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Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories

by Megan Mayhew Bergman (Goodreads Author)

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 941 ratings · 218 reviews

From a prizewinning young writer whose stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and New Stories from the South comes a heartwarming andhugely appealingdebut collectionthat explores the wayour choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world.Megan Mayhew Bergman’s twelve storiescapture the surprising moments when th...more

Hardcover, 221 pages

Published March 6th 2012 by Scribner

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May 21, 2012 Barbara marked it as to-read

Shelves: short-stories, unfinished-try-again

This book was reviewed in The Boston Globe today in glowing terms. They proclaim Bergman, the author a "top notch emerging writer". Although short stories are not usually my first choice, the comments written were enticing!

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Unfortunately, I did not get too far with this book because the library requested that I return it. Better luck next try...

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Mar 16, 2012 Pat Pujolas rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you could read only one book this year, my vote would be for this one. (As an aside, I'm not sure why that would ever be the case; what's wrong with you, only reading one book? But let's not digress.) From cover to cover, not a page goes by where the reader won't find instances of wonder, awe, and grace. This is fiction at its finest, and yes, I'll say it: paradise.

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Jul 23, 2012 Orsolya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: folk-tales-short-stories, library-2, library, animals, favorites, wishlist

I admit that my initial attraction to “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” By Megan Mayhew Bergman was due to the cover. Having an obsession with owls, my radar zoned in on the book at Barnes & Noble… and I am glad it did.

On the surface, Bergman’s “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” is a collection of twelve short stories (about 30 pages each) which gather around the common theme of animals. However, on a deeper level, the more important common themes of self-discovery, love/fear, and the all-too-common e...more I admit that my initial attraction to “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” By Megan Mayhew Bergman was due to the cover. Having an obsession with owls, my radar zoned in on the book at Barnes & Noble… and I am glad it did.

On the surface, Bergman’s “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” is a collection of twelve short stories (about 30 pages each) which gather around the common theme of animals. However, on a deeper level, the more important common themes of self-discovery, love/fear, and the all-too-common error of being our own worst enemy (both a protagonist and an antagonist) are evident.

Bergman’s pieces are simple and yet etched with depth, emotion, and literary language. She knows the perfect ratio of when to urge her characters to act in familiar ways resulting in stock responses from the reader and yet surprises both the characters and the reader with new conventions. This causes the reader to review his/her own life and encourages an almost philosophical angle to Bergman’s works.

Although some authors’ short stories are dragged out or try too hard to be deep; “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” contains perfect stories with ample pace, development, and poetic flair. Of course the reader will enjoy some stories more than others, but either viewed individually or as a whole; the works are unparalleled. Impressively, Bergman fits and compacts a novel-full of emotions into a small space without making it feel confined or unreadable. In fact, the stories feature thoughts we have all experienced (especially females as the main character in each story is a female); beautifully worded on paper in ways the average person frustratingly can never express. Although each story’s main character is a female, the reader is able to apply different traits to each and will not accidentally blend them into one role throughout (such as in a novel); the switch in gears is smooth.

Bergman’s format doesn’t make the number one mistake of emerging short story authors where their works seemingly follow the rules set forth by a college creative writing professor and instead her work is unique and even classical.

The concluding stories are undoubtedly Bergman’s weakest. These are quite good in execution but in comparison, lack the other stories’ zeal. These should have been spread out throughout the book versus clumping weaker stories together.

Overall, “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” is an absolutely terrific compilation. Every art form has an artist that the viewer is impressed by and yet has some animosity that they can’t be “as good” as the artist. I felt that way with Bergman and thought, “Why can’t I write like this?!” I suppose that demonstrates a true, good writer.(less)

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Mar 13, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm usually not a big fan of short stories because I always feel like something is missing...not so with this wonderful collection! Tremendous gems, her writing is amazing. One of my favorite books so far this year.

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Mar 22, 2012 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book in a Goodsreads giveaway and I was pleasantly surprised. This collection of short stories is unlike any I've read before. The stories focus on the central relationships in one's life, and very much urge the reader to examine her/his own relationships. The descriptions of nature are a real treat and they have the power to completely transport the reader to the places depicted in each story.

