Senior Book Club: The Big Year, A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession

Join us the second Tuesday of every month for a book club just for seniors.

In June, we’ll be reading The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik.

Every year on January 1, a quirky crowd of adventurers storm out across North America for a spectacularly competitive event called a Big Year -- a grand, grueling, expensive, and occasionally vicious, "extreme" 365-day marathon of birdwatching. For three men in particular, 1998 would be a whirlwind, a winner-takes-nothing battle for a new North American birding record. In frenetic pilgrimages for once-in-a-lifetime rarities that can make or break their lead, the birders race each other from Texas, to British Columbia, to Cape May, New Jersey, and even to Attu the most western point in the Aleutian Islands in search of birds to count. Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik creates a rollicking, dazzling narrative of the 275,000-mile odyssey of these three obsessives as they fight to the finish to claim the title in the greatest -- or maybe the worst -- birding contest of all time. This is a lark of a read for anyone with birds on the brain -- or not.

Books will be available in the Adult Services department. We will obtain as many large print and audio copies as possible. This book club is intended for adults. No registration is required.

For more information, please contact Kathy at kathyh@dkpl.org or (815)756-9568 ext. 2150.