Steph's Reviews > The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

as each chapter of this book is dedicated to a week of the year, my intention was to read a chapter each week and follow along as the seasons progressed. and while i ended up reading it in fits and spurts, it was nice to follow along with this book over the course of 2025.

i do adore the idea of being intentional about noticing the changes of the seasons, of ruminating on our surroundings as they slowly shift! but this nature study is memoir-adjacent, and it's hard to enjoy a memoir when you don't care for its author. i don't have any major foibles with renkl (oh, except when she groups autism with asthma, alzheimer's parkinson's, and cancer, YIKES), but she comes off as pretentious, and i couldn't vibe with her personality as it's presented on the page.

despite that, i didn't hate this - i don't have enough plants and critters to observe outside the windows of my apartment, so i felt i was living vicariously through renkl here. what a gift to indulge in nurturing nature with birdfeeders and birdhouses, heated birdbaths in winter, pollinator gardens, and letting the yard grow wild!

the doom of environmental destruction is balanced with hope, and with reminders that sometimes we need to zoom in - focus on the persistence of the earthworms, the bumblebees, the birds, all the delights to be found if we take the time to look. and when we cannot reduce suffering, it is our duty to witness it.

Our favorites are the toads. You would not believe how soft a toad is to the touch - soft, soft, and so dry! Nothing like the way you'd think a toad would feel. I love the jutting toad elbows and the crouched toad knees and the splayed toad fingers and toes, all so dear, so similar to our own. We are gentle with the toads. They are as soft a great-grandmother you can hold in your hand.