Spanning three decades and told through three people's perspectives, each covering a specific time period, The Nature of Small Birds gives a glimpse into the story of Mindy, a woman who was airlifted out of Saigon and adopted by a family in the U.S.

Oddly enough, Mindy's voice is not one of the three main perspectives. Instead, we hear from her father, mother, and older sister.

Overall it was okay, but there are a number of loops that were not closed and moments that the author doesn't circle back around to, leading me to wonder why they're included in the first place as they don't add to the story -- other than to bring in an element of confusion.

I love reading Susie Finkbeiner's novels because they force me to take my time and savor each moment. They're an invitation into the lives of the characters, and they make me feel as though I know them personally. That is exactly how I felt reading The Nature of Small Birds.

This story was written in three different eras - 1975, 1988, and 2013/14 - and each one was told by a different member of the family. What was interesting and left me questioning a little was the fact that, in a family of 4, only three POVs were represented. The fourth, Mindy, was not. But I have no doubt that this was strategically done and wonder if Mindy would have had a voice if the story continued to the present day.

Regardless of how many members were represented, I liked how the story was laid out and how the years worked hand in hand to tell the same story or give a purpose to the new action. I also liked how the story's title was worked in throughout the novel and how God was front and center in each quote I gravitated toward. God is always there, He cares, He sees and hears. Subtle messages, but powerful.

The ending did surprise me as I was expecting something different, but I can't say as though I was disappointed. It honestly made perfect sense to me in regard to what was being said throughout the story. Finkbeiner gave enough information to understand what could happen next, and it's up to the reader to surmise what that could be.

I loved this story and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book they could curl up with and enter into the world of an everyday family living their life and doing the best they could.

I've loved Susie Finkbeiner's previous books that I read... However I wasn't able to get into The Nature of Small Birds. I may come back to it another time, but for now it's not for me.

I'll admit, books with multiple POVs and timelines are not my favorite. They tend to be choppy and I always feel impatient while reading. So this book automatically lost a few points for me personally, but I still fell in love with the gentleness and wisdom of this story. The meandering, cozy story of adoption and middle-class family life in the 70s and 80s, up to the present and Wendell-Berry-reading Bruce stole my heart, along with the rest of the family.


Author Susie Finkbeiner has an uncanny knack for family relationships that come to life. I did notice a few holes and missing links in the plot, which bothered me, but in a way it fits the imperfect reminiscing of the characters, I suppose.


Minh and her family's journey to grapple with the circumstances surrounding her adoption from Vietnam to the States was not an epic page-turner, but instead, delicate and bright-eyed, like a small sparrow.

"Emily Dickinson said that hope is a little bird, singing her heart out during a terrible storm. ...It's the nature of small birds to sing their hearts out. And it's the nature of God to hear them."

I read a lot of non-fiction, so I want my fiction breaks to be really good writing, with lovable characters and a dose of suspense that keeps you flipping the pages. That's what sets fiction apart for me.

The Nature of Small Birds had all this. The tie in with actual birds was thought-provoking as well. Really well done.

The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner is a beautifully written story of a family. Told in multiple voices and in many different time periods, this story weaves together remarkably into a lovely cohesive whole. I am not sure there is another author out there that can write with the emotional depth that this author can. This book is no exception. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves historical dramas, especially those centered around a family. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

Even though I am incredibly late to post this review, I couldn't resist sharing my thoughts. This book is Beautiful. The characters become real to you as you read and the whole book is just a Masterpiece. I don't know why it took me so long to finish this, the writing is masterful! Susie Finkbeiner I have no words. The writing is like poetry, just floating and melting off the page. The only content I can think of is there was I believe a comment from a husband to a wife about having fun making babies (no details) Other than that it mentions a man's knuckles grazing a woman's thigh as he reaches to hold her hand. However, I think that really was about it. This book was Gorgeous, one of those books that you want to say so much good about it, but you can't think of the right words. Read it! You won't regret it.

God bless!

