Friends of the Takoma Park Library Book Club News
Flight Behavior, a novel by BarbaraKingsolver, will be discussed by the Friends Book Group on Thursday, May 19 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Hydrangea Room of the Community Center.
Kingsolver’s 2012 novel about the effect of climate change in a rural Tennessee community is the second of a series of Cli-Fi books the group is reading this year. CliFi, or Climate Fiction, has been defined as “fiction… that features a changed or changing climate.” Like Sci-Fi, Cli-Fi explores realistic scenarios taken from contemporary sources and may make use of fantasy or the supernatural. Each Cli-Fi discussion includes a poem about nature or how human activity irrevocably affects the environment. Flight Behavior is paired with “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy.
In Flight Behavior, the accidental discovery of a new winter home for the Monarch Butterfly alarms investigating scientists by indicating how much climate change impacts the existing model of Monarch migration. Kingsolver weaves this story with the impact the discovery has on Dellarobia Turnbow and her family and their small Appalachian town.
In his Guardian review of the novel, science and environment editor Robin McVie wrote it, “is an impressive work. It is complex, elliptical, and wellobserved. Dellarobia and her kin come over as solid but believable individuals, outlined with respect and balance.”
Kingsolver has won numerous honors and awards as well as being shortlisted for several literary prizes. She is perhaps best known for her novel, The Poisonwood Bible. In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, which is now administered by PEN America. If you are interested in joining the discussion and you do not receive Friends Book Group announcements, write to ftpmlbookgroup@gmail.com for details on joining.
Copies of Flight Behavior can be borrowed from the library. It is available as an e-book on both Hoopla and Freading, and as an audio book on Hoopla and on CD in the library. “The Darkling Thrush” is available online at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44325/the-darklingthrush, or you may request a copy from ftpmlbookgroup@gmail.com.
This article was featured in the May 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.
