Book Review: Birds at Rest

Image: the cover of the book is a scene of three flamingoes resting on water. Each light pink bird is standing on one long leg and resting their long neck and head inside their wing. Across the center in white is "birds at rest." Before that in pink is "the behavior and ecology of avian sleep." In the bottom right corner is the author name Roger F. Pasquier.

Roger F. Pasquier's Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep is a necessary addition to more common types of references and guides regarding birds and their behavior. Despite having shelves full of them and reading up on various things about bird behavior, there is very little out there like this book that details such a massive part of their lives- resting, roosting, sleeping, and all of the related behaviors that come with that.

The information in this book is exhaustive in a good way. While there was more captive animal research than I prefer to read about, that was to be expected going into this book and is not a mark against it. The author is not in charge of the ethics of those research studies. There is a ton of informative and more ethical field research, much of which I had never encountered anything close to before. I learned a lot of different things about species that I tend to focus my interest on, as well as many things about species I've never even heard of. I also learned about field research methods that were quite interesting. I had no idea there were mobile EEG methods where one could study the sleep of chimney swifts in flight for instance. I found a lot of this extremely fascinating. 

The book also covers what human intervention into the environment has done to the abilities referred to roost safely, communicate and breed effectively, and generally exist in the world. This was unsurprisingly the saddest part of the book. For instance I knew that our light pollution had affected migration and bird behavior for some time. I didn't realize, even though perhaps I should have, that it also damages their ability to breed successfully. A critical factor for consideration regarding the decline in bird populations is simply artificial light. Our introduction of non-native species has caused extinction and decline in large numbers. Our destruction of habitat causes birds to compete more than they would normally, resulting in further aggression and conflict. This was another thing that is unsurprising, but written in a way that I had not quite thought about it before. Humans tend to write about birds as fighting over territory and competing through various means as if it is a given. But we don't tend to write enough about how the sheer amount of competition is so directly affected by our destruction of their habitats for any number of reasons. I wonder how different aggression levels were before we decimated most of the planet.

 I will admit that I did find this book a bit dry at times. It very much reads cover to cover like a reference guide without photography. There are illustrations that I found quite charming and whimsical. There's almost a children's book quality to some of them which did break things up a bit. But, there weren't enough of them for my tastes when it comes to reading a book straight through like this. At the same time, it is very well organized such that one could treat it exactly like a guide. Each chapter is well labeled and constructed and contains a detailed summary at the end. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed by reading the catalogue of facts about each and every bird species, you could successfully read the summary of each chapter and then go through to seek out the more specific information that you need. Strangely though, there was no summary at the end of the book. It just ended abruptly after that last section on human influence. So, perhaps I went into this book expecting something different, but it is likely best to treat it as a reference guide. 

One may retain more information by hopping around the book rather than reading it cover to cover. Nonetheless it's full of page flags and I'll definitely be coming back to it time and again. I'm grateful to have a volume on my shelf containing such important information that is often so lacking and scholarship about the avian world.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Love in a F*cked Up World

Image: the cover of the book is a bright yellow background with LOVE in large red letters and in a fucked up world in smaller ones. Below that in pink is "how to build relationships, hook up, and raise hell together." Below that in red is Dean Spade and again in pink, "author of mutual aid."

I have immense respect for Dean Spade's work. I especially like how he has branched out from academia further than many people do, creating highly accessible and urgent texts like Mutual Aid and now, Love in a F*cked Up World. I understand why the cover design is the way it is- to grab the attention of a wide audience. But, it made me think that it might not be for me. (Also, I just hate yellow for reasons I can't articulate.) Despite having chosen not to seek out romantic or sexual relationships many years ago, I figured why not give this a go even if it didn't apply to my current situation. Don't let the cover fool you into thinking this is another romantic relationship advice book. Spade even anticipates the hesitation some folks, especially radicals, may have. He urges the reader to remain open minded to a self help book being more than an "...individualistic... liberal, bougie... distraction from collective action." This book takes all the good little nuggets from various self help and communication books, sorts out all of the garbage, and then translates it all into something very wise and healing. 

