This book has been so richly rewarding, and part of that is because I had to wait weeks for it from the library. As a close follower of the publishing industry, I absolutely love it when a book completely surprises its publisher with its success, especially if, as is the case with H is for Hawk, it unexpectedly sells out in indie bookstores across the UK and US.

In so many ways, this book has delivered on the failed promise of Spinster, a book whose disappointment I've already documented. H is for Hawk is not "about" a woman's solitude -- it's a memoir about a daughter grieving for her recently-deceased father, and it's a natural history about falconry, and it's a literary history of writing about birds of prey, and each of these things is very elegantly linked. And yet, it is precisely about a woman's solitude, because Helen Macdonald is exploring each of these things alone and internally, and her domestic situation is not addressed and it feels only natural. This shouldn't be remarkable, but it is. I have such a crush on H is for Hawk and I'm looking forward to the end of the year when it inevitably wins lots of awards and gets put on lots of 'Best of' lists.