Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America, by Rick Wright. 2019. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 448 pages. Hardcover, $35.00. ISBN 978-0-5479731-6-6.

Aptly named, this book is a reference guide, densely loaded with details, and is not designed for reading straight through. Rather, this is a resource you grab at the end of the evening to enhance your knowledge of a species you saw earlier in the day or pull out when the rain is too heavy to go birding.