Ebook Free The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

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The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

Ebook Free The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

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Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of May 2018: The title of The Feather Thief smartly echoes Susan Orleans' The Orchid Thief, and The Feather Thief has good reason to compare itself to such an admired book. Strange niches of history. Obsessives who refuse to adhere to the law. A writer who stumbles upon a story that becomes an obsession in its own right. All these elements combust to create Johnson's investigation into the theft of 299 rare bird skins from a British natural history museum. While bird skins might sound like (ahem) dry reading, Johnson knows just how to fascinate the reader, plunging with vigor into exotic bird exploration, the crackdown on rare bird trafficking, and the insular world of fly-tying enthusiasts, all of which lead, almost inevitably, to the theft from the Tring Museum. The most likely receivers of the stolen goods? Fly-tiers with an unquenchable thirst for feathers from blue chatterers, the resplendent quetzal, and birds of paradise so they can re-create outlandish Victorian-era salmon flies. Although the thief is caught, Johnson decides to investigate himself what happened to the 106 never-recovered bird skins, pulling the reader even deeper into the thief's bizarre world. Clever, informative, and sometimes endearingly bumbling, this mix of natural history and crime opens up new worlds. You'll never look at a stuffed bird the same way again. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review

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Review

“Fascinating . . . a complex tale of greed, deception, and ornithological sabotage.” —The New York Times Book Review“Fascinating from the first page to the last—you won’t be able to put it down.” —Southern Living“A fascinating book . . . the kind of intelligent reported account that alerts us to a threat and that, one hopes, will never itself be endangered.” —The Wall Street Journal“Thrilling . . . This book is The Orchid Thief for the fly-fishing and birding set.”—Paris Review, “Staff Picks”“Johnson, like Susan Orlean before him, is a magnifier: he sees grand themes—naïveté, jealousy, depression, the entitlement of man . . . That vision makes a book about things like Victorian salmon fly tiers feel heavy as gold.” —The New Yorker, “What We’re Reading This Summer”“[A] true-crime caper recounted with relish.” —O, The Oprah Magazine, “10 Titles to Pick Up Now”“Vivid and arresting . . . Johnson [is] a wonderfully assured writer.” —The Times (London)“One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever. . . . Johnson is an intrepid journalist . . . [with] a fine knack for uncovering details that reveal, captivate, and disturb.”—Christian Science Monitor“An uncommon book . . .  [that] informs and enlightens. . . A heist story that manages to underline the enduring and continuing importance of natural history collections and their incredible value to science. We need more books like this one.” —Science“The best compliment I can give a nonfiction writer is that they make me care deeply about an obscure topic I would otherwise never have been interested in. That’s the case with Kirk Wallace Johnson’s The Feather Thief.” —Eva Holland, Outside, “The Best Summer Books”“A fascinating account of a bizarre crime . . . The Feather Thief is one of the more peculiar and gripping crime stories in recent memory.” —LitHub CrimeReads, “The Essential True Crime Books of Spring 2018” “Johnson succeeds in conveying the gravity of this natural-history 'heist of the century,' and one of The Feather Thief’s greatest strengths is the excitement, horror, and amazement it evokes. It’s nonfiction that reads like fiction, with plenty of surprising moments.” —Outside “A riveting read.” —Nature “A literary police sketch—part natural history yarn, part detective story, part the stuff of tragedy.” —Smithsonian“Within pages I was hooked. This is a weird and wonderful book . . . Johnson is a master of pacing and suspense . . . It’s a tribute to [his] storytelling gifts that when I turned the last page I felt bereft.” —Maggie Fergusson, The Spectator (London)“A riveting story about mankind’s undeniable desire to own nature’s beauty and a spellbinding examination of obsession, greed, and justice . . .[told] in engrossing detail. . . . A gripping page-turner.” —Bustle“Enthralling.” —HelloGiggles“Richly informative, with handy illustrations, endlessly fascinating and crackingly entertaining, The Feather Thief is the kind of true-crime narrative that gives Erik Larson's much-lauded The Devil in the White City a run for the money.” —Shelf Awareness“Highly entertaining . . . journalism at its best . . . If you know nothing about fly-fishing or tying, it doesn’t matter, as long as you like a well-written story.” —Karen Gallagher, The Baltimore Sun's Roughly Speaking podcast“Reads like a whodunit . . . I could not put it down.”—Tom Rosenbauer, The Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast“This is the type of book I absolutely love – one that takes a seemingly obscure topic and shines a brilliant and bizarre and endlessly fascinating light upon it. The crime itself is riveting, but Kirk Wallace Johnson’s portrayal of the crazy world of feather fanatics makes this an unforgettable read.”—Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods“Captivating...Everything the author touches in this thoroughly engaging true-crime tale turns to storytelling gold. . . . Johnson's flair for telling an engrossing story is, like the beautiful birds he describes, exquisite. . . . A superb tale about obsession, nature, and man's ‘unrelenting desire to lay claim to its beauty, whatever the cost.’”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review“[An] enthralling account of a truly bizarre crime. . . . Johnson goes deep into the exotic bird and feather trade and concludes that though obsession and greed know no bounds, they certainly make for a fascinating tale. The result is a page-turner that will likely appeal to science, history, and true crime readers.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review“A remarkably compelling story of obsession and history.” —Booklist, Starred Review“You'll never look at a feather the same way again after reading this riveting detective story . . . [The Feather Thief] brilliantly weaves together Alfred Russel Wallace, the surprisingly shadowy history of fly fishing, conservation and the plumage of the most beautiful birds on earth.” —The Bookseller (UK) “A true-crime tale that weaves seemingly unrelated threads—a museum break-in; the development of evolutionary theory; a case of post-Iraq PTSD; endangered birds; and (above all) the murky underworld of fly-tying obsessives—into a spellbinding narrative tapestry.” —Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu  “A captivating tale of an unlikely thief and his even more unlikely crime, and a meditation on obsession, greed, and the sheer fascination in something as seemingly simple as a feather.”—Paul Collins, author of The Murder of the Century“A stirring examination of the devastating effects of human greed on endangered birds, a powerful argument for protecting our environment—and, above all, a captivating crime story.”—Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees“This gem of a book, about a heist of archival birds, is marvelous, moving, and transcendent. I can’t stop thinking about it.” —Dean King, author of Skeletons on the Zahara and The Feud“This extraordinary book exposes an international underground that traffics in rare and precious natural resources, yet was previously unknown to all but a few. A page-turning read you won’t soon forget, The Feather Thief tells us as much about our cultural priorities as it does about the crimes themselves. There’s never been anything like it.”  —Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

