Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness,   ISBN:9780316019101

Customer Rating: 

Lyanda Lynn Haupt uses the crow as a departure point to discuss the wilderness to be found in our urban midst. In beautiful prose she interweaves personal reflections, scientific observations and crow tales, creating a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking work. I plan to purchase copies of this book to give to friends as I refuse to part with my own cherished tome.

Customer Rating: 

As an urban planner, a mother and a want-to-be naturalist, I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Haupt's journey through our "urban wilderness". Her prose is beautiful, gentle and accessible and peppered with gorgeous illustrations in between chapters. Not only did I discover more of the habits of the omnipresent crows outside my study window, but Ms. Haupt also uses crows as a metaphor. I learned about a life lived authentically by someone striving to raise her daughter, be a naturalist in an urban environment, and search for ecological peace in an increasing complex world. Thank you Ms. Haupt for your wisdom!

Customer Rating: 

I enjoyed Crow Planet thoroughly. The author has a perceptive eye, an open heart, and a writing style that is both graceful and crisp. I had the good fortune of a long ride and read the book in one sitting, with time to ponder. Crows are reputedly about as intelligent as dogs, and it was certainly interesting to learn something about the complexity of their behavior. The crow is representational, of course, and the parallels of their urban existence and ours are illuminating.

I'll likely read it again once it is returned to me--the book is making the rounds of family and friends who have found it very pleasant reading and are looking forward to more of Haupt's work.

Customer Rating: 

There's no question that this author knows how to put a sentence together, but I found myself skimming and even skipping most of the book just to read a short...very short anecdote about crows and other birds she happens to mention. Most of book was devoted to the author's philosophy, and unfortunately, she came off as preachy, elitist and more than a bit self-absorbed. The book was recommended to me by a bird lover...I guess my problem is that I assumed it was about crows. From my perspective, it's better described as a woman's reflections on her life, and her reflections sometimes involve crows.

Customer Rating: 

I liked the crow anecdotes, which were interesting and sometimes touching. I could have done without the preaching and philosophy, however. There was about as much about crows in this book as there is about motorcycles in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.