About the Author

Olivia Gentile earned a BA from Harvard College and an MFA from Columbia University. She has worked as a newspaper reporter for which she won the Vermont Press Association's Rookie Reporter of the Year Award and the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalist's Magazine Writing Award.

Reviews

"After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore, Snetsinger stayed home with [her] four children, a dedicated but dissatisfied mother who might have served only as a cautionary tale for feminists if, one day in 1965, she hadn't encountered--in her own backyard--a Blackburnian Warbler. Snetsinger's very ordinariness is part of the charm of "Life List, " Olivia Gentile's provocative biography of an amateur ornithologist ... That Snetsinger flew the coop was both a point of pride and a point of friction for her family, and Gentile does not cast judgment but simply describes what she sees. By documenting the tension between the obligation to others and the obligation to oneself, Gentile has written a book as much about the life of women as about a woman's life.""--Christian Science Monitor""Except for one thing, this book would rate as a great adventure novel and fictional psychological portrait, about a woman's obsession with bird-watching, its effect on her relationships with her husband and her four children, and the horrifying mishaps that she survived on each continent--until the last mishap. But the book isn't that great novel, because instead it's a great true story: the biography of Phoebe Snetsinger, who set the world record for bird species seen, after growing up in an era when American women weren't supposed to be competitive or have careers. Whether or not you pretend that it's a novel, you'll enjoy this powerful, moving story."--Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse""[A] fascinating biography ... a beautiful story of intellectual passion, love of nature, self-education, self-reinvention, and high adventure." "--Slate""Gentile's tale of a desperate but determined housewife with a passion for birds and adventure is engrossing, sharp, and affecting--a touching portrait and great read." --Susan Orlean, author of "The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup "and" The Orchid Thief""Gentile tells Snetsinger's sta

“After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore, Snetsinger stayed home with [her] four children, a dedicated but dissatisfied mother who might have served only as a cautionary tale for feminists if, one day in 1965, she hadn’t encountered—in her own backyard—a Blackburnian Warbler. Snetsinger’s very ordinariness is part of the charm of "Life List, " Olivia Gentile’s provocative biography of an amateur ornithologist … That Snetsinger flew the coop was both a point of pride and a point of friction for her family, and Gentile does not cast judgment but simply describes what she sees. By documenting the tension between the obligation to others and the obligation to oneself, Gentile has written a book as much about the life of women as about a woman’s life.”"—Christian Science Monitor""Except for one thing, this book would rate as a great adventure novel and fictional psychological portrait, about a woman's obsession with bird

"Except for one thing, this book would rate as a great adventure novel and fictional psychological portrait, about a woman's obsession with bird-watching, its effect on her relationships with her husband and her four children, and the horrifying mishaps that she survived on each continent--until the last mishap. But the book isn't that great novel, because instead it's a great true story: the biography of Phoebe Snetsinger, who set the world record for bird species seen, after growing up in an era when American women weren't supposed to be competitive or have careers. Whether or not you pretend that it's a novel, you'll enjoy this powerful, moving story." --Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of bestselling books including "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse""Gentile's tale of a desperate but determined housewife with a passion for birds and adventure is engrossing, sharp, and affecting--a touching portrait and great read." --Susan Orlean, author of "The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup "and" The Orchid Thief""Olivia Gentile's "Life List" is the remarkable story of Phoebe Snetsinger, a woman trapped by her life as homemaker, who found liberation in bird watching. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, she began traveling the world, not seeking a cure, but in search of rare birds--becoming a kind of ornithologist's heroine, and living another eighteen years. Gentile's journalistic temperament lures you in, whether you like birds or not (frankly I kind of hate them). The result is a beautifully revealing, sensitive exploration of Snetsinger's singular obsession. The story slips under your skin--you can't help but keep reading."--A.M. Homes, author of "The Mistress's Daughter"and "This Book Will Save Your Life""An intriguing portrait of one of the best-known birders of the modern age. I couldn't put it down!" --Peter Kaestner, America's top living bird lister""Life List" is an engaging saga of how a brave and complex woman defied cancer and gender in an epic quest to become the first person to see eight thousand bird species." --Frank Gill, author of "Ornithology "and director and retired chief scientist of the National Audubon Society, and Sally Conyne, retired director of citizen science of the National Audubon Society"I am not a woman. I am not a birdwatcher, and I don't plan to become one. But nevertheless I found "Life List "to be a charming, heartening, fascinating, and altogether inspiring guide to living life (and facing death) with one's full attention." --Kurt Andersen, host of NPR's "Studio 360 "and author of "Heyday"""Life List" will easily attract bird people and the rest of us with its distinctive call. Gentile has written a graceful and very appealing book."--Meg Wolitzer, author of "The Ten-Year Nap "and "Sleepwalking"""Life List "is an uncommon sort of book--a sincere, sometimes somber flight through the remarkable, storied life of one of birding's most tenacious and most erudite adherents. Gentile approaches her subject with equal parts sympathy and sobriety, capturing both the exhilaration and the costs of pursuing one's passion to the fullest." --Edward S. Brinkley, editor of "North American Birds""Olivia Gentile is a natural storyteller who has found a subject worthy of her remarkable talent. "Life List" is a book about birds and nature and also about obsession and choices and risk. Gentile has made an elegant, eloquent debut."--Edward Dolnick, author of "The Forger's Spell""Lively biography of intrepid, world-traveling ornithologist and cancer survivor Phoebe Snetsinger ... the prose delightfully conveys Gentile's engagement with her subject. Compassionate and comprehensive." --"Kirkus Reviews""[A] stirring account of an intriguing woman and the life she led." --"Booklist ""Diagnosed in her late 40s with incurable cancer and less than a year to live, [Phoebe Snetsinger] threw herself into birding, traveling worldwide, ignoring injury and danger to work on her life list for another 18 years ... Gentile's ambivalence, celebrating Snetsinger's 'having lived so fully and with so much spirit' but noting that 'she had lost the capacity to take into account her family, her health and her safety, ' adds a reflectiveness that Phoebe herself may have avoided in life." --"Publishers Weekly"

"An intriguing portrait of one of the best-known birders of the modern age. I couldn't put it down!" --Peter Kaestner, America's top (living) bird lister""Life List" is an engaging saga of how a brave and complex woman defied cancer and gender in an epic quest to become the first person to see 8,000 bird species." -Frank Gill, author of "Ornithology," senior ornithologist of National Audubon Society