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Product details

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Viking (April 24, 2018)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 110198161X

ISBN-13: 978-1101981610

Product Dimensions:

6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.5 out of 5 stars

229 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#6,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

I loved the crazy nature of the crime and the way it was reported, including the background about the small group of fly-tiers, most of whom don't even fish, whose obsession provided the raison-d'être for a very bizarre crime. The crime was wrapped up about half-way through the book, so I wondered what the rest would entail. It turns out that the author spent time, energy and money on the un-asked-for pursuit of the birds that had not been accounted for by the authorities or by the museum from which they were stolen, both of whom assumed that most had been dismembered and sold as "parts." This mission has its moments, as the thief himself is interviewed at length, but, overall, this section is less satisfying. I'd give the first half of the book five stars, but the second half just two. IMPORTANT: When reading this book on the Kindle its not clear that there are many plates and illustrations at the end of the book showing the birds and the flies, along with pictures of the principals.

I read this well written book with tears. Being both an avid fly Fisher and birder, I found this book to be a timely epiteth to all those species that are vanishing before our eyes. The few who care and look upon these species with wonder are also vanishing. Soon, this earth will be decimated of its beauty. It is so difficult to go birding now and enjoy it as I once did because every bird I see now I realize will soon be gone. As for Kirk and his valiant efforts, thank you for shedding light on this weird, fanatical, useless hobby that has raped the world's jungles and forests all to glue shit on a hook to hang on a den wall. I just feel boiling anger after reading about this. Sad.

I read this book over one weekend as I could hardly bear to put it down. The true crime story of Edwin Rist and his ill-conceived but actually successful heist is a story that is too unlikely to be fiction. In the midst of telling his story, Johnson needs to share extensive obscure background information with readers and does so in a way that continues to drive the fascinating narrative forward. A hard to classify genre, it reminded me in turns of the best of well-researched literary nonfiction (think Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot) mixed with a little self-deprecating narrator-turned-character in the vein of A.J. Jacobs, along with a too-crazy-to-be-true caper that even channels the Oceans 11 franchise. This is a unique and compelling book that should not be missed!

This is a startling true story about the lengths a man will go to satisfy an obsession. The reader is introduced to the world of fly-tieing, the art of creating intricate fishing lures from bird feathers. What is remarkable about this activity is there is a subset of these tiers who collect extremely rare and valuable bird feathers and pay exorbitant prices for the most exotic ones. The subject of this book is such an individual. Edwin Rist is an accomplished student musician and avid fly-tier who steals hundreds of rare birds from the British Museum in 2009.The book is a study in obsession as the author himself, an Iraqi war veteran, becomes fixated on the crime and the man who committed it. The story is immersive. Johnson, the author, has spent an incalculable amount of time researching the history of fly-tieing and the lure of exotic feathers to the point of even surreptitiously attending a fly-tiers convention undercover. He becomes a principal investigator in solving the details of Edwin's crime, identifying accomplices and tracking bird skins.The book grabbed my interest from the first few pages. Johnson's book has all the pacing of a well-crafted mystery novel and manages to hold the suspense of exactly what happened and who was involved throughout the entire book. He covers this story with all the zeal of a professional investigative journalist. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes psychological character studies and true crime.

Well written book, history part in the beginning is methodical and at times a bit dry but the story of the fly tiers and their obsession with exotic feathers is capivating, the author makes this into page turning true crime tale.If you like odd stories of the strange things around us, you will enjoy this book.As you read the book, you will want to see photos of these beautiful birds to better understand the obsession, he has photos at the end or just Google them.

This book is sad and frustrating but fascinating at the same time. The National Geographic Article that accompanied the release of the book highlighted some of the major plot points of the book but it didn't stop me from buying it and diving into the obsession that drove a talented young man to rob the British Museum. The author also illustrates the importance of Museum collections and why institutions have more specimens than they could ever display.

Wonderful well researched , well written book, could not put it down. As a lover of birds and nature it shows me again how wasteful and cruel humans can be in their search to make money. Thank God for all the people out there that support the and care for nature and remember to treat nature with reverence. Please buy this book, you will learn so much, it is money well spent , it is brain FOOD, thank you Daunn Munn

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