BOOKS

Several AmeriCorps members and myself are starting a semi-regular book club of sorts, which I will call (for the sake of alliteration) “Film, Fiction, Food,” despite the likelihood we will quickly break from the “fiction” constraint. We are starting next Tuesday with “The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins; it’s a novel (the first in a trilogy) about a future society that’s really, really messed up. Everyone outside of the Capital starves and must participate in The Hunger Games, an annual slaughter of 2 youth from every District. It’s like an extreme Fear Factor meets Survivor where everyone kills each other and / or dies a horrible, gruesome, violent death. Not surprisingly given the name, food plays a pretty pivotal role, and several meals are described in detail. Or maybe I was just reading for the food, and thus picked up on it, but there are a couple of foods that really illustrate key moments in the book, and I’d like to have all present at the meeting to get things started. The foods I’d like to have on hand should make a nice meal:

THE FOREST (her home, her family, her way of life) to be represented by Goat Cheese and berries, the last meal