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Jan 28, 2013 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

The short story form is slowly growing on me. I've long avoided them out of a belief that I read books for characters and character development can't happen within the few pages offered by a short story. Yet in the hands of a writer like Megan Mayhew Bergman, short stories are populated by characters so rich and real that they seem to live and breathe long after the story is finished. This living beyond the seams set by the story allows me to imagine them in a way that is as full and rich as rea...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Cleo rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-copy

Birds of a Lesser Paradise is a collection of short stories. I didn't love it, but it was compelling. The stories are narrated by female protagonists, usually in their thirties and forties, who are dealing with issues. In "Yesterday's Whales", for example, a woman is conflicted between her devotion to the environment and her wish to have a child. In the title story, a young woman follows a mysterious stranger into the swamp with her father to look for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, which most beli...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Heather Frechette rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a treasure and was a joy to read. I moved through it slowly, wanting to savor each story and the characters. Three weeks after having finished it, as I re-read some of the stories for this review, the smiles and tears returned as fresh as the first reading.

I think what Ms. Bergman grasps and illustrates so accurately is the human capacity to feel joy, pain, despair, guilt, pleasure, fear, and love, all within a millisecond of each other. This complexity of "human-ness" is difficult...more

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May 31, 2012 Brenda Rupp rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the various stories that Megan included in this book. The first I believe was about a woman who lost her mother and went to great lengths to locate her mothers parrot that she once hated but after losing her Mom....she wanted the parrot back as it imitated her mothers voice so well she wanted to hear her mothers voice once again. My husband lost his mother and after a year he kept talking about how he missed speaking with her and hearing her voice. The story made me understand h...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Larry Hoffer rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'd rate this 4.5 stars if I could...darn you, whole numbers!

Megan Mayhew Bergman's short story collection, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, is a definite find. Sometimes moving, sometimes funny, sometimes insightful, these stories depict women's interactions with nature in its many forms—biological, zoological, and psychological—and how sometimes you just don't understand its influence.

There are a number of terrific stories in this collection, but among my favorites were "Housewifely Arts," which to...more I'd rate this 4.5 stars if I could...darn you, whole numbers!

Megan Mayhew Bergman's short story collection, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, is a definite find. Sometimes moving, sometimes funny, sometimes insightful, these stories depict women's interactions with nature in its many forms—biological, zoological, and psychological—and how sometimes you just don't understand its influence.

There are a number of terrific stories in this collection, but among my favorites were "Housewifely Arts," which told of a woman and her son driving to a zoo nine hours away from her home so she can find a parrot that used to belong to her mother and imitated her voice perfectly; "Yesterday's Whales," the story of an advocate for population control who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant; "The Two-Thousand-Dollar Sock," which followed a woman's struggles with motherhood, honey-seeking bears, and a sick dog; and the title story, about a naturalist and her father who are led into the swamp by a mysterious stranger, searching for an elusive woodpecker.

Some of the stories resonated more for me than others, and only one or two didn't quite hit the mark. I was really taken by Bergman's voice and her ability to occupy and embody so many different narrators and imbue them with great depth. Some of the characters are similar, and at first glance I wondered if some of the stories were interconnected, but the more the stories unwound, I realized their differences. While some of the situations her characters find themselves in may be hard to identify with, nothing was ever unrealistic, and that added to the stories' appeal.

As I've commented many times before, when short stories are done right, they captivate you and leave you wanting to know more about the characters when the stories are finished. With this collection, I felt that way nearly all the time, and I would have loved to know what happened to some of these women after the last sentence of their stories.

