In her luminous third book, The Comfort of Crows--an Indie Next Pick--Margaret Renkl (Graceland, at Last; Late Migrations) takes readers through the details of a year in her Nashville neighborhood. Elegant, lucid essays follow the changing seasons, accompanied by lavishly illustrated mixed-media collages by her brother, Billy Renkl, and invite readers to explore the details of nesting bluebirds, maple trees, garden grubs, sunsets, and Renkl's affection for the birds of the book's title. As she enters a new year, Renkl "cling[s] to the crow's promise of metamorphosis."
Ailing foxes, hungry birds, sunbathing turtles, and her own dog's "Marvelous Nose" remind Renkl and readers to pay attention to winter's denizens. As the calendar turns toward spring, Renkl records various birdsongs, the shifting light and weather, and her own impatience for warmer days. The Comfort of Crows celebrates the beauty and durability of nature's age-old cycles and the habits of wild creatures, and urges human beings to care for them. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams