Better Living Through Birding

April 15, 2023
A celebration of the delights of watching birds. On Memorial Day 2020, Cooper was bird-watching in Central Park when he asked a dog walker to comply with the park's rules and leash her dog. Her angry response prompted him to video the interaction on his phone--including her call to the police claiming that "there's an African American man threatening my life." Posted by one of Cooper's friends, the video ignited a "firestorm of attention." That racist incident brackets the author's engaging debut memoir chronicling his transformation from a nerdy kid on Long Island in the late 1960s, who confessed that he was gay only to one friend, into a Black, queer activist who revels in bird-watching. Cooper became a birder on nature walks with his father and during the family's yearly summer camping trips to national parks. As they drove, he read Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds, surprising his parents when he could identify some of the species they encountered. Birding was an immediate pleasure. "One of the best things about birding," he writes, "is how it pulls you out of your inner monologue and forces you to observe a larger world." Feeling like a misfit in high school, Cooper found Harvard more welcoming. He discovered the Harvard Ornithological Club and the Gay Students Association, and he came out to his three roommates. The author recounts many remarkable bird sightings in his travels in Central Park and around the world, and he peppers the text with birding tips--e.g., don't learn birdsongs from recordings but rather from attentive listening. As the author shows, birding was a constant amid personal tumult: affairs and a brief marriage; renewing his relationship with his difficult father; the deaths of his mother and grandmother; protesting racism and anti-LGBTQ+ violence; and introducing the first gay superhero when he wrote for Marvel Comics. Candid reflections from an appealing guide to the birding life.

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Starred review from April 17, 2023
Cooper, a Black birder who first gained media attention after sharing a video of him being falsely accused by a white woman of threatening her in Central Park in 2020, debuts with a lively, thoughtful memoir in which he defines himself by the hobby he was pursuing the afternoon he made headlines. Identifying himself as a “Black gay activist birder,” Cooper recounts his longtime love for the winged creatures, nurtured during his Long Island childhood and college years at Harvard. With colorful and sometimes snarky commentary (“southern screamer” birds are “not to be confused with a vocal Alabamian in the throes of excitement”), Cooper reflects on how his hobby provided skills, including sensory sharpness he’s since deployed at protests and other potentially hostile confrontations, that have helped him navigate the world as a gay Black man. In addressing the Central Park incident, he elegantly frames it within both his own bird-focused narrative and a broader conversation about racism and police brutality: “I have lived my whole life as a Black man in the United States. I don’t have to go all the way back to Tulsa and Rosewood and Emmett Till to know what it means for a white woman to accuse a Black man, and who would likely be believed.” These more sweeping arguments are never made with a cudgel; instead, they organically emerge from his captivating personal story. Meanwhile, his passion for birding could make hobbyists of even the most avian-agnostic. This rewarding memoir adds heft and heart to the headlines. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

October 15, 2023
When New Yorker Cooper was birding one spring morning in 2020 in Central Park, as he has often done for many years, a disturbing incident, captured on videos that went viral, catapulted him into the public eye and (speaking for the public) we should be forever grateful. Cooper, a self-professed ""Black queer nerd,"" is an avid birder and in this beautifully written memoir he brings the reader along on his life's journey. As the author says, birds are always available and are for everyone to enjoy, and his tales of urban and international birding more than make this point. Mentored in his youth by the leader of local Audubon bird walks, Cooper found his place in the ranks of birders. He also found escape and inspiration in science fiction and comic books, ultimately landing a job editing and writing for Marvel Comics where he was the first to introduce gay story lines. Cooper recounts global forays around the world that immersed him in the natural world, sharing birding tips throughout, while his honesty about relationships and family make him feel like a friend. When the trajectory of his life leads to the fateful encounter with a racist white woman in Central Park, we understand his decision not to seek revenge for her false accusation, but rather to share his experience. This remarkable story will resonate with birders, nature lovers, and everyone who has been made to feel as though they're outside the mainstream.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.