This is a tremendously enjoyable, refreshingly candid, and well-written collection I'd definitely recommend to short story fans. And Bergman is an author to watch! (less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Judith Hannan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading a volume of short stories straight through has often felt like speed dating to me, or at least what I imagine speed dating would be. With each story, I invest myself in the characters, plot, and emotional dilemma only to have the slate wiped clean when it's time to begin a new story. Of course, similar themes often arise, characters share overlapping traits and whatever knot the author is trying to untangle can often be found in each vignette. This was particularly the case in Megan Mayh...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Jess rated it 3 of 5 stars

There’s this thing that happens to me when I read certain books where that book strikes right at the heart of something I’ve been feeling or hadn’t realized I’ve been feeling. And to most people that’d seem like a good thing. The book has made me feel something! I’ve connected with it on a personal, intimate level! That’s what every author wants, I think. But sometimes it’s not what I want. Especially when the feeling the book taps into is this weird funk of melancholy and dissatisfaction.

Birds...more There’s this thing that happens to me when I read certain books where that book strikes right at the heart of something I’ve been feeling or hadn’t realized I’ve been feeling. And to most people that’d seem like a good thing. The book has made me feel something! I’ve connected with it on a personal, intimate level! That’s what every author wants, I think. But sometimes it’s not what I want. Especially when the feeling the book taps into is this weird funk of melancholy and dissatisfaction.

Birds of a Lesser Paradise is full of these women whose lives aren’t what they’d anticipated them being. And a lot of them pick up everything and move to somewhere off the grid, like rural Vermont. And they adopt a dog and five cats and realize they want to reconnect with their mothers and have a baby (I’m thinking specifically of "Yesterday’s Whales", which I loved, but hate how it’s left me feeling).

This is kind of where I’m at right now. I’d like to pick up my life, move to a quaint, small town in North Carolina, plant things and adopt a black lab and more cats than I already have and lead a quiet, simple life where money is of little concern. And really, that seems extremely unlikely to happen anytime soon, and so: melancholy.

However, if you’re not an emo having a quarter-life crisis who's rethinking everything she thought she wanted out of life, you might enjoy this book.

The comparisons have already been made to Karen Russell, and I agree with them (although I’ve only read Swamplandia! I can see the similarities between the two authors). These are charming stories, very in tune with nature and emotions and relationships. And there are questions of faith and morals, which are all very thought-provoking.

I don’t usually like short stories, finding that by the time I’m into the story it’s ending, but these weren’t so bad. Each story feels complete, and while maybe you wanted a little more (what’s going to happen to these women? will they be okay? will I be okay?), there’s some transformation or realization or decision that has occurred, and maybe it will all work out in the end. Which is always a nice takeaway. (less)

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Apr 06, 2012 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm so glad my partner came across this gem on one of our weekends away, in a little bookstore in Mystic, CT. I believe any reader could find something to connect with in these stories, but I felt a particular bond to the overall importance of place in Bergman's writing. I was raised and educated in South Carolina (Clemson MA with creative writing emphasis) but sought the progressive liberalism of Northern Vermont in 2003. In the years following our move, as life in VT became natural and even su...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't know what to say about this book that won't end up sounding overly personal, other than I loved it and thought it was a great collection of stories, really well done. I know lots of people like writing super-subjective reviews, but I'm not one of them.

But. There are a number of themes running through these stories that shot me right through the heart: Being a mother. Having a mother. Slowly losing a parent to dementia. Loving animals slightly irrationally. The tug of wanting to rescue th...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 4 of 5 stars

Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman contains several very fine stories, especially the first three. Most of the stories are about animals and humans and how they interact. For instance, in the title story Ms. Bergman states that "I was taught that at the heart of all people, all things, lay raw self-interest. Sure, you could dress a person up nice, put pretty words in his mouth, but underneath the silk tie and pressed shirt was an animal. A territorial, hungry animal anxi...more Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman contains several very fine stories, especially the first three. Most of the stories are about animals and humans and how they interact. For instance, in the title story Ms. Bergman states that "I was taught that at the heart of all people, all things, lay raw self-interest. Sure, you could dress a person up nice, put pretty words in his mouth, but underneath the silk tie and pressed shirt was an animal. A territorial, hungry animal anxious to satisfy his own needs." On the surface, this story is about a woman of 36 who has been raised by her widowed father in the swamplands where he has a birding business. Isolated, Mae becomes entranced by a handsome customer who ends up putting her and her father in a dangerous situation while in search of the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.