My many thanks to the Author and Netgalley for the arc of this book!

This is a straightforward, clearly written novel. It's a beautiful and interesting perspective about a particular era of international adoption. Adoption is close to my heart, so this book was meaningful for me to read.

It's multiple point of view and hops through time, which I really enjoyed! It took me a minute to get used to it, but then it was easy to follow.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher to read and review.

I thought The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner was a good read. I liked and am giving it three and a half stars.

The Nature of Small Birds is an intricate story containing three different time periods and each with multiple narrators. The story of Linda and Bruce adopting their baby from Vietnam after their experience protesting the war was truly a tale to behold. There was a lot to absorb from this tale. It ran the gamut of what it means to be family, the process of adoption, what it is to parent, and personal identity.

The author, Susie Finkbeiner, saved space for the reader to feel the vulnerability and emotions of the story and its characters. This was important because there are many emotions that flooded my senses as I read this book. Simply the effects of war themselves were enough to stay in my mind for awhile. It's an time that I continue to learn about and it never fails to stay with me. And Finkbeiner does such a fantastic job in weaving authenticity throughout this story - so much so that it can almost easily be confused with being a true story.

While I enjoyed the multiple POVs, I do wish we could have also had Minh's POV in order to further experience the story from each experience and angle. I think it would have added even more richness to the story especially because adoption is at the center of it.

I recommend this book to any reader who enjoys stories of family dynamics - it is definitely worth the read.

I really enjoyed this book. I like time-slip novels, and this was done particularly well, with three members of the family telling the story, each from a different time. I really liked watching the family dynamics, between parents and children and grandparents/in laws. The conflict experienced by people who had lost a family member in Vietnam when they saw a child adopted from there was something I never thought about before. This is definitely one of my top 10 books this year, and I'll be watching for more from this author.

I received a review copy of this book from <Book Provider>, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first saw this book. It is a beautiful moving story about Operation Baby lift. I love historical fiction and this is something I did not have a lot of knowledge about. I tend to stick to a certain genre but I am glad I branched out. I love a book that goes back and forth in time. If you are looking for a moving story, this would be a good one to pick up.

Gradually the reader gets to know three members of a family touched by history and adoption. One is the father - helping his children who are now grown find their wings. One is the sister, Sonny - navigating the teen years with her adopted sibling. And one is the mother, who back in the early seventies had a dream to add to their family. That their new daughter would be a child air-lifted out of Vietnam in the final days of the US involvement in their war was not a part of her original plan. But when the call came her family opened up their home to Min - Mindy - and things would never be the same again.
I greatly adored this story. The three timelines mean things unfold slowly but as I got to know the characters I appreciated seeing how the adoption affected them in the past and in the present. The parents had to deal with family disapproval. The sister, Sonny, had her own struggles and did not always appreciate the clinginess of her new sibling. But I loved her scenes and how they found closeness with one another. And the father was so patient with everyone - including his own mother - even when he had his own fears about Min finding her birth family. It is a beautifully told story and the people in it are so real as they strive to do what is best - but don't always get it right. I would definitely recommend this to readers, especially if they enjoy stories about families.

The Nature of Small Birds is the second book I have read by Susie Finkbeiner and I have to say I liked it just as much as All Manner of Things but in a different way. The Nature of Small Birds touched me more emotionally. One minute I was fighting angry and the next sadly crying. The best part was the laughter and joy this story brought.

Susie Finkbeiner penned a heartwarming story of a girl who was adopted from Vietnam during Babylift in 1975, and the effect it had on her adoptive family told in three timelines and by three characters all in first person. The father, Bruce, gives us the grownup family in 2013. Mom, Linda, gives us the early years 1975, and Sonny, their daughter, gives us the teenage years in 1988. The entire story centers around Minh nicknamed Mindy immediately by Sonny.

