Flight Behavior

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Dellarobia was seventeen, she married Cub Turnbow because they had a baby on the way. She miscarried shortly afterward, but the damage was done, and her dreams of college and escaping the confines of impoverished Feathertown, Tennessee, died also. More than a decade later, Dellarobia's quiet despair leads her to hike up a hill for an adulterous rendezvous. Before she arrives, however, she sees the forest aflame with a soundless fire and returns home with the conviction that the miracle was meant to save her. She is no longer the same person; sparks of her original personality have reignited. When her father-in-law decides to cut down the forest to pay a large debt, she lobbies her husband to intervene, telling him they should at least look at what they are selling off before it's too late. Grudgingly, her in-laws and her husband agree to make the trip, so this time Dellarobia wears her glasses and discovers that the flames are actually butterflies. Millions--maybe billions--of monarch butterflies.

News of the butterflies spreads to news outlets, both local and national, and soon Dellarobia is in the uncomfortable media spotlight as the woman whose "vision" led to the discovery. When a stranger appears at her door, she impulsively invites him to dinner and changes the course of her life forever, for he is a lepidopterist--a butterfly scientist. The unearthly beauty of the butterflies is actually a natural disaster: they should have returned to the milder climate of the mountains of Mexico, and an Appalachian winter might mean their extinction.

Kingsolver is a master of character development. I didn't find much to admire in Dellarobia to begin with, given her her chain-smoking and her decision to throw her marriage away on a foolish obsession. But she grows and changes into a woman I could empathize with and respect. And Kingsolver doesn't skimp on the other characters, either. For example, Cub is a good, kind man who is simply a bad match for Dellarobia. Their children come to life, particularly five-year-old Preston, the budding scientist. Even Cub's mother, Hester, is depicted with depth. No one is simply a stereotype--not the preacher, nor the congregants, not the scientists, and not the townsfolk. Kingsolver grew up in Appalachia and treats it with respect, acknowledging both the poverty and limited choices but also the inherent thrift. Everyone--environmentalists and locals alike--acts with the best of intentions. I really appreciated that.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways, primarily, but also language and story (as is customary with Kingsolver's novels). No sex, aside from a pair of butterflies, nor violence, and only a little mild swearing. The pace of the book is generally relaxed, so I wouldn't suggest it to anyone who only reads "page-turners."

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two words: turkey sex.

Barbara Kingsolver is hands down my favorite modern author. She uses the most beautiful prose--vivid and lyrical--to write stories and characters that come to life, no matter whether she's writing fiction or nonfiction.

In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver tells the story of her family's decision to deliberately buy, grow, and eat only food produced in the vicinity of their farm in southwestern Virginia. The idea is to eat seasonally and get off the petroleum-fuel-dependent global food system with its gigantic carbon footprint and devastating environmental consequences. They aren't quite as strict about defining "local" as were the authors of Plenty: one man, one woman, and a raucous year of eating locally. But Kingsolver's family lives on a small farm where they can grow much of their own produce and raise--and slaughter--their own poultry, so they have a head start in the "local" department.

Barbara wrote the bulk of the book, while her husband, Steven Hopp, wrote sidebars filled with related facts & figures, and her daughter, Camille Kingsolver, contributed the sections about meal plans and recipes. The sidebars were really interesting (if sometimes a scary reality check), despite my irritation that they interrupted the flow of the story. I only wish I were a competent enough cook to attempt some of Camille's recipes. (What does "braise" actually mean & how do you do it?)

I already miss having my own vegetable garden, and this book is inspiring me to plan how I can carve out space to grow much of my own produce in the back yard I now have. I can spend this winter poring over online heirloom seed catalogs and drawing diagrams, just like my father used to do (and maybe still does?) with roses and flowerbeds.

And as for the turkey sex...well, let's just say that Barbara's evocative description of the trials and tribulations of mating teenage turkeys had me laughing 'til my face hurt.

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Wake Up and Smell the Planet

Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-pompous, Non-preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day by Grist Magazine

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who would have thought that reading about how to change your habits & save the planet could make you laugh out loud? The humor makes reality easier to digest, as do the short sections/chapters and grey "sidebars." (They're not really on the side.) Some of their suggestions will take some dedication to achieve, but others are so simple anyone could do them--and everyone should. Forgoing plastic water bottles is one example. Long live ceramic & stainless steel! The book also weighs the pros & cons of disposable & cloth diapers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, etc. I highly recommend this book as a companion to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (which I think everyone in America should read).


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