<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>From their website:</div><div><br></div><strong>Lift: A Memoir <br>
</strong>Rebecca K. O’Connor. Red Hen, $18.95 (208p) ISBN 1597094603<div><br>
Novelist and nature reference author O’Connor (<em>Falcon’s Return</em>)
crafts a lyrical tribute to the spiritual connection between humans and
birds in this memoir of the excruciating, transformative process of
training a peregrine falcon: “Falconry is a religion, a way of
thinking, a means of experiencing life.” Indeed, readers will find
almost as much spiritual content as natural. Despite O’Connor’s
icy-clear voice, her descriptions of training a young male falcon are
fascinating for bird lovers and civilians alike: “when the falcon
connects a high-speed dive… the duck remains a piece of the sky and
only its body careens to earth.” Surprisingly, periodic flashbacks to a
troubled childhood—an abusive stepfather, an absentee mother—bolster
her story rather than distract, turning a falcon’s “serious and
unmerciful” eye back on her own life, and discovering inexplicable
wells of generosity and forgiveness for the family who wronged her.
O’Connor packs a lot of intelligence, poise and feeling into a few
pages, making this a consistently rewarding read.</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><br></div><div>Rebecca rocks, as usual.</div><div><br><div>
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Robin Russin</div><div><br></div><div>Associate Professor & Graduate Advisor<br>Department of Theatre<br>University of California, Riverside<br>Riverside, CA 92521<br>(951) 827-2707<br>(213) 949-1061 cel<br><a href="mailto:robin.russin@ucr.edu">robin.russin@ucr.edu</a><br><br>"I try all things; I achieve what I can." - Ishmael in "Moby Dick," written by Herman Melville</div><div><br>"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it." - William Munny in "Unforgiven," written by David Webb Peoples</div></div>
</div>
<br></div></div></body></html>