I have to confess it took me awhile to get into a rhythm reading this book, and I actually reread it in chronological order. Which did I like better, could not honestly say as I had the same emotional response reading it both ways. However reading it chronologically brought out more clarity for me personally story wise. As with all of Susie Finkbeiner’s stories the ending always seems to come way to soon. Highly recommend The Nature of Small Birds and I am definitely going to seek out more books by this author.

I received this book courtesy of Baker Publishing Group/Revell via NetGalley through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions are my own.

The Nature of Small Birds
By Susie Finkbeiner
Rating: 3.5/5

“It’s the nature of small birds to sing their hearts out. And it’s the nature of God to hear them.”

As someone who is a third generation Chinese-American, I was super interested in the story when I read about it. I was unfamiliar with Operation Babylift and wanted to know more. However, as I continued to read the story, I found myself getting confused by the jumping around in perspectives and timelines. It was clearly labeled by chapter but it was harder for me to track. While I found parts of the story really interesting, there were a lot of other parts that did not keep my attention. I struggled with wanting to like the book but wanting to be honest about how the book lacked making an impact on me. The book has some great quotes but it did not connect with me as much as I was thinking it would. The story seems well written and thought out but I just didn’t enjoy it the way I thought I would.

“Sometimes the dreams of the young were replaced by those they never could have dared to imagine.
It didn’t mean that one dream was better than another. They were just different.”

This book is a story about family and what it means to bring a little child into your home who doesn’t share your culture and language and the journey to becoming one family. It’s a beautiful picture of adoption and the love that grows out of that choice. Does it have its flaws? Yes, but it still resonates with some heartfelt truths which make it worth reading.

Recommend if you enjoy books that alternate perspectives and timelines and tell a family’s story.

My thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

"There's no morning without night. And there's no need of overcoming if in this world we don't have trouble."

The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner is an unbelievably lovely story that will break your heart and mend it an instant later, repeating the cycle until you have become an entirely new person. Family, in all its mess and glory, is at the heart of The Nature of Small Birds, with the main focus on Bruce and Linda Matthews and their three daughters, Sonny, Mindy, and Holly. When the couple thought they could have no more children after Sonny, they made the controversial decision to adopt a child from Vietnam in 1975. Pham Quyen Minh quickly became known as Mindy, and, surprise! surprise!, Holly was born many years later in 1988. This unconventional family will squeeze your heart and give you hope that unconditional love really is enough to create and bind a family through all of life’s delights, uncertainties, losses, and tenderness. It’s all there.

Susie Finkbeiner captures the moments of this epic story through three points of view during the three most poignant times in the life of the Matthews family in Michigan: Linda’s viewpoint in 1975, Sonny’s viewpoint in 1988, and Bruce’s viewpoint in 2013/2014. The story swings back and forth across these three years and points of views, which can take a bit of getting used to at first. Fortunately, the author’s writing is so smooth, and the plot is so engrossing, that becoming ensconced in the overall story takes no time at all.

The Nature of Small Birds blossoms across the pages in true literary fashion as the characters are immediately developed into realistic people and as the exquisite plot experiences several dramatic peaks and dips. For example, Bruce lost a brother in Vietnam; therefore, adopting a Vietnamese child raises a few eyebrows and sends Bruce’s mother into a tailspin. The dynamics of this entire family are what give this story its literary flair, providing the reader with a front row seat to the drama, tension, heartache, and love. Over the years, Bruce and Linda raise three little ‘birds,’ who grow up to encounter their own joy and a bit of heartbreak in life. In 2013, Sonny and Mindy fly back to the nest when it is Holly’s turn to wed before she leaves the nest empty. At this time, Mindy makes the monumental decision to locate her birth mother and/or any family in Vietnam, which is an entire dramatic story in itself nestled among the pages of this incredible family album of a story.

"Turns out that the nature of small birds is to fly. It's no different for our kids."

Everything about The Nature of Small Birds is enchanting, even when events and behaviors are less than rosy. That is life. The good and bad mingle and create a life worth living and a family worth loving. This story will appeal to pretty much everyone who enjoys a literary fiction that satisfies all the emotions and leaves a trail of positive feelings in its wake.

