Holly Moore
- Posted:
- September 27, 2011
A cross between a design book and a birding book, The Birding Life: A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield (by Laurence and Carol Sama Sheehan, Kathryn George Precourt and photographer William Stites, Clarkson Potter, $50) is a beautiful and timely look at this slightly eccentric and certainly WASP-y passion. We adore the wit and the interior design elements, including chapters titled “Birdboy’s Urban Aerie,” “Diary of a Mad Birder,” “Enchanted Nests” and “The Eggs and Us.” Several birding-enthusiast Houstonians and properties crop up in the pages: the Texas ranch of Jan and Jack Cato, the poetic Heights home of artists Lisa Ludwig and Joseph Havel, gallerist Betty Moody, Houston Audubon Society’s High Island near Galveston, Area store-owner Don Connelly’s Hill Country farm and antiques dealer Kay O’Toole’s high-rise aerie. If you remember Houston Home & Garden magazine, you’ll recognize the authors and photographers. Carol Sama Sheehan was editor for many years, Kathryn George Precourt was design editor and Bill Stites was a staff photographer. Birding is a small world.