'Saving Face' is about a once beautiful veterinarian who gets bitten on the face by a wolf who comes out of anesthesia too soon. She feels her loss of beauty along with the pity that follows her. She has postponed her marriage, not letting her fiance touch her. "She regretted the care with which she tugged the quills from the dog's lips - the same lips that opened to reveal brutal teeth that had torn into her face with an almost feral abandon as the dog unexpectedly came to."

'Yesterday's Whales' is about Malachi who runs an organization dedicated to advocating the end of humankind, sacrificing the human race to let nature reclaim the earth. No more breeding of humans. When his girlfriend gets pregnant, discord ensues. Malachi believes that every human life drains the earth's limited resources. His girlfriend, in deciding what to do about the baby, muster up hope about the world's future. "We wanted the same thing, I think, an earth less taxed by human presence. But giving up on life now, I felt, was like leaving the party early."

In 'Night Hunting', a young woman is dealing with her mother's impending death from breast cancer. She learns about her own strength in the face of predators. "The best predators, I realized, had no empathy."

'The Two-Thousand Dollar Sock' tells of a family's dog who has an intestinal blockage from eating a sock and they don't have the $2,000 for the veterinarian to do exploratory surgery. Despite the dog being at death's door, he is able to chase a predatory bear away from the house and protect his family.

My favorite story in the collection is 'Housewifely Arts' which I've read previously in The Best Short Stories of 2011. A woman is taking a 9 hour drive to visit her deceased mother's parrot. While living, her mother and she had a complicated relationship. Now the daughter misses her mother and realizes that her mother's voice resides in her mother's parrot who can perfectly mimic her. The daughter has trouble remembering what her mother sounded like and realizes that the parrot has more of her mother inside her than she does. "...We're driving to a small roadside zoo outside of Myrtle Beach so that I can hear my mother's voice call from the beak of a thirty-six year-old African gray parrot, a bird I hated, a bird that could beep like a microwave, ring like a phone, and sneeze just like me."

In 'Every Vein a Tooth', Gray decides to leave his girlfriend, an animal activist, because her home is filled with animals and it's just too much for him. When given the choice, she chooses her animals over him.

All of the stories are about the relationship of people to the natural world, mostly through their relationship with animals. In some stories, the animals know their people better than any human does. Ms. Bergman, who is married to a veterinarian, has obviously studied and been with animals. Her stories are palpably about nature and the food chain, the relationship that humans have with the earth and the animals that reside here beside us. Most of the stories are wonderful but a few are weak and could have been left out of this collection. The first three stories in the collection are the strongest and the book is worth reading for these alone.
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Feb 27, 2013 Lily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bergman's characters are quirky and curious. All of them seem to be looking for something even if they are not sure of what that something might be. Her title story "Birds of a Lesser Paradise" takes the reader to the Great Dismal Swamp where the main character has returned to run a bird-watching tourism business with her father. While looking for birds she stumbles upon love, something particularly difficult thing to spot in the middle of nowhere. When her father takes a bad turn, however, her...more

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May 15, 2012 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some of the stories in this collection are exceptional. Others, eh.

I was excited to read this collection after happening upon "The Cow Who Milked Herself" through Storyville (excellent App, by the way). I loved that story. It was throughful and tight and had animals in it. What more could a gal ask for? I was also excited because I read Bergman's bio and it talked about her husband the veteranian and discussed how she used this in her fiction.

There is a core of stories here that feel like they...more Some of the stories in this collection are exceptional. Others, eh.

I was excited to read this collection after happening upon "The Cow Who Milked Herself" through Storyville (excellent App, by the way). I loved that story. It was throughful and tight and had animals in it. What more could a gal ask for? I was also excited because I read Bergman's bio and it talked about her husband the veteranian and discussed how she used this in her fiction.

