Sweet Tweets

Now that the nicer weather is here I have been watching the birds come around my backyard. I even saw a couple of pigeons in our trees which surprised me. I have never seen one except on concrete. There are plenty of non-fiction books about birdwatching that the library has to offer, including Birding in Metro Halifax : a month by month adventure guide (M) by Clarence Stevens. I started to wonder what other things birders could see with their binoculars. Here are some fiction titles that may gives you some clues to this:

The Bird Sisters (M) is the debut novel by Rebecca Rasmussen which has one reviewer stating “The Bird Sisters is truly something to crow about”. Milly and Twiss are sisters living in Spring Green, Wisconsin. When injured birds are found, people bring them to the sisters. While Twiss listens to the birds heartbeats, Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who brought the bird in.1974 was a year of change for the sisters. They were challenged by their father’s accident, their priest denounced God, Milly fell in love and their cousin Bett arrived and forever changed their lives. The Bird Sisters has been selected for the Target Emerging Authors Program and The Ladies Home Journal Book Club Pick.


A Rant of Ravens (M) is the first novel in the Birdwatcher’s series by Christine Goff. Rachel Stanhope is a duck out of water when she temporally takes over her vacationing Aunt Miriam’s 2,500 acre bird sanctuary. She barely arrives from New York when the birding community is a buzz about a rare-sighting of a LeConte’s sparrow. While on the search for this bird, Rachel comes across the body of journalist, one who had threatened to expose Aunt Miriam’s late husband for illegal raptor smuggling. While trying to clear her aunt from being the prime suspect, Rachel does her own investing. What she finds will ruffle some feathers along the way.


Tea Olive Bird Watching Society (M) by Augusta Trobaugh is a throwback to the mysteries like Arsenic and Old Lace. In the small southern town of Tea Olive, the founding members of its bird watching club are all named after hymns: Sweet; Beaulah; Zion; and Wildwood. Like most pillars of the community, they always follow proper Southern manners. Until retired Judge L. Hyson Breed comes to town. I found it easy to dislike the judge as one of his first acts as a library board member is to close down the library! Breed tricks Sweet into marrying him in order to steal her land and talks his way onto the town council. When Beaulah and Zion attempt to do away with the judge, while always being polite, the novel becomes a wonderful black comedy.

There as many bird related titles as there are feathers on a peacock. I hope you discover one or two that will tickle your fancy!