Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up."Wondrous . . . captivating."--Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World A Washington Post and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year - Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal Christian Cooper is a self-described "Blerd" (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper's viral video of the incident would send shock