Amy Tan
Amy Tan, born February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California, is a novelist, memoirist, children’s book writer, and most recently a close observer of birds, painting and writing personal essays thereof. She is best known for her first novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), published when she was 37. She had served unwittingly a long apprenticeship as a business writer for large corporations, which undoubtedly contributed to the clarity of her prose, a pragmatic flow of information and imagery under firm and confident management. Her parents are first-generation Chinese-Americans, and she has chosen emigration and assimilation - and continuity - as a theme in her fiction. Because of this, Tan has been interpreted as a “representative” writer, someone expressing wide cultural generalities, which she has rejected, and which, frankly, any unbiased reader finds a misguided criticism. Read her for being Amy Tan, an excellent writer, an empathetic human being, an observant artist. Enjoy and marvel.
The Backyard Bird Journal
The Backyard Bird Journal
Based on Amy Tan’s #1 New York Times bestseller The Backyard Bird Chronicles, this beautifully bound nature journal with a removable half-jacket and ribbon marker is ready to capture the happenings outside your window.
What are the stories in your backyard? Whether you’re a birder, hiker, or simply enjoy being outdoors, this thoughtfully designed journal helps you channel intentional curiosity with room to write and sketch what you observe outdoors. Within The Backyard Bird Journal, you’ll find a new introduction from Amy Tan, her “no rules” guide to nature journaling with examples from her own work, and daily journaling pages peppered with quotes and sketch art from The Backyard Bird Chronicles.
Use these pages to simply write or draw what is happening in front of you—whatever you notice and what it might remind you of. Keep the journal by a window or bring it with you on a walk. With a lay-flat spine, ribbon marker, removable jacket, and high-quality paper ideal for pen or pencil, The Backyard Bird Journal is your space for musing, reflecting on, and capturing the natural wonders of the world, whether you are a budding or practiced nature enthusiast.