Description:
In celebration of the Kindle version release of LIFT, an award-winning falconry memoir, author Rebecca K. O’Connor shares a complementary collection of essays, short stories and poetry that further examines life in the shadow of a raptor’s wings.
LIFT, Rebecca K. O’Connor’s arresting memoir of love, loss, relationships and one impossible peregrine falcon is further illuminated with this collection of writings on the world of falconry. The opening short story, “A Good Falconer Lets Go,” about a teenage boy and his red-tailed hawk is a classic coming-of-age tale with a falconry twist. If you are a dog lover, “Heart to Tear” and “About a Dog”, essays which read like O’Connor’s love songs to the dogs of falconry will resonate with you, if not evoke a few tears. In short essays such as “The Knife” and “Storytelling” O’Connor explores early moments in falconry in the icy-clear voice readers grew to love in LIFT. The collection also includes a glossary on falconry and a bonus excerpt of her novel in progress, a post-apocalyptic wilderness adventure. If you have read LIFT and loved it, this short collection will add to your experience. If you’ve yet to read O’Connor’s writing, RISE may encourage you to read more.
LIFT, Rebecca K. O’Connor’s arresting memoir of love, loss, relationships and one impossible peregrine falcon is further illuminated with this collection of writings on the world of falconry. The opening short story, “A Good Falconer Lets Go,” about a teenage boy and his red-tailed hawk is a classic coming-of-age tale with a falconry twist. If you are a dog lover, “Heart to Tear” and “About a Dog”, essays which read like O’Connor’s love songs to the dogs of falconry will resonate with you, if not evoke a few tears. In short essays such as “The Knife” and “Storytelling” O’Connor explores early moments in falconry in the icy-clear voice readers grew to love in LIFT. The collection also includes a glossary on falconry and a bonus excerpt of her novel in progress, a post-apocalyptic wilderness adventure. If you have read LIFT and loved it, this short collection will add to your experience. If you’ve yet to read O’Connor’s writing, RISE may encourage you to read more.
From the Reviewers:
Praise for LIFT:
"Novelist and nature reference author O’Connor (Falcon’s Return) 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."
--Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
"While O’Connor’s examination of falconry frequently borders on the mystical, she also has the rare ability to immerse her reader in the romance of a subject without romanticizing it. For this reason, Lift amounts to a fascinating reading not only for anyone interested in the sport but in stories well told and lives well lived."
--Marc Schuster, Small Press Reviews
"Novelist and nature reference author O’Connor (Falcon’s Return) 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."
--Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
"While O’Connor’s examination of falconry frequently borders on the mystical, she also has the rare ability to immerse her reader in the romance of a subject without romanticizing it. For this reason, Lift amounts to a fascinating reading not only for anyone interested in the sport but in stories well told and lives well lived."
--Marc Schuster, Small Press Reviews
About the Author:
Rebecca K. O'Connor has published essays in South Dakota Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Los Angeles Times Magazine, West, divide, and was a Pushcart Nominee for the 2008 Prize. Her novel, Falcon's Return was a Holt Medallion Finalist for best first novel and she has published numerous reference books on the natural world. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside.
As a professional animal trainer, O'Connor has worked with a variety of exotic animals in zoos and private facilities around the United States and abroad. She has been a falconer for more than a decade and is a nationally known parrot behaviorist. Her book A Parrot for Life: Raising and Training the Perfect Parrot Companion was published in 2007 by TFH and went into a second printing in the first six months. She is also a nationally sought after lecturer at parrot clubs and parrot festivals.
In all of O'Connor's work she strives to illuminate or foil the human condition through the animals that surround us. Whether it is to give a science-based lecture, write a serious how-to book or crafting deeply personal prose, the foundation of everything in her life is a love for animals. She hopes that her life's work will help people understand the animals (including other humans) that surround them and relish their relationships.
