I’m absolutely in love with this book. The topic has the potential to veer toward boring but the author is funny and anecdotal and made the topic of a seabird completely enjoyable. ( )

Shearwater is a marvelous memoir of the authors fixation on a bird he first saw as a youth, and later spent a year following across the globe. Both a travelogue and a personal exploration with good natural history nestled in between. I may have seen shearwaters before and not known it, but shortly after finishing this I was on a whale-watch boat off Cape Cod and there was a shearwater, behaving just as described! I was meant to read this- which I received as an Early Reviewer copy. ( )

My only previous experience with Shearwater was with the band by that name. A shearwater is a seabird known for its ability to skim the water. This is a naturalist’s memoir of his experience with and fascination for these birds. This will be delightful for all those who enjoy natural history.

I really didn't know anything about birds before I read this book. And honestly if I was sitting in science class learning about the Manx Shearwater, I would have been so bored. But Morgan-Grenville has converted me to a huge fan of Shearwatwrs! They are so amazing that I fell head-over-heels for them the same way the author did as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the animals as much as I enjoyed reading about the author's life. Not only a great story but so well-written; I underlined so many great lines! His writing style is absolutely poetic. ( )

The author weaves together the story of the Manx shearwater with a recounting of his own decades-long interest in the birds, culminating in a year of travels following the birds' migration. Throughout the book, his passion for seabirds--both shearwaters, and more generally--and their conservation is really clear, and I really appreciated that. It took me quite some time to get into this book (I think I struggled to sort out the book's dual focus at the beginning, though this became clearer later), but I'm definitely glad that I read it. ( )