We are proud to share that Space for Birds: Patterns and Parallels of Beauty and Flight by Dr. Roberta L. Bondar has been selected as one of Heather’s Picks, a list of guaranteed good reads curated by Indigo founder Heather Reisman.

For Dr. Roberta L. Bondar, the first female Canadian astronaut and the world’s first neurologist in space, the rare perspective she enjoyed aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery enhanced her reverence for the world we share with non-human life—especially birds, the only animals also able to fly vast distances across the globe. In Space for Birds, Bondar, who is also an accomplished professional nature and landscape photographer, shares the lives and habitats of two majestic bird species through striking space, aerial, and surface photographs to artfully convey the fragile elegance of life on Earth.

In what Margaret Atwood has called a “gorgeous photo essay” (via social media), Bondar focuses her lens on two international species: the endangered Whooping Crane, which migrates from its boreal nesting grounds in Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park to the seaside abundance of its winter habitat in Texas; and the near-threatened Lesser Flamingo, which is seen in dazzling pink flocks on and above East African Rift Valley soda lakes.

While these birds lead different lives on opposite sides of the globe, they share, with each other and with us, an imperative to survive and a reliance on Earth’s fragile ecosystems.

UPCOMING EVENT

To learn more about Space for Birds, join us for an illuminating evening with Dr. Roberta Bondar, who will be sharing personal reflections on the book and its backstory, followed by an armchair conversation with moderator Nicole Mortillaro, senior reporter for the CBC on all things science and amateur astronomer, followed by Q&A with the audience.

Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase on site courtesy of Ben McNally Books. This is a free public event, RSVP required.
 
Author Talk: Dr. Roberta Bondar
Wednesday, May 7, 6:00PM
Toronto Public Library – Lillian H. Smith Branch
239 College Street