I cannot express enough how wholesome and warm this book is. Reading this curled up on the couch, periodically looking out my window at the wildlife around me, I felt like I was so content.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan depicts drawings and journal entries from her time learning about birding. And yes, it's THAT Amy Tan. Her drawings and sketches of birds and her hilarious accounts of all that comes with bird watching were so much fun to read. You can tell by reading it just how much she cares about birds, nature, and being one with her surroundings. I'm trying to get more into bird watching, and so this book was the perfect book for me to pick up. I had such a good time reading it and will absolutely be getting a physical copy for myself when it is released!

5/5 stars!!!!!

Well I already love Amy Tan and have ushered myself into my birding era, so I was thrilled to see The Backyard Bird Chronicles was on NetGalley. This was an absolutely wonderful book, and is something that I would definitely buy as a physical copy. The ebook doesn't do her wonderful art justice.

Thanks very much to Knopf for making this title available to review through NetGalley.

This book reminds of the kind of book your grandfather reads, loves, and recommends to you. You ignore ole gramps and then pick it up in a moment of guilt, realize that it's actually fascinating, and you let your grandfather know it was a great suggestion.

He asks if you'd like to go birding, you accept, you have fallen into the birding trap and now argue on internet forums about Yellow Bellied Tits. You and Gramps are closer than ever.

All in all, a fantastic read and I'm off to begin my birding journey!

Well written, of course. Very interesting if you're into birding. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I want to firstly thank the publisher and NetGalley for a digital review copy/ARC of this title!

As a fellow lover of birds, I was immediately drawn into the premise of a journal chronicling the everyday behaviors of backyard birds, and this book was everything I thought it would be and more! Tan delivers a delightful read detailing the fascinating and quirky exploits of a variety of common backyard birds in her own Californian backyard, and I found myself learning so much throughout her entries.

I particularly enjoyed considering all of the questions Tan voiced as she observed the birds, even those to which she had no answers, as I often find myself doing the same when watching my own backyard birds. Yet, despite the fact that we will probably never know all the answers, Tan’s obvious love of and for birds showcases how much of a privilege it is to simply enjoy and bask in the beauty of our birds.

Despite the pangs of heartbreak in a handful of journal entries, it makes me all the more inspired to learn as much as I can about how I can help birds thrive in my own backyard. Her poignant, and often humorous, observations, coupled with her stunning sketches (I cannot wait to read this book in print to appreciate her sketches even more in color!) makes me want to start journaling my own backyard bird chronicles.

I would highly recommend this book to bird lovers everywhere, as well as to those who appreciate the beauty of nature and harbor a curiosity about the amazing creatures who call it home.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which narrates the last few years in the author's backyard as she meets a varied crew of feathered friends. Interspersed with the text are pages directly from her nature journal, which showcase not only her artistic ability but also her sense of humor. Some entries become somewhat repetitive, but seeing the connections drawn from year to year can be useful and interesting too.

Amy Tan is already extremely well-known in the writing world and has been as long as I can remember, so it's fun to see her exploring a skill new to her and embracing curiosity and the experience of being an amateur. As a nature journaler myself, I found this book to be inspiring. It would make the perfect gift for your birdwatching friends.

As a birder myself, I was excited to read this, and I was intrigued by the fact that Amy Tan was the author. I enjoyed this collection of journal entries featuring the birds from her backyard. There were lows (sick and injured birds) and highs (sightings of rare birds or of behavior not often observed). There were observations about the behavior of the different species, and there was humor too, especially in the captions accompanying the illustrations.

I recommend this to any nature lover but especially to fellow birders. Thank you NetGalley for the early read.

I love this so much! It is gorgeous! Amy Tan did something we could all do with little time and talent and maybe a lot more talent. She documented her backyard bird visitors and her excitement was infectious. I am a bird person but this is next level bird love. The sketches are wonderful too!

I was looking out my kitchen window and saw a flock of tiny birds pecking at the ground. It made me think of Amy Tan's journaling of birds that visit her yard throughout the year. Her excitement at seeing her visitors is contagious. I'm wanting to know what I saw in my garden. Chickadees? Maybe. I need to confirm it by doing some research. Having read Tan's journal covering several years, she has obviously done much research and is diligent about putting out food that her visitors like. Her sketches of the birds are good. She writes much about the birds' behavior, their likes, their dislikes, getting good closeups of the birds to sketch along with some humorous notations. I enjoyed reading about her thoughts and feelings as well as her sharing about her visitors. Thank you to NetGalley, and the publisher for the advanced reader's edition.

Thanks so much for the review copy. This book is different from her works of fiction. I liked the sketches.

I picked up this book on a whim since I’ve been a big fan of Amy Tan’s novels. I knew I might be disappointed since this is clearly nonfiction and about her personal journey into sketching birds and becoming a birder – two things which I am not. What a little gem this book turned out to be.
Ms Tan has a gift for touching the common spirit we all have. She shares her life, frailties and successes in this book, creating something enjoyable to read just as she does with her fiction. The book is entirely what it is described to be: a recap of how she became a backyard birder along with her sketches. But along the way, she writes a bit about her life as an author and her need for personal enrichment.
California birders might find this more interesting as those are the birds she sketches and discusses. But I found joy in reading her journey into discovering new beauty in her own backyard and how it enriched her life.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a prerelease copy.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles
by Amy Tan

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Seeking solace from a troubling world growing ever more divisive, Amy Tan turns to the natural wonders fluttering in her backyard. In The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Tan shares her musings, observations and drawings of her avian visitors. It is a thoughtful and charming collection created from excerpts of her personal journals dating back to 2016. Tan states that what began as an amusing distraction from her writing became an obsession of sorts. The stories range from humorous to heartbreaking, personal to scientific. In her writing, we witness the shift in her perceptions through exploration, the recapturing of her childlike wonder and curiosity of the natural world, and her growth as an artist.

