Sierra Club: Vulture : Nature's Ghastly Gourmet

Rating:
Summary: Questionable at best
Review: As long as it sticks to New World vultures, this is a good reference. When it comes to Old World vultures, though, this guy simply doesn't know what he's writing about. He claims, for example, that the Bearded Vulture is incapable of carrying tortoises aloft (which it does regularly), and that the Asian Black Vulture is the largest vulture in Africa (it is the second smallest, out of nine species). I find it disturbing (if not surprising) that the Sierra Club would fund such a poorly researched and blatantly inaccurate volume. Anyone looking for an excellent reference on Old World vultures should check out The Vultures of Africa, by the South African Vulture Study Group.

Rating:
Summary: an exellent Book of vultures and Condors
Review: I learned much about my favorite bird-of-prey. Giving information about Of both types of vulture (Genus Accitciprid and Cathardiae). Many people have discouraged vultures, not knowing that there smaller cousins had the same habit. Mr. Grady gives plenty of detail for these large scaengers of the air.

Rating:
Summary: In spite of the many shortcomings of the book I enjoyed it.
Review: I'm disappointed in the recently published book "Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gourmets," and must say that I'm even more disappointed that the Sierra Club Books was associated with the books publication in the USA. The format of the book is wasteful although it might be a book designers delight; but regardless of the attempt to disguise a magaszine length article as a book, it fails and demeans an interesting and worthy and important subject by essentially making the book a miniature "coffee table" book (although its weight might fully qualify it as such). The design would perhaps be more appropriate for a magazinw article than a serious book about vultures. The paper and the binding of the book is heavy and cumbersome in the hand and makes it hard to thumb through the book to find things easily. The book contains 33 color pictures of many of the Old and New Worlds vultures with additional 14 line drawings, maps and other illustrations. These illustrations are good and appropriate (where the figure of 60 dramatic illustrations came from that's mentioned in one of the reviews, I don't know). However, the illustration on page 36 is of a turkey vulture, rather than the black vulture the picture caption indicates. A fifteen kilogram lappet-faced vulture, on page 25, would not be a 10 pound vulture but rather a 33 pound one.

With the wealth of material available, both from the scientific literature and anecdotal observations, Grady could have woven together a most needed and welcome natural history of both the New and the Old World vultures. However, that's not the case with "Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gourmet." Instead we get short glimses of some of the vultures, through mostly second hand descriptions of a few words or few lines. The book lacks an in-dephth look at these much maligned and misunderstood birds, which are some of the greatest flyers the worlds has ever known. Occasionally, when the author is most successful in his presentation, he uses personal observations and descriptions as of the vultures near his home in eastern Ontario.

Farley Mowat is not the only or the first human who has wanted to return to his next incarnation as a vulture; it was also the dream of Edward Abbey, the iconoclast and writer of the Southwest.

In spite of many shortcomings of "Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gormet" I enjoyed reading the book and, becoming again acquainted with the marvelous sailplanes of the birdworld. And I recommend the book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of vultures
Review: This is a well-written, entertaining book on a subject for which there are very few books out there. The illustrations and photographs are stunning, if a bit distracting from the text at times. Not only does Mr. Grady present vulture facts, but also he places vultures in a cultural context. I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous photo book - but no work of reference
Review: Why judge a book by the standards of something it is evidently not? 'Vulture' is the most gorgeous collection of photos of these birds that I know. The book itself is beautifully laid out and designed. This is an ode to vultures rather than a comprehensive work of reference about them, and although it is regrettable that there are some errors in the text, they are few in number and are compensated by Grady's obvious love for his subject and his writing skills. But buy this book for what it is: a celebration of the beauty of a much-misunderstood group of birds.