The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Best-selling author and screenwriter Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter) discusses her new illustrated birding book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles. Over five years, Tan filled nine journals and a dozen sketchbooks tracking the natural beauty and bird antics in her Sausalito backyard.

"The drawings and essays in this book do a lot more than just describe the birds. They carry a sense of discovery through observation and drawing, suggest the layers of patterns in the natural world, and emphasize a deep personal connection between the watcher and the watched. The birds that inhabit Amy Tan’s backyard seem a lot like the characters in her novels.”—David Allen Sibley, from the foreword.