May Keyword Challenge

For May the Keyword options were bird, shine, laugh, clothing, name, run, shatter, lost, wings, and world.

I originally chose to read The Boy Who Drew Birds for this month’s book. It is a biography about John Audabon. I did read it in about fifteen minutes; I hadn’t realized that it was a children’s biography. I felt that I should find something a little longer to fulfill the Monthly Keyword Challenge. I went to my TBR list on goodreads.com and discovered another book with birds in the title.

So the book I ended up choosing for the challenge is A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Draysonpublished in 2008.

“For the past three years, the widower Mr. Malik has been in love with Rose Mbikwa, a woman who leads the weekly bird walks sponsored by the East African Ornithological Society. Reserved and honorable, Malik wouldn’t be noticed by a bystander in a Nairobi street – except perhaps to comment on his carefully sculpted comb-over. But beneath that unprepossessing exterior lie a warm heart and a secret passion.”

With this description on the dust jacket, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa begins. Mr. Malik is a quiet and thoughtful character who walks unnoticed through life, yet who has beliefs and passions and in his own quiet way affects lives all around him.

He soon finds himself in a contest against his childhood nemesis, seeking the hand of Ms. Mbikwa. The contest is to spot the most birds within seven days.

The events are told by a narrator who brings in an interesting twist and sometimes some rather amusing side comments. Joanne Harris, the author of Chocolat, probably describes the feel of the book best when she says, “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa is a book of immense charm; a sort of P. G. Wodehouse meets Alexander McCall Smith.”

I kept thinking about the story of the Hare and the Tortoise as I read. A Guide isn't exactly the same, but you can see the Aesop theme woven in there among all the scientific bird names, which surprisingly don't take away from the readability of the book.

I highlight recommend the book as a sweet and lovely story of quiet, good people.

For more May Keyword Reads visit Book Marks to Blog.