... radiant ... Along with tales of her growing familiarity with raptors, including her participation in the Audubon Society's Hawk Watch and the introduction to a falconer neighbor's hawk, Montgomery delivers a snappy survey of the history of falconry, with its specific equipment and terminology ... Collapsing the distance between birds and people, this concise and charming book feels custom-made for readers of Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk.
Montgomery, whose 2010 book The Soul of an Octopus made her a favorite of animal-book readers, turns her formidable descriptive passion to hawks, and to the world of falconry ... Readers who share Montgomery’s original empathy and compassion for animals might want to proceed cautiously. The protracted, dramatic set-piece that serves as the book’s climax is Montgomery’s evocative description of a field hunt ... Fortunately, there’s plenty of compensation. The book breathes with glorious prose and challenging insights into a very strange world. In The Hawk’s Way, Sy Montgomery and her publisher have crafted a sharp little gem of a book, something fit to stand with classics like T.H. White’s The Goshawk or Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk. The next time any reader catches a glimpse of a hawk soaring over a field or highway, they’ll think of this little book and feel an extra shiver of wonder.
Montgomery honors the hawk and other birds of prey in this engrossing work ... the book contains outstanding images by nature photographer Tianne Strombeck. This title delivers as a celebration of the wildness and wonder of birds and as an inspiration to learn from other creatures and be more compassionate ... Recommended for anyone with an interest in falconry and predatory birds.
... a succinct, intimate, and captivating chronicle graced with color photographs ... Montgomery’s rapture in the presence of hawks and their 'fierce, wild glory' is gorgeously illuminating and deeply affecting.
... impassioned ... With flowing, intimate, occasionally humorous prose, Montgomery reveals the uniqueness of falconry and the birds it involves ... The result is a heartfelt and informative primer, just right for adventure- and animal-loving readers.
Montgomery hooks readers with a striking opening line, the first hint of her passion for the subject. This slender, graceful work, featuring Strombeck’s vivid photos, is more a monograph than a book, though scientific rigor is not its strong suit. Throughout, the author displays her abundant enthusiasm for this unique predator, but she sometimes gets carried away, giving the impression that working with the hyperfocused hawk is like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun. Not that devotees will complain. Montgomery offers a good amount of stimulating information about raptor behavior, a primer on the language of falconry, and some surprising insights into what is thought to be a hawk’s mindset ... Occasionally, Montgomery’s lyrical bent finds her indulging in the sort of dramatics and anthropomorphism that are more romantic than empirical ... a lovely thought but overwrought. Yet the author helps us forgive these excesses, and a rather selective love of animals, with her powers of observation and total absorption ... Not Montgomery’s best but mostly enjoyable reading on a consistently intriguing raptor.
