Out of the Woods

A Bird Watcher's Year

By: Ora E. Anderson

Narrated by: David L. Stanley

Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher's Year is a journey through the seasons and a joyous celebration of growing old. In 59 essays and poems, Ora E. Anderson, birder, bird carver, naturalist, and nature writer, reveals the insights and recollections of a keen-eyed observer of nature, both human and avian. The essays follow the rivers and creeks, the highways and little-known byways of Appalachia, and along the way we become nearly as familiar with its numerous bird, plant, and animal species as with the author himself.

These are not the memories of a single year, however, but of a long lifetime spent immersed in the natural world. Out of the Woods, presented with humor and passion, is an account of a well-lived, productive, and satisfying life. The essays offer an intimate portrait of a half century of life on Anderson's beloved old farm (more nearly a nature preserve), where he lived in harmony with birds and nature and followed the rhythm of the seasons. We are invited to share the joys - and the disappointments and sorrows - inherent in such a life.

This book will delight bird watchers, artists, naturalists, backyard gardeners, and anyone who is sometimes tempted to take a rutted, overgrown, and unused path just to see where it leads.

©2007 Ohio University Press (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"This book is a joy to read and rewards subsequent revisits with stylistic wit and wild beauty." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Ora Anderson is the Thoreau of the Appalachian woods." (William H. Thompson, III, Editor, Bird Watcher's Digest)

A perfectly lovely, lively memoir!

What a perfectly lovely, lively memoir. This man sounds like a beautiful person inside and out. Scattered here and there are loving little remembrances of, I assume, his wife. And all the "nature stories" are richly laced with his obvious joy and enthusiasm. I highly recommend this book. Stories of love and life and nature are always wonderful ways to pass the time.