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Why Peacocks?: An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird
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About Why Peacocks?: An Unlikely Search For Meaning In
Product Description An acclaimed journalist seeks to understand the mysterious allure of peacocks—and in the process discovers unexpected and valuable life lessons. When Sean Flynn’s neighbor in North Carolina texted “Any chance you guys want a peacock? No kidding!” he stared bewilderedly at his phone. He had never considered whether he wanted a peacock. But as an award-winning magazine writer, this kind of mystery intrigued him. So he, his wife, and their two young sons became the owners of not one but three charming yet fickle birds: Carl, Ethel, and Mr. Pickle. In Why Peacocks?, Flynn chronicles his hilarious and heartwarming first year as a peacock owner, from struggling to build a pen to assisting the local bird doctor in surgery to triumphantly watching a peahen lay her first egg. He also examines the history of peacocks, from their appearance in the Garden of Eden to their befuddling Charles Darwin to their bewitching the likes of Flannery O’Connor and Martha Stewart. And fueled by a reporter’s curiosity, he travels across the globe to learn more about the birds firsthand, with stops including a Scottish castle where peacocks have resided for centuries, a southern California community tormented by a serial killer of peacocks, and a Kansas City airport hotel hosting an annual gathering of true peafowl aficionados. At turns comically absurd and deeply poignant, Why Peacocks? blends lively, insightful memoir and illuminating science journalism to answer the title’s question. More than that, it offers surprising lessons about love, grief, fatherhood, and family. Review "[Flynn's] writing is often witty, sometimes glorious, and his tales wry and charming...Something magical happens to this hard-bitten reporter as he gets to know his peacocks...a fine starting point to finding meaning in a world both cruel and beautiful."—Sy Montgomery, New York Times Book Review "A sparkling confessional from a man who tries to protect the innocent and beautiful from a world that he knows all too well can be relentlessly awful." —The Wall Street Journal "One part love story and one part rescue tale and somehow not really about peacocks at all." —GQ "An entertaining, playful ode to our flashiest fowl." —Julie Dunlap, Washington Independent Review of Books "Flynn's family romp is full of colorful and quirky details, beautiful writing, and unexpected twists that will have you viewing these magical birds in a new light." —The Daily Beast (The Best Summer Reads of 2021) "Wry and moving." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "As readers follow Flynn's journey, his clever insights and pleasing prose style will leave them alternating between moments of shock and bursts of laughter." —Kirkus Reviews "Sweet and often funny, Why Peacocks? is an engaging mix of memoir, history and journalism." —Sarah McCraw Crow, BookPage "Sean Flynn's writing has an easy, genuine flow, like a friend telling a story over dinner, and in this charming book his story is about peacocks. He is entirely successful in answering the question in the title, but saying this is a book about peacocks seems inadequate. It ends up being about so much more." —David Sibley, author of the New York Times bestsellers What It's Like to Be a Bird and The Sibley Guide to Birds "Why Peacocks? is a wonderful book. At times moving and at times hilarious, always well written, it's a story about family life and love, pets and peacocks, that evolves into an investigation of one of evolution's biggest mysteries: Why does beauty exist?"—Patrik Svensson, author of the international bestseller The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World "A truly wise and tender sparkler of a book. Weaving memoir, history, reportage, and mythology, Sean Flynn tells not just a quirky story about iridescent birds but a more profound one about family and parenth
