Nonfiction November – Week 2: Book Pairings #nonfictionnovember #nonfictionbookparty #theocbookgirl

Welcome to Week 2!

Each week a different blogger will host the weekly prompt – this week’s prompt is hosted by Rennie from What’s Nonfiction. Visit their page to link up your own blog post and/or find new blogs to follow.


Week 2: (Nov 7 – Nov 11) – Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or another nonfiction!). It can be “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Or pair a book with a podcast, film or documentary, TV show, etc. on the same topic or stories that pair together.


Today, I’m pairing two books about BIRDS!

I recently picked up: Fastest Things on Wings, Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood by Terry Masear at a used bookstore as a possible gift for a friend.  I read a few pages and couldn’t put it down! Terry Masear is a hummingbird rehabilitator who lives in Hollywood, California who takes in these tiny injured birds and treats them with great care. Her book shares her experiences winning – and occasionally losing – her battles to bring these amazing animals back to health.

A heartwarming account of the trials and triumphs a Hollywood hummingbird rehabber encounters while caring for her tiny, fragile patients.

Before he collided with a limousine, Gabriel, an Anna’s hummingbird with a head and throat cloaked in iridescent magenta feathers, could spiral 130 feet in the air, dive 60 miles per hour in a courtship display, hover, and fly backward.

When he arrived in rehab caked in road grime, he was so badly injured that he could barely perch. But Terry Masear, one of the busiest hummingbird rehabbers in the country, was determined to save this damaged bird, who seemed oddly familiar.

During the four months that Terry worked with Gabriel, she took in 160 hummingbirds, from a miniature nestling rescued by a bulldog and a fledgling trapped inside a skydiving wind tunnel at Universal CityWalk, to Pepper, a female Anna’s injured on a film set. In their time together, Pepper and Gabriel form a special bond and, together, with Terry’s help, learn to fly again.

Woven around Gabriel’s and Pepper’s stories are those of other colorful birds in this personal narrative filled with the science and magic surrounding these fascinating creatures.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah is a book I am eager to read.  Here is the synopsis:

In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay–just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.

Have you read it?  Have you read any fiction books specifically about hummingbirds that might make a better pairing? Please let me know in the comments!

NONFICTION NOVEMBER BLOGGERS: Don’t forget to link up your post and do some blog hopping too!  Next week, visit Christopher from Plucked from the Stacks for our Week 3 Prompt!

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