Candida Meyrick's latest foray into self-help literature, "Be More Bird", is an exercise in anthropomorphic navel-gazing that fails to take flight. Rather than tapping into the rich inner life of a majestic Harris hawk, Meyrick resorts to trite and overwrought aphorisms drawn from the bird's supposed musings.
In this puzzling book, Meyrick attempts to extract valuable life lessons from Bird's daily experiences, such as preferring her own prey over substitutes and coping with threats from rival birds. However, these insights are reduced to shallow maxims that offer little more than platitudes about staying true to oneself or holding one's ground. The resulting text reads like a parody of New Age motivational literature.
One can almost sense Meyrick's embarrassment as she realizes her attempts at profundity fall flat, and yet, she continues to pile on the clichéd language in an effort to salvage what little meaning remains. Phrases such as "memory is celestial" are particularly cringe-worthy, betraying a desperate attempt to imbue Bird's experiences with existential significance.
Meyrick's decision to build her book around these bird-inspired maxims may be an attempt to distance herself from more critically acclaimed works in the nature writing genre, such as Helen Macdonald's "H Is for Hawk", which explored similar themes with greater nuance and depth. Whatever her motivations, Meyrick's efforts have resulted in a book that feels contrived, plodding, and disappointingly lacking in genuine insight into the life of its avian subject.
Ultimately, Sophia Houdini White Wing – as Bird comes to be known – might offer some stern but uplifting advice to those who find themselves trapped in this kind of shallow self-help. As it stands, Meyrick's book is a skippable exercise in formulaic inspiration that fails to take wing.
In this puzzling book, Meyrick attempts to extract valuable life lessons from Bird's daily experiences, such as preferring her own prey over substitutes and coping with threats from rival birds. However, these insights are reduced to shallow maxims that offer little more than platitudes about staying true to oneself or holding one's ground. The resulting text reads like a parody of New Age motivational literature.
One can almost sense Meyrick's embarrassment as she realizes her attempts at profundity fall flat, and yet, she continues to pile on the clichéd language in an effort to salvage what little meaning remains. Phrases such as "memory is celestial" are particularly cringe-worthy, betraying a desperate attempt to imbue Bird's experiences with existential significance.
Meyrick's decision to build her book around these bird-inspired maxims may be an attempt to distance herself from more critically acclaimed works in the nature writing genre, such as Helen Macdonald's "H Is for Hawk", which explored similar themes with greater nuance and depth. Whatever her motivations, Meyrick's efforts have resulted in a book that feels contrived, plodding, and disappointingly lacking in genuine insight into the life of its avian subject.
Ultimately, Sophia Houdini White Wing – as Bird comes to be known – might offer some stern but uplifting advice to those who find themselves trapped in this kind of shallow self-help. As it stands, Meyrick's book is a skippable exercise in formulaic inspiration that fails to take wing.
. It's like they took all the clichés from self-help books and replaced 'you' with 'Bird'. "Stay true to yourself" no kidding, Bird! Who doesn't know that already? 
And don't even get me started on the writing style - it's like Meyrick was trying to be all poetic and stuff but ended up sounding like a parody of a New Age guru 
. And what's with the "memory is celestial" nonsense? Give me a break! 
It's just so cheesy and over-the-top...
I mean... Interesting how she thought "memory is celestial" would be profound 
The whole thing feels like it's trying way too hard to be inspirational and it just ends up being cheesy 
And yeah, the comparison to Helen Macdonald's book makes sense, but Bird just isn't as interesting or well-developed as her hawk 
"Be More Bird" just doesn't fly for me, you know? It feels like she's trying too hard to be deep and profound, but really it's just a bunch of shallow sayings strung together. And can we talk about how cringeworthy those "celestial memory" phrases are? 
. The idea of exploring life lessons through the eyes of a majestic bird like the Harris hawk sounds super intriguing at first, but it just ends up feeling like a watered-down version of actual inspiration 
. All this "being true to oneself" stuff is about as original as a sunrise 
and doesn't exactly set my soul on fire 
. And what's up with all these trite phrases that sound like they were ripped straight from a motivational poster 
? It's like she's trying way too hard to come across as profound, but ultimately just ends up feeling forced and contrived 
. All in all, I'd say this book is more of a skippable read 
than an actual page-turner 
.
It sounds like Candida Meyrick took some cool bird facts and turned them into cheesy life lessons. Like, who thought it was a good idea to say "memory is celestial"? 
I mean, if you're gonna write about birds, at least try to bring some real insight or nuance to the table 
And honestly, who needs all that existential angst just to figure out how to be a better person? 
!
. Anyway, I'm still not sure if it's all bad - maybe there are some redeeming qualities in here somewhere? 
bird sounds cool, but let's not try to extract life lessons from a bird's instincts 
it sounds like it was a bit of a letdown, and the whole thing just felt so forced and cliché 
anyway, i hope you know that you're not alone in feeling this way, and there are plenty of amazing books out there that offer real insight and guidance 
. If Sophia Houdini White Wing wanted to inspire people, she should've stuck to what birds actually do – fly south for the winter and poop on stuff 
"
If Bird was gonna teach us something it'd be how to not get eaten by a hawk 
. Meyrick's book just feels like an over-the-top version of every self-help book I've read before 
Can't we get some real depth in our bird books? 