety of birds, including pigeons, roosters, a quail, and many others. She is known in her area for her knowledge of wild birds and their illnesses, so she frequently takes in and tends to injured birds brought by neighbors. Her stories of these birds, both the type that come to her for brief convalescence, as well as those who live with her permanently, are very charming and sweet. The stories are made more fun by the lovely illustrations that accompany the stories, and which were rendered by the author herself. You'll be in love with Bubble and Squeak and Basho right away, no doubt. I suppose I must admit I did not especially care for the passages where the author waxes philosophical. This genre of memoir seems almost of necessity to include alternating chapters of this sort, and I almost invariably find them tedious and I always find them meandering. So I wind up skimming, as I did here. Also, the author's love affair with adverbs was distracting. Things never just happened, they happened "gingerly" or "insistently". Which is fine but if it happens so much that I start noticing it, then it's too much. Having said all that, this author has some chops and spins a lovely yarn.

Entertaining reading for all bird and wildlife enthusiasts

Linda Jones is an accomplished painter and sculptor who lives in a woodland studio and became widely known as the "Bird Lady" because of her work in rescuing and caring for birds and other wildlife. She began by tending the occasional wounded or orphaned bird that came her way and today shares her home with an ever-shifting population of birds and other creatures -- some of whom having moved in to stay! In A Feathered Family: Nature Notes From A Woodland Studio, Linda Johns writes lyrically and engagingly about the natural world around her studio and the feathered characters who visit her and who share her home. With a natural talent for storytelling, Johns regales the reader with funny, affectionate stories enhanced with her drawings of avian house mates. A Feathered Family is enthusiastically recommended and entertaining reading for all bird and wildlife enthusiasts.

I want this woman's life

I started reading this book for my job, which means I didn't have any expectations. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Linda Johns' writing is a perfect winter read since her lyrical prose is like a warm blanket. She invites you into her world of rural simplicity without any presumptions and introduces you to her feathered family of roosters, pigeons, quails, robins, blue jays and who ever else happens to fly in and out of those pages. Yet Johns doesn't concentrate solely on the birds in her life, she also speaks of the harmonious connection she has with the lanscape around her and the significance of time and seasons. Her life and writing is like a magical dream and she has the rare talent on offering that feeling to her readers. I know this book is great since I would rather sit with a cup of hot apple cider and read than watch any prime-time television shows.