Friday, December 14, 2012

Flight Behaviors






Flight Behavior
By Barbara Kingslover



Copy given to me by TLC Book Tours



On the Appalachian mountain lives Dellarobia Turnbow, and her husband Cub, and two small children.  Down the dirt road lives her husband's family. They are sheep Herders.   He's mother is domineering, and there isn't anything to please her.

 Dellarobia, found her self pregnant in high school.  Pretty much left barefoot and pregnant.  Living dirt poor, poor, in a shack. She is stuck, in the marriage.  She still loves Cub, but she has wandering eyes for the electrician.

One finally moment she is to meet him at a certain spot.  Instead she spots she thinks"fire", Moses burning bush.  Thinking it is a sign from g-d not to meet him.  Instead, she goes back down the mountain.  Later realizing it is a cluster of Monarch butterflies.

Later on she remarks to her husband, Cub that they should not sell the land for timber.  There is something up there that Cub, and he's family should witness.  Originally the family wants to sell off the land. But, after witnessing the miracle of the butterflies, the family and the community believe it is a sign from g-d.  It is a deliverance

 The community, outside visitors of the community find out about the miracle from the newspapers. People come from all over to witness the miracle, including a Mexican family that was uprooted because of a natural disaster.  Dellarosia's mother in law solicit tours for monetary gain to see the miracle of the butterflies.

 Scientists from other parts of the country are interested in why the butterflies started migrating in the winter to Tennessee rather than Mexico. She becomes involved in learning about the migration of the butterflies.  She wants to learn more than what is going on, on her mountain top.  She starts to learn about other things outside her town. This changes and challenges her mind for the better.

What transpires is changes of Dellarosia. She never was interested in learning.   With the scientists coming to investigate the butterfly phenomenon.  There comes good changes for her.  She knows now, there is more for her to learn about, and explore in her life than the limited Appalachian mountains.

Flight Behavior is not just about the change in the butterfly's flight pattern but parallel's to Delarobia's  life changes. Instead of sitting back and letting life take over. She eventually at the end became a take charge person.  She is doing something for the better to change her and her children.

Flight Behavior, underlying theme is global warming, and can we change things once we destroy them.  Can we prevent further destruction.  If you are a science buff, and interested in the phenomenon of the migration of butterflies this may interest you. This may interest you enough to do your own research as well about the monarch butteflies. This will make a good book discussion.

There is much more discussed in the book about envoirmental changes with the butterflies. What caused them to change to a different migration route? Is this the beginning of the end? Etc, etc.

The writing of Ms. Kingslover was beautifully written prose.  I personally at times felt she was getting preachy and long winded.  But, I still liked reading Flight Behaviors.  I like to read books that are science based, historical, and learn something with some meat.  Some people will not enjoy reading this.  But, I still felt like it had something to say.

I read a book called Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe. She talked about the butterflies also. But, was worried about the end of the Monarch Butterflies. Where Ms. Kingslover was writing about the ecology, and globing warming.  Two different things.

I wanted to read this because I have not read many books that take place on the Appalachian Mountains.  I felt the book gave the person that does not go on the back roads of the poor dirt on the mountain a taste, feel, and culture of the life of people that live in Tennessee in Appalachia. 

I read this novel about two weeks ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.
I would like to thank TLC Book Tours for allowing me to receive a copy and review my thoughts.

Here are the other stops for the book tour:
Tuesday, November 6th: A Reader of Fictions
Wednesday, November 7th: Dolce Bellezza
Thursday, November 8th: The Blog of Lit Wits
Monday, November 12th: Caribousmom
Tuesday, November 13th: Bookish Habits
Wednesday, November 14th: 50 Books Project
Thursday, November 15th: Unabridged Chick
Monday, November 26th: Book Snob
Tuesday, November 27th: What She Read … – joint review
Wednesday, November 28th: Becca’s Byline
Thursday, November 29th: A Patchwork of Books
Wednesday, December 5th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Thursday, December 6th: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness
Tuesday, December 11th: Man of La Book
Wednesday, December 12th: Tina’s Books Reviews
Thursday, December 13th: Seaside Book Corner
Monday, December 17th: 50 Books Project
TBD: Much Madness is Divinest Sense

1 comment:

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

I'm glad you enjoyed this book even though you had some minor complaints. Thanks for being on the tour.