When this blog is updated it does feature some book reviews. Although this book was published in 2018 I hadn’t heard of it before seeing it in New York last autumn, so I guess many UK birders may not be familiar with it.
As you would expect from someone who extols the virtue of nature professionally it’s infectiously enthusiastic. It’s also very well written except for the author feeling the need to end just about every account with a bad pun or rather forced moral of the story.
I don’t know if these essays were first published elsewhere, but I would stress to any potential reader that the book is misnamed. It’s not as I thought it was a book about family birding. Event the sub-heading ‘sharing nature with the next generation’ is only part of the story. It’s a collection of essays about birding and birders, with some about the next generation. Family birding in particular is a small part of the whole.
Other reviewers have suggested that Eli comes across at different times as being too full of himself and yet self-deprecating at other points. I would agree with this. If you got Goodreads you will see he has given himself a five star review and commented ‘What I think about this tome is a bit biased. ;)’ which absolutely sums up that contradiction in this book.
If I read it again I’d probably take more time over it as the structure of the essays gets a bit repetitive. If you like contemporary birding literature though it’s certainly worth a read as the average Goodreads rating of over 4.2 suggests.
If anyone would like to borrow my copy or even find it a good new home let me know.
Natural Selection 
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