Books &Life Entropy | 10 Aug 2012
Life List
What is life? That, ultimately, is the question posed by Life List, journalist Olivia Gentile’ biography of Phoebe Snetsinger.
Phoebe Snetsinger had planned to be a scientist, but, like most women who got married in the 1950s, she ended up keeping house, with four kids and a home in the suburbs by her mid-thirties. Numb and isolated, she turned to birdwatching, but she soon tired of the birds near home and yearned to travel the world.” Then her life took a crushing turn: At forty-nine, she was told she had cancer and less than a year to live. Devastated, she began crisscrossing the globe, finding rare and spectacular birds that brought her to the heights of spiritual ecstasy.
But against all odds, she didn’t get sick. She eventually took hundreds of trips to all seven continents, often risking her life in remote, rugged places. She became a hero in the birding world and the first person to see eight thousand species – disregarding the cost to her family, her health, and her safety.
In this biography of bird enthusiast Phoebe Snetsinger, former journalist Gentile wonders whether there is a “line between dedication and obsession, and when does obsession cross the line into pathology?”
Explore about author & her adventure at Life List