Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme where we randomly select a book from our Goodreads To Be Read list and share it with the world. It’s hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners, so be sure to link back to her site so that we can all see what everyone plans to read!

Owl
by William Service
Natural History/Memoir
92 pages
Published in 1969 by Carroll & Graf Publishers

From Goodreads: “The ancients,” writes William Service, “attributed to the owl great wisdom. I, more careful, attribute to him the keenest appetite to find things out.” The same might be said of Service himself. His Owl is less the result of wisdom than of a keen if bemused curiosity. No man can know all about a bird, especially a screech owl who possesses, as the book jacket puts it, the proportions of a beer can and the personality of a bank president. But a year of open-minded daily contact with such a creature is bound to lead to something, and in this case it has led to one of the most elegant and perceptive pieces of nature writing since T. H. White fell in with a goshawk.

I heard about this little book on the BookTube channel A Book Olive while watching Olive’s 5 Star Nonfiction Predictions Wrap Up. She gave it five stars, and given that Olive is a discerning critic when it comes to her nonfiction, that is high praise. I’m hoping that my library will have this book so I can get it soon.