Tan’s personal reflections are very readable, relatable and complemented by her collection of artistic renderings. I feel a twinship with the author as she marvels at a bird who playfully swings seemingly for no other purpose than pleasure, or another who pauses when it is eating, looks and acknowledges that she is there. Through The Backyard Bird Chronicles, I also appreciated a closer and more personal look at an otherwise unknown aspect of an author whose literary works I have long admired. Don’t pass up the appendix containing Tan’s backyard bird catalogue, recommended readings including how-to-guides for bird illustrations and other resources provided for further exploration.

I’d like to thank the author @AmyTanWriter, @AAKnop and @NetGalley Audio for the pleasure of reading this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Look for it! Pub Date: 23 Apr 2024

Renowned bestselling author of “The Joy Luck Club” (among numerous other novels), Amy Tan, is also an exceptional artist and amateur ornithologist who demonstrates her prowess for both in her nonfiction book, “Backyard Bird Chronicles,” that is awe-inspiring in its beautifully illustrated and sensitively rendered full-color avian artwork; poetically crafted educational text; and humorously annotated and depicted quick sketches of daily habits of birds around her home.

The daughter of an ornithologist, Tan notes that her father encouraged her and her brother to observe, study, classify and draw birds from the time they were toddlers capable of drawing and writing. Drawing is an activity that Tan states that she has always enjoyed, but never took lessons for until she was in her early sixties.

From the exquisitely detailed artworks presented in “Chronicles,” Tan demonstrates her rare gift as a nature artist with bird portraits to rival those of great American Naturalist John J. Audubon. Tan’s details of bird feathering, ruffling crests, eye contact, and color patterns is stunning.

She also shares how she and her husband, Lou, created a nature habitat in their backyard specifically to attract a large variety of bird visitors. Tan provides instructions on feeding and watering birds; offers ideas for making homemade bird baths and hummingbird feeders; suggests bird box ideas and much, much more.

This is a treasure for every BIRDER friend and family member! Amy Tan is one of my all-time favorite authors. Now, she is one of my favorite artists and naturalists.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author and Artist Amy Tan, and Publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

This beautiful book was written and illustrated by Amy Tan who wrote The Joy Luck Club. I absolutely love birdwatching so I found this book fascinating and relatable. Very well written.

This is a difficult book to rate as it’s a collection of personal observations and sketches of birds by Amy Tan, one of my favorite authors. I enjoy her books, but this one was just not for me. If you are a bird lover, and enjoy reading detailed and sometimes entertaining stories about birds, you may enjoy this one!

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor
for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles is a beautiful masterpiece of art. Amy Tan uses her excellence in writing and her newly found talent in drawing. The birds she illustrates mimic the reality of the shapes, colors, postures, and presentation as if they were before you. Her words bring the sketches to life. Throughout the journal entries, she introduces new members of her community. She builds a community by using birds as the contributors. With similar entries for each day, she is able to maintain consistency of language without falling into the trap of repeating what happens each day. The subtle differences in her observations are as apparent as the differences between the birds' appearance. I have a lot of respect for her determination to learn how to sketch and observe birds. With this text, she is able to accomplish a lot.

Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for this Advance Reader's Copy.

This book is exactly what the title says--a chronicle/diary of Amy Tan's backyard birdwatching, complete with gorgeous illustrations by Tan herself. There is a bit of memoir here, but readers should be prepared for the birds to be the main focus. And Tan, as might be expected from a master of fiction, really makes them fly off the page. As someone who is just becoming interested in birdwatching, I thoroughly enjoyed Tan's witty and self-deprecating account of how she became a birder and the humorous stories of the lengths she will go to (filling her fridge with live mealworms, for example) to keep her backyard bird obsession going strong.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Knopf for providing me with the ARC of this title in return for my honest review. A pleasure!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Okay, I admit I am not a bird person. Having seen Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds, I decided my travels will never include Bodega Bay. In high school, my best friend’s younger brother had an enormous cockatoo that he let fly around the house. It would skim your head, which I found just frightening, and while you were flinching and covering your head, it would circle around and dive-bomb you again. And sorry (NOT sorry), but bird feet are the stuff of nightmares. But Amy Tan is the author, so I gave it a go. While she didn’t quite change my mind about birds, I loved this book!

Over the years, she has turned her backyard into a bird spa and her journal reflects her passion for these creatures. Her writing is at times calming, at times sorrowful, but always heartfelt. Her sense of humor shines through, and the sketches she has included are gorgeous. So, even if you’re not a bird person, I think you will enjoy spending a few pleasant hours with Amy in her “very birdy” backyard, searching for the ways beauty hides in plain sight.

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan is a wholly charming tome. Amy Tan is know for her remarkable fiction, and this book is quite a departure from her normal work. Here, you’ll find her personal accounts of various birds and their habits. Her ability to tell a story, even a real story as in this book, is unparalleled. Ms Tan’s normal readers may not find the normal fiction she writes but I think if they looked deeper, they’d find her classic storytelling is clearly evident. She brings nature to life in such a beautiful way. I think this book would be lovely as an audiobook. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

This is a delightful look into the journals of author Amy Tan. Ms. Tan wanted to learn more about the birds in her backyard and so began drawing them and noting her observations. She writes beautifully (and draws well, too — who knew?) about what she sees, sometimes giving the birds made-up backstories. It was unexpected, engaging and educational. Five stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.