"It's the nature of small birds to sing their little hearts out. And it's the nature of God to hear them."

Kennedy tried swallowing and changing her focus to stem the tears, but they came fast and furious, rolling down her cheeks.
“Aw, honey. Come here.” Erik moved closer and drew her into his arms.
She went willingly, giving Pong no choice but to move out of the way, and laid her head against that solid chest, which had once felt the imprint of her head day after day. His solid arms curling around her broke the final straw in her resolve, and she let go. Sobbing. Wetting his shirt.
He gently ran his fingers over her back in rhythmic circles. “Tell me what to do, honey. How to help.”
Don’t call me honey. I don’t deserve it after the way I left you.
Exactly. She didn’t deserve this comfort and support from him, and that was all it took to stop her tears. She needed to push away and put some distance between them before she did something like kiss him.
She pressed her hands against his chest, and he relaxed his arms. But before she could completely lean back, he ran his thumb over the tears lingering on her cheek. Her heart took a tumble into infinity, and she realized she could easily fall in love with this man again. If she wasn’t still in love with him. This wonderful, considerate man who’d always respected her, loved and cared for her. He’d treated her like a princess, and she’d left him like an ogre. Sure, she had to do it, but he hadn’t deserved the hurt and pain she’d caused.
His hand slid into her hair, cupping the back of her head. He leaned closer, as if he were going to kiss her.
Oh, man, what should she do? Her heart longed for the kiss. Her brain warned her to push back. She should move away. Quickly. But her heart was winning, and she couldn’t budge even an inch.
But more than anything, she knew even if she could move, she didn’t want to. Didn’t want to at all.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting. At all.

Yet, it was still beautiful and deep and touched every emotion inside of me.

When I first heard about this book, I was thrilled that I had finally found a Vietnam story. Only, it kind of isn’t. It touches on the Vietnam War, but it doesn’t show the war itself. In fact, it never actually steps one foot into that country.

That was disappointing.

However, I’m a sucker for an emotional adoption story, so this little birdie wriggled its way into my heart once I found my rhythm with the three time periods, all of which were written in first person. That took some getting used to, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The story was so amazing. Little Minh was so adorable! I couldn’t get enough of her, truly. The emotional punches and tension-filled adoption story reminded me so much of Susan Schoenberger’s A Watershed Year, a favorite book of mine that I’ve read at least three times already. If you love that one, you’re going to absolutely want to find a copy of this one… and vice versa.

I’m still not sure what I think of the ending of each of the three storylines. There was resolution in some ways, but so much was left open… but I think it was in a good way. I need to mull it over more and possibly give it another read or two before I fully make up my mind.

Y’all, tears were shed at multiple points during this story, especially in the back third. Have tissues handy if you’re a weeper like me! I love it when a book gets in my heart so much that I feel personally invested to the point of waterworks. It’s a beautiful moment, to cry over an exquisite yet heart-wrenching scene.

May I just say, I loved the Froot Loops lady. Goodness, but I wanted to jump up and give her a one-person standing ovation. Between Linda and her, that bully stood no chance of having the final say-so. I love it when characters stand up to bullies and let them know it’s not okay to treat people like that. I was glad to see that a random stranger was willing to step into the fray for her fellow human being.

Speaking of bullies, it was hard for me to like Hilda in the beginning. I understood her pain and where she was coming from, but it was still so hard to read her rudeness and hate. At about the halfway point, I realized that I actually was appreciating her scenes a little more. I couldn’t really say I ever liked her, but she did grow on me to the point where I got emotional over certain parts of her journey. She had a pretty good arc, even though heart changes weren’t exactly a big part of it. I would have liked to see more growth in her, but the way her story ended up was completely realistic. I can’t imagine it any other way unless she learned more forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance along the way. And maybe she did in her own way. She wasn’t exactly a touchy-feely type that would outwardly express her feelings much, so at times she was a tough one to get a good read on.

