AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile
Listening to Tove Danovich is like spending time with a deeply enthusiastic and knowledgeable chicken-loving pal. Journalist and hen-keeper Danovich offers pleasantly playful but informative accounts of our long fascination and relationship with chickens--set against the backdrop of her own suburban hen keeping. She moves from whimsical tones to those conveying deep curiosity about the questions she pursues while documenting the roots of her own flock and her exploration into the history and current climate of poultry keeping. As Danovich offers her own anecdotal experiences with her hens alongside cameos of other chicken keepers/obsessives, listeners are drawn into a fascinating and broody world. Even for the henless, it's impossible not to be engaged by this immersive blend of personal narrative and lightly investigative journalism. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
12/12/2022
Journalist Danovich debuts with a heartfelt account of raising pet hens. After spotting a chicken coop in a Brooklyn front yard, Danovich was inspired to adopt her own upon moving to Portland, Ore., where she acquired Peggy, Joan, and Betty (named after the Mad Men characters). Chickens “can change your life if you let them,” she suggests, enumerating the benefits of keeping the pets and offering detailed portraits of hers: Peggy “was the bravest in the bunch” and Joan was deferential while Betty preferred “comfort over exploration.” Danovich grew her flock after suffering losses, including Betty’s death by one of Danovich’s dogs, which the author recounts with grief and guilt. She weaves in a powerful indictment of the poultry industry’s practice of confining chickens to tiny cages, and tells of how she rescued from an egg farm two adult chickens who had been so poorly treated they had to learn such fundamental behaviors as foraging and taking dust baths. Danovich’s commitment to her pets endears and provides an intimate look at animals more often thought of as food than friends (“They weren’t just any someones—they were individuals with a place in both the flock and in my life that would be irreplaceable”). Anyone who’s mulled the possibility of setting up a backyard coop will find this the next best thing. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
A heartfelt account of raising pet hens. . . Anyone who’s mulled the possibility of setting up a backyard coop will find this the next best thing.” —Publishers Weekly
“Not intended to be a how-to for amateur poultry breeders, Danovich’s work does offer broad and compelling insight into how raising chickens transforms and enriches human lives.” —Booklist
“Under the Henfluence clocks our obsession with chicken-keeping. Highbrow / Brilliant.” —New York Magazine
“Share[s] the life-enhancing joys of the humble hen.” —The Sunday Times
“A realistic and immersive look into our relationship with those beings in our care. . . Under the Henfluence makes it impossible for the reader not to think of—and possibly love—the idea of chickens in a new way.” —Mira Ptacin, Modern Farmer
“I enjoyed every single page.” —Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., Psychology Today
“A call to arms, but in an entertainingly written, well-paced way. It certainly makes you think.” —Kate Green, Country Life
AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile
Listening to Tove Danovich is like spending time with a deeply enthusiastic and knowledgeable chicken-loving pal. Journalist and hen-keeper Danovich offers pleasantly playful but informative accounts of our long fascination and relationship with chickens--set against the backdrop of her own suburban hen keeping. She moves from whimsical tones to those conveying deep curiosity about the questions she pursues while documenting the roots of her own flock and her exploration into the history and current climate of poultry keeping. As Danovich offers her own anecdotal experiences with her hens alongside cameos of other chicken keepers/obsessives, listeners are drawn into a fascinating and broody world. Even for the henless, it's impossible not to be engaged by this immersive blend of personal narrative and lightly investigative journalism. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
