I was - once again - the victim of requesting due to the cover. I liked it so I clicked it willy-nilly. However, what I got from H is for Hawk is a story with so much heart that I found it a lovely read.

H is for Hawk is a memoir with a difference. It is the story of how Helen MacDonald adopted a goshawk however this story of Macdonald raising the bird parallels a massive change in her life - the loss of her father.

It is a bittersweet story about love and loss and was a genuine joy to read.

H is for Hawk by Helen Mcdonald is available now.

For more information regarding Helen MacDonald (@HelenJMacdonald) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Grove Press (@GrovePressUK) please visit their Twitter page.

Featured in Shelf Awareness for Readers Column, "The World is Meant to be Celebrated"

"The tradition of reflective, personal writing does not stop with Williams or Oliver. In her memoir, H Is for Hawk (Grove, $16), Helen Macdonald offers a similarly lyrical reflection on life (and death) and grief and healing. Following the sudden death of her father, Macdonald adopts a goshawk and spends months training it--and grieving."

I had great hope for this glowingly reviewed memoir wherein a woman adopts and trains a Goshawk for falconry. (I had my own, albeit limited, experience helping injured hawks back to the wild — but that’s another post). Mabel, the hawk and her training is said to be a remedy for the death of her father, but that connection is never fully developed or understood. Why a mean-spirited hawk – why not a kitten or a dog? Ms. MacDonald started to loose me as she details her poor raptor’s “training” in a tiny apartment with some less than humane activities. H is for Hawk has some beautiful writing, especially when Mable’s training moves out into the open British countryside. But, I set the book aside and let it gather dust when Ms. MacDonald’s writing became tedious over her obsession with the deceased author (and even more heartless falconer) T.H. White.