One moment did dock a star from my rating. It took no more than a half page, but, for me, that was a half-page too long. A curse word was used right on the page. Not only that, but it was belabored when two different characters made a big deal out of it: “Never in my life had I heard an old lady swear” from one and “seemingly unfazed by the curse word” by the other. I was disappointed in this whole moment. It served no purpose for the overall story arc and, in fact, interrupted a very important scene in the plot. It felt very out of place for multiple reasons.

Just a quick note about the cover: While I adore the simplicity of the cover as well as the beautiful sparrow perched on a branch, that blurry title font has got to go. It nearly gave me vertigo every time I looked at it. The color scheme was beautiful, though. I really cherish book covers with such eye-pleasing colors and images as this one has.

Still, this was a really good book that I will likely read again. A solid four stars, for sure.

Content: replacement expletives, replacement profanity, tobacco, drugs inferred once, alcohol, expletive, gambling (included a teenager)

The Nature of Small Birds
By Susie Finkbeiner

Mindy Matthews wants to connect with her roots. She was a child who was taken from a war-torn country and brought into a family who loved her as their own. But she wants to know if she has family out there. The Nature of Small Birds is the story of Mindy's journey - a journey of discovery.

The book presents Mindy's journey at various periods of time and is told from the perspective of various members of her adoptive family. Her parents Linda and Bruce and her older Sonny all have memories of when Mihn (aka Mindy joined their family. As the story progresses the family dynamics come into play. Mindy was sent to the US as Vietnam fell to Communist forces, a young child leaving her family and her country behind on the promise of something better.

The story alternates between 1975, 1988, and 2013, these glimpses offer insights into the Matthews family - a family joined together by love, who by their very support are offering Mindy what she needs - a chance to discover the prologue of her life.

When you hear the title The Nature of Small Birds and see the cover you just know something beautiful must be tucked away in these pages. And a beautiful story of love unfolds - but with all life not every moment is what we want it to be but it is true to reality.

If you have never read Susie Finkbeiner's work before you are in for a treat as she has a way of bringing her characters to life. They are more than mere words upon a page they have depth and dimension. And if you've read her before you won't be disappointed in this newest work. If asked to describe this book in one word Excellent would be my word of choice.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book with no expectations but that I provide my honest opinion ~ All thoughts expressed are my own.

It's been a long time since I've read a book that was so captivating that I didn't want to stop reading. That was the case when I opened The Nature of Small Birds. The characters, especially the father, Bruce and his relationship with Mindy (Minh) were so endearing that I was totally swept up in their lives. The story centers around the adoption of a young girl from Saigon in the early seventies, during the time when children were being airlifted out of Saigon ahead of the fall of that city. Bruce and Linda desperately wanted another child and decided that giving a home to a young girl in such desperate need was the best thing that they could do. As the story progressed from that decision through the years of raising Mindy and the older sister Sonny, then the late arrival of sister Holly, it carries the reader through to 2013.

A lot is packed into those years: Fears that the adoption might not go through. Strong bigoted reactions from Bruce's mother Hilda. Balancing disparate feelings about the war itself from Bruce's family because of the brother Dale who died over there. Also from his brother-in-law who fought in the war and was so conflicted about the fact that even young children could be seen as the enemy that he struggles to see Minh as his niece. Then there was Mindy's desire to find out more about her birth mother and her family in Vietnam, wondering if there was anyone left, and how everyone in the family reacted to her wish. All of the struggles, conflicts and joys are presented in an almost lyrical prose with bits of information presented in small details that reveal so much.

It was the title and cover of this book that first caught my attention but I had no idea what the story was about before I got the book on NetGalley. I'm so glad I did!

I truly loved the way the birds were slipped into the story as naturally and easily as the Christian elements. The birds are obviously a metaphor for people - how they come in and out of our lives like birds who visit our birdfeeders in the backyard. Some choose to visit often. Some choose to stay. And some fly away. That metaphor is so perfectly right and is presented in a subtle, yet delightful way in this story.