Readalikes: If you enjoyed May's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson, then you might also like these books suggested by our discussion group members:

• Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale
• The White Road: Journey into an Obsession by Edmund de Waal
• The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick
• Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
• H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
• The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik
• The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean
• The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Michael Paterniti
• The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant

May Not Fiction Book Discussions

What is the line between interest and obsession? The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson considers this question through several intertwined stories.

The central story is that of Edwin Rist, an accomplished young American flautist whose deep interest in the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying led him to break into the British Museum of Natural History at Tring and steal hundreds of rare, historically and scientifically significant bird specimens to support his own fly-tying and to sell so that he could buy a golden flute. Supporting Rist's story is that of what Johnson calls "the feather underground," the clannish fly-tying community that shares and encouraged his interest in the feathers of endangered and protected species of birds used for creating their exquisite flies. Parallel in interest but different in intent is the story of naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace who braved dangerous journeys to collect these specimens for scientific purposes. As Johnson comes to see it, it is a "war between knowledge and greed." But perhaps most interesting of all is Johnson's own story. He took up fly fishing to relieve PTSD symptoms resulting from his work coordinating the reconstruction of the Iraqi city of Fallujah for USAID and subsequent work through his own nonprofit, the List Project, to bring Iraqi refugees to safety in the United States. He was waist-high in the Red River in New Mexico when his guide told him Rist's story. Johnson admits, "I don't know if it was Edwin's Victorian-sounding name, the sheer weirdness of the story, or the fact that I was in desperate need of a new direction in life, but I became obsessed with the crime within moments." He would spend much of the next five years investigating Rist's crime, for which Rist avoided any serious repercussions.

What do you think? Have you ever had an interest that verged on obsession? What do you think was behind the obsessive nature of your interest? Why do you think fly-tiers are so interested in rare bird feathers? Is it essentially similar to or different from the interest naturalists like Darwin and Wallace and present-day scientists take in rare species of birds? How does the Internet support and even fuel "the feather underground"? What kind of person does Edwin Rist seem to be? What do you think motivated his crime? Asperger's syndrome? Greed? Something else? What about his accomplice, Long Nguyen? Why did he assist Rist? And what about Johnson himself? Why do you think Johnson was so interested in this story? And why did he decide to include his own story in what is essentially a true-crime narrative?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, May 16, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.