Review
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"This hard-to-put-down, charming blend of science,
biography, and memoir illuminating the little-known story of the
composer and his beloved bird is enlivened by the immediacy of
Haupt's tales of Carmen, and brimming with starling information,
travelogues, and historical details about Mozart's
Vienna."―Booklist (Starred Review)
"Weaving together cheerful memoir, natural history, and
biography, the author celebrates her 'insatiably social' pet
starling, Carmen; investigates Mozart's experience with his avian
companion... and offers intriguing details about starling
behavior."―Kirkus Reviews
"Stories of [Carmen's] upbringing interspersed with details about
Mozart, his family and career are both delightful and
interesting."―Seattle Times
"Charming and highly readable."―St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Mozart's Starling is a delightful, enlightening, breathless
flight through the worlds of Carmen and Star, two European
starlings who join their human counterparts in exploring life and
music and nature, helping to shed light on the connection between
humans and birds -- those of us bound to terra firma, and those
who are free to soar."―Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing
in the Rain and A Sudden Light
"Mozart's Starling sparkles with imagination, emotion, and
in. Common birds, who too many consider vermin, have great
gifts to share. Thank you, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, for showing us the
delight and magic of a starling."―Sy Montgomery, author of
Birdology and The Soul of an Octopus
"Lyanda Lynn Haupt raised a starling of her own to see if the
tale of Mozart and his starling could be true. Her experience
brings the legend of musician and bird into our present world
where science rules. Yet even today, the song of the starling,
but a minute in length, lies at the very limits of human
comprehension. Read the book and you will learn why."―David
Rothenberg, author of Why Birds Sing and Survival of the
Beautiful
"A brave thing it is to write a love-song to starlings, in a
conservation culture inclined not only to struggle with exotic
species, but to demonize them. But Lyanda Haupt has done just
that--not as apologist for wildlings in North America, but as
celebrant of an utterly extraordinary, beautiful, and deeply
engaging animal in and of itself. In prose as lovely as birdsong
and as clear and sharp as the cool air itself, she has given
starlings--hers, Mozart's, the whole species--the kind of loving
and rigorous Life that every kind of creature deserves but very
few get. I thought of Gerald Durrell, Konrad Lorenz, and Jane
Goodall, none of whom I loved reading more. The story of Carmen,
Star, and their humans is as riveting as a good novel, and I
learned as much about Mozart as about birdsong and birdbrains. I
enjoyed Mozart's Starling immensely, and I challenge anyone to
read it and still treat starlings inhumanely. Lucky is the bird
that finds its Papagena."―Robert Michael Pyle, author of Through
a Green Lens and Mariposa Road
"By raising up her own pet starling, Lyanda Lynn Haupt reveals
something that music historians have missed -- how daily life
with a bird impacted Mozart during his most productive period. By
sharing this delightful tale with the rest of us, she also
reveals the unexpected quirks and charms of a species too often
dismissed as a pest. Mozart's Starling is pure pleasure."―Thor
Hanson, author of The Triumph of
"Haupt's is an informative and entertaining book of a well-versed
ornithologist/ naturalist who adopted a five-day old starling
chick into the family. Starlings are well known for their vocal
ingenuity that had entranced not only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
but also biologists and linguists. The bird that had entranced
Mozart entranced Haupt as well, and in part for the same reasons.
Starlings and humans are both highly social and vocal, providing
an rtunity for mutual bonding and cross-species
communication. Indeed, there is debate whether Mozart was
influenced by his starling or vice versa. Haupt's adventure with
the starling that became a companion and bond-mate prompted a
classic adventure into the nature of the bird, music, and
Mozart's relationships. This highly readable account is a success
at several levels, and is bound to become a classic."―Bernd
Heinrich, author of Mind of the Raven and One Wild Bird at a Time
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About the Author
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Lyanda Lynn Haupt is an ecophilosopher, naturalist, and
author of several books, including The Urban Bestiary, Crow
Planet, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent, and Rare Encounters
with Ordinary Birds. A winner of the Washington State Book Award
and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, she lives in
Seattle with her husband and daughter.
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