What Is Coach Flo Reading?
Go With Flo' and Read A Little Mo' : )
I would LOVE to hear from YOU, students and parents! If you have a book you have recently finished, or a book you are in the process of reading, either send me your answers to the questions below OR record yourself doing a short "book talk" and send it to my school email! Be as creative or non-creative as you want! I would love to post it under the tab "What are Coach Flo's Students Reading?' or the tab "What are Flo's Parents Reading?" for others to see and enjoy!
Why this book? What made you choose to pick this one up when there are so many books out there to choose from?
Last Christmas, I got this as a gift from a fellow English teacher. She decided to get every English teacher a book from a popular used book store in Chattanooga (McKay's). A few months ago, I picked it up and started reading a little here and there, never really taking the time to dive into it becasue I felt like I had things of great importance to focus on (taking time for yourself should never be put on the back-burner FYI). It's not a small book by any means, and I cannot really say it is an easy-read either, but when the Covid-19 Shutdown took place, I made it a personal goal to read every day and this is the book I chose! : )
At first glance -before even diving into the book -what can we learn from the cover and the title of the book?
A woman's face seems to be the primary emphasis, particulary her eyes and lips. There appears to be something behind her eyes and since she is neither smiling nor frowning, maybe she has her guard up?
There is a house on the cover, too, and it appears to have a country appeal, but is very run-down; it must be significant, maybe even correlating with the woman somehow. I did look up thornbird, and it is a real bird that makes a nest with twigs and thorns. There is also a legend about the song of a thornbird. I am curiousl to find out the symbolism being revealed in the title and the pictures. It is an international bestseller so that has to account for something. ; )
Who would you recommned this book to?
If you like reading books of epic proportions you might consider reading this book. It is told from multiple perspectives so you get to know all the major characters. If you are interested in books that dig deep into the soul of a person with complete transparency, you would really like this book. There has to be some patience and time to take everything in, but I do feel I learned a lot of things I wasn't familiar with before reading. The story takes place in Australia and Europe, the outback and the catholic church, and the two worlds definitely do collide at various points.
Anything powerful/thought-provoking/reflective jump out at you while reading?
The protagonist of the book says, "Surprised, she realized that keeping physically busy is the most effective blockade against totally mental activity human beings can erect." This jumped out at me while I was reading, so I made sure to mark it. Not only is it an "Aha!" moment for Meggie, but it is completely relateable to people today -perhaps even more so now that we are dealing with a world-wide pandemic. It is often said that "idle time is the devil's playground." I believe that if we are not careful, we could fill our schedules up to the point where there is no time left to focus on having a healthy mind, body, and soul. The opposite is also true, we can have so much time on our hands that we worry about things beyond our control or things that have not come to fruition yet. The key is definitely finding that balance.
What makes this book an example of good writing?
The Thorn Birds is an example of good-writing because of the detail, dialect, and the dialogue (how about that for a strong thesis statement!? LOL). The author deserves a shout-out becasue she had to have done some major research to make this book come together. I can imagine her visiting places and looking up important information, keeping everything in a notepad. I am not sure if this is what she did, but she was extremely knowledgeable -or at least convinced me as the reader she was! : ) Her research and knowledge definitley transcend through the characters' vernacular. I can see and hear the formally non-educated country folk as much as I can see and here the formally educated priests. Finally -which goes hand-and-hand with the dialect, the dialogue is so natural that the characters come to life over and over again.
Anything else?
There is a television series! It is from the 80's, but I have been doing my research so I can watch it. I LOVE watching the movie or series AFTER I have read the book -never before! : ) It looks like I cannot get it for free, so I will have to rent or buy it.
