I was prepared to NOT like this book. So much so that I first downloaded a free Kindle sample. I am most certainly not a fan of Audubon or his art. I find the setting of his paintings often overly dramatic or just plain wrong (Mountain Plovers shown in the mountains…). The grossly contorted poses of the birds are bothersome, even though I understand they are intended to show all the key features for identification. Art aside, the man’s difficult relationship with the truth and overwhelming ambition led him to commit several acts of gross scientific fraud.