There is a core of stories here that feel like they all go together and those are the ones I really enjoyed. In additon to "..Cow...", there were several others I enjoyed, including "Housewifely Arts", the title story, "Saving Face", "The Urban Coop", "Night Hunting" and "Every Vein a Tooth" (esp. this one, actually). But then there were others that went slightly weird--like "Yesterday's Whales" which had this sub-theme of a movement to not breed and let the human race die out. There was also a story where a daughter had quict her job because she believed the end of the world was neigh. Worst was "Artificial Heart" which was set somewhere beyond 2025 in a bad world where people could live way past their expiration dates, but oceans were dying. The main themes in this story--taking care of an elderly parent, losing quality of life and being kept alive by artificial means--would have been just as powerful if not set in this futurisic time, which honestly seemed alittle like an afterthought.

I don't want to be so harsh on the collection as a whole, as I did really like some of the stories. Again, it's a problem I very often have with collections. If I read a story individually, I'd like it much better. When I read a collection, I start seeing all the writer's little tricks, all the things that I don't like, because it's amplified through sheer number of stories.

On a side note, I checked this book out of the school library at the university where I teach. Between two of the back pages, there was a post-it from The District (a complex where many students live) with "attraction is accidental" written in pencil. I like the idea of seeing someone else's notes, knowing this little line from one of the stories that someone felt important enough to write down. I'm sticking it back in the book for when I return it, for some other reader to find. (less)

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Jun 26, 2012 Theresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read Bergman's "Housewifely Arts" in The Best American Short Stories 2011 and noted it as one of my favorite stories in the collection. When I saw Bergman was doing a reading in my area, I attended and was happy to get a hold of her book. I was even more pleased after reading, when I found that I enjoyed almost all of the stories as much as I had enjoyed "Housewifely Arts." The stories are beautifully written, primarily in a fairly traditional, straightforward style. All of the stories have a...more

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Apr 30, 2012 A. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

In some ways Bergman does everything right in these stories. They are well crafted with interesting characters and their plots move along with a good amount of tension. However, reading them one after another I began to sense the craft too much -- the subplots surfacing just at the right time, the backstory slowly unfolding, the hard earned direct statements. By the end, I longed for a rambling, poorly plotted that would just break the mold and challenge me.

I think I would have liked these stori...more

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May 06, 2012 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

“My firm has offered to transfer me to a paralegal supervisory position in Connecticut—a state where Ike has a better chance of escaping childhood obesity, God, and conservative political leanings” (3).
“I was still grieving Dad, and it was strange to watch Mom find so much joy in this ebony-beaked wiseass” (7).
“But as years passed, our love had turned into a bartering system, a list of complicated IOUs” (12).
“I know the zoo will be closed at this hour, so we find a Days Inn. There's something ab...more “My firm has offered to transfer me to a paralegal supervisory position in Connecticut—a state where Ike has a better chance of escaping childhood obesity, God, and conservative political leanings” (3).
“I was still grieving Dad, and it was strange to watch Mom find so much joy in this ebony-beaked wiseass” (7).
“But as years passed, our love had turned into a bartering system, a list of complicated IOUs” (12).
“I know the zoo will be closed at this hour, so we find a Days Inn. There's something about the hum of an ice machine and waterlogged Astroturf that takes me back to childhood” (12).
“I remember thinking moms were not allowed to be sad, that surely women grew out of sadness by the time they had children” (13).
"We were speechless then, watching the beginnings of our child thrive on-screen. Two freshly neutered Labradors whine from their cages outside" (28).
"Incessant waggers, he said. Submissive urinators.
"Loving, I said. Warm on your lap" (30).
"Me, I watched a heart, small but fast, beat between the shadows of our daughter's ribs. I hope you never break, I said, though I knew it would, again and again" (35).
"I didn't believe in altruistic acts--I could find a selfish root to antyhing" (40).
"I was taught that the heart of all people, all things, lay raw self-interest" (40).
“We are bad mothers, the moose and I—me for drinking, the moose for abandoning her yearling to attend her newborn” (101).
“Beware the behavior of yearling moose freshly abandoned by their mothers…” (101).
“In old movies, America was beautiful, women could still feign naivete, men worked one job their entire lives, and everyone could carry a tune. Who didn’t want to live in an old movie” (105).
“No one could smoke a cigarette sadder than Bette Davis” (110).
“Better to cut out the complexity and admit that I never really believed in marriage, the power of a vow between flawed people” (134).
“With the toe of his boot he nudged an open sleeve of Laffy Taffy and a condom wrapper that lay in the grass.
“There’s a story here, he said, raising an eyebrow” (167). *She does not use quotation marks for dialogue.
“…a skinny rooster crossed the road in front of us like a bad joke…” (197).
“I ignored him the way my father had taught me. Only acknowledge authority when it’s earned, he’d said” (204).

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May 16, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I closed the cover -- book completed -- read every single story. Some were more engaging than others but none was a dud. I would recommend this book to anyone -- I don't always enjoy a collection of short stories, but Megan gathered an interesting group.

Most stories hooked me beginning to end - the author appears to have an awesome grasp of how to write just enough and project much more.

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Nov 18, 2012 Tina rated it 5 of 5 stars

I borrowed this from the library, but I'm going to buy my own copy because I think this is a book I'm going to want to pull off the shelf every once in awhile to re-read, to study. I loved it.

I enjoy how the stories' situations were somewhat absurd, yet real--or maybe they were absurdly real--and often simultaneously sad and hilarious. This kind of writing, I think, rings so true to experience.

On a personal level, maybe because of the year I've had, this book resonated with me for many reasons (...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Suzanne Jenkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's been a long time since I have been able to pick up another author's work of fiction, and find it interesting enough to keep reading. I was taken in right away by Birds of a Lesser Paradise.
Housewifely Arts, the first story, is about a young woman who takes her child on a long trip to visit her late mother's parrot. The parrot mimicked her mother and she wanted to hear her voice again. I cried my heart out. My mother has been gone almost a year and the parrot was a metaphor for the mentally...more

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May 17, 2012 Jessi Phelps rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really, really wanted to love these stories. However, while reading them it became apparent to me that they probably would have sat with me much better had they not been bundled together in a book, reading one right after another. The characters and narrations are all too similar--mostly middle-aged, middle-class women with mom problems. I don't mean to simplify the stories so bluntly, but this feeling was exactly what I was left with after reading the book.

Her crisp, clean, perfect writing st...more I really, really wanted to love these stories. However, while reading them it became apparent to me that they probably would have sat with me much better had they not been bundled together in a book, reading one right after another. The characters and narrations are all too similar--mostly middle-aged, middle-class women with mom problems. I don't mean to simplify the stories so bluntly, but this feeling was exactly what I was left with after reading the book.

Her crisp, clean, perfect writing style was one of the biggest problems I had with the book. Many of the characters she is writing about suffer from feelings of regret, loss, problems of alcoholism, conflicting beliefs, etc. They are all flawed beings, none of them perfect, and her neat and beautiful writing style just does not do these characters enough justice. A lot of the time I felt it was too stuffy and bland for the characters she was creating. By the end of it, I was aching for something different, more out of the ordinary and rambling, or a sticky and jittery narration or one completely detatched and unemotional--anything but the flowy, emotive, feminine voice she'd given all her protagonists. They all narrate the same way, they all react the same way. It reads like many episodes in one woman's life, when short stories that are being collected into a book should each be able to hold their own and be distinctive from one another.

The characters, as described literally, are very different from one another. Though many of the same themes and ideas pop up throughout the stories--many of them are veterinarians or have veterinarian spouses, many of them are heavily influenced by the aspects and challenges of motherhood and, of course, they all have to do with animals in some form--this could be forgivable, IF they all had a more distinctive narration. I do not have a problem with writers writing what they are comfortable and familiar with. The characters in all of Bergman's stories are all very genuine and strong, because Bergman is exactly what she has made all her characters to be. It is obvious that she is an extremely talented writer and her words flow so naturally throughout the book because she is familiar with the situations and feelings she is describing. However, as I said before, in the end her characters come off as are all simply the same woman put into different situations. I believe that to become a stronger writer, Bergman needs to develop different characters with different reactions, styles of telling their tales, and different feelings and emotions.

