The Environmental Book Group will meet on Monday, January 26, 2026, at 7 pm in the Program Room, Radcliffe Building, for a discussion of The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl. Our discussion will be facilitated by Rebecca Poirier, environmental analyst, Conservation Department, Town of Greenwich. This program is co-sponsored by Perrot Memorial Library and the Conservation Commission.
In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons — from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring — what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author–and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “Radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”
Registration is required. To register, click here.
For more information, call us at 203-637-1066 or email us at adultprogramming@perrotlibrary.org.