Even as someone who doesn't have intentions in the near future to date, I desperately needed this book for all other relationships in my life. Even moreso, I needed this book years (decades?) ago when mired in polyamorous organizing and kink communities. I needed it so much that I had to grieve a bit while reading for my former, ignorant self and anyone around me. 

Even on a good day, I'm someone who craves categories, boxes, clear lines, and knowing exactly how to quantify the harm I've caused, could cause, and to predict that which will come to me in any situation. My mental health tends to make this far worse than the average person, essentially leading to isolation. I judge situations, myself, and sometimes others harshly in order to avoid further trauma and out of fear that I will cause it. This book gave me permission to let go of that. It was an exercise in self awareness and understanding of others while telling me that it's ok to find the grey area.

I won't pretend I'm cured of OCD/PTSD in 326 pages of reading, but this book ended up being a really good complement to my exposure therapy exercises, especially socially. Spade manages to write a relationship book that centers radicals, queers, leftists, etc rather than simply including us in the margins as other relationship books do (if they do at all.) As a result, anti-aurhoritarianism ends up being centered, leading to a final product that is a book many of us have been waiting for and needing our entire lives.

I recall that when Sarah Schulman's Conflict is not Abuse came out, many of us were able to ignore some of the flaws because it was a drink of water in the desert. Our communities, much like the larger world, are punishing and full of human beings with diverse needs and backgrounds. Spade urges the reader early on not to filter the book through dominant pop psychology trends in an attempt to ostracize and isolate others. (Lookin at all of the people who call every disagreement "gaslighting narcissism" and whatnot.) Instead, he offers tons of relatable anecdotes (including those from his own life) showing the normal conflicts that occur in many kinds of relationships. These conflicts can be so charged, stressful, and hurtful, that we may jump to what we've learned from larger cultures as solutions- even when it goes against our values. Movements are fractured, healing is impossible, and the whole thing can become a downward spiral taking the connections we desperately need with it. Spade urges us to better understand ourselves and others to better align our relationships with our values. 

Like Mutual Aid, LIAFUW is highly readable, accessible, and well organized. I think that perhaps the centering of our communities might take a second for someone outside them to get used to, but not so much so as to be a barrier. I like to hope it will be enlightening, pulling the well intentioned (USAmerican, essentially center right wing) liberal further away from oppression and closer to what they're actually craving. 

The best part of this book is the insistence on the importance of differentiation, interdependence, and creating relationships outside of romantic ones. While many exercises and anecdotes do involve romantic conflicts, since we often tend to be our worst selves in those, the sections on friendship and other relationships are refreshing and critical. One of the main reasons I stopped dating was that I realized I had very few nonsexual friendships and had not been single more than maybe 6 months since I was 13. Friendships, in my opinion-especially in adulthood- are harder to create and nurture than romance in a society that prioritizes the latter as the most important thing. Spade does well to show how nourishing friendships is not only important in and of itself, but it also results in all other relationships being healthier.

The only thing I wanted from this book was a little more advice on how to tell when something is actually abuse. There is a small section in the beginning that discusses this difficulty and I do understand why this is outside the scope of this book. I just found myself wondering in some sections, "but what if this behavior is controlling beyond normal conflict?" and "what about people who utilize the freedom in radical communities to prey upon people?" There are many books already written well about this such as Creative Interventions, Beyond Survival, and The Revolution Starts at Home. If you also find yourself wondering about that, I suggest those as complement texts. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone really, but especially to leftists and Queers who've become accustomed to relationship books- even those that are supposed to be outside dominant culture- leaving much to be desired, or worse, giving dangerous advice. I see LIAFUW becoming one of those staples on leftist bookshelves that we lend to each other with love and care. I look forward to Spade continuing to expand his writing in ways that allow for larger, stronger, and more diverse movements. 

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.