On their own, these stories would probably be very moving, and I'm a bit upset that I was not introduced to Bergman's writing by an isolated story, rather than this collection. I tried to space my reading time out as best as I could, by only reading one story a day, but even this did not do much to separate the stories for me. Bergman would make a great novelist, but this collection of short stories just didn't do it for me. I do hope to read more by her in the future, I just hope her next project is a full-length novel rather than more stories.(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read2013, short-stories, audiobook, southern

I got a review copy of this audiobook from the publisher. I wasn't sure what to expect; I was new to the author (this is her first book, although she has previously published short stories) and had no expectations. The book came out in print in March 2012, but the audiobook was new in November.

The title is apropos - while the stories aren't about birds exactly, most of them do seem to include animals in some way - many birds, but also ferrets, dogs, sheep, cats, even a chinchilla.

The author is...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Callie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, own

I can't put into words how much I absolutely loved this collection. Each story was lovely, haunting, and heartfelt. The stories were also the perfect length-long enough that you cared about the outcome, but short enough that no word felt wasted. I found myself fighting back tears as I repeatedly tortured myself by reading this in public. And it wasn't even necessarily the events within the stories that moved me (though they often did), but just the beauty of the language.

Let me put it this way-...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, short-stories

I generally don't finish books of short stories but I devoured this one. The author somehow makes you care deeply about the characters in the space of a few paragraphs- a feat no short story author has accomplished with me, save Raymond Carver.

I found the stories refreshing on another level- modern literature can so often be THE MOST DEPRESSING, especially as it concerns family. It's often FAMILIES ARE EVIL and MOTHERS ARE SELFISH AND WISH THEIR BABIES WOULD GO AWAY, etc. So when I came across t...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Shawna rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's not Bergman can't write, it's more that this book just didn't appeal to my sensibilities. The author captures everyday moments with a wonderful grace and the elements of her stories are unique enough to make me want to enjoy them, but when it came down to it I just couldn't bring myself to continue reading after the first half. From one story to the next the characters are so similar to one another (in the first half at least two of the stories were about veterinarians, they are always fema...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Michael Magras rated it 4 of 5 stars

A paralegal tracks down her dead mother’s talking parrot so that she can hear her mother’s voice again. A family that receives nocturnal visits from a black bear debates whether to have expensive surgery on their dog, who won’t pass the latest sock he has swallowed. A disfigured veterinarian runs into more conflict than she expected while helping a prison run its working farm. A recovering alcoholic who volunteers at the local Lemur Center cares for an aye-aye during a winter power outage.

The tw...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, read-in-2012, short-stories

I'm really sad to be done with this book. I wanted it to go on longer - I want to read more of these stories! I can't decide whether to give it 4 or 5 stars. Let's say 4.5. This is a short story collection done really well. I loved her writing, her portrayal of women, of motherhood, of so many things. Each story had a connection to animals or nature in some way. But don't let that put you off if you're not an animal person. (I don't have a pet and I wouldn't call myself an "animal person" but I...more

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About Megan Mayhew Bergman

Megan Mayhew Bergman is the author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, a collection of stories forthcoming from Scribner in March 2012. Birds of a Lesser Paradise is a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection for spring 2012 and an Indie Next Pick for March.

Megan's work has appeared in the New York Times, Best American Short Stories 2011, New Stories from the South 2012, Ploughshares, One...more

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Books by Megan Mayhew Bergman

The Best American Series: 20 Short Stories and Essays

Pen America: A Journal for Writers and Readers: 13 Lovers

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“Mothers, I believe, intoxicate us. We idolize them and take them for granted. We hate them and blame them and exalt them more thoroughly than anyone else in our lives. We sift through the evidence of their love, reassure ourselves of their affection and its biological genesis. We can steal and lie and leave and they will love us.” — 14 people liked it

“Sometimes you didn't know what you were after, I thought. Maybe there was a speck on the horizon and you followed it, hoping for the best.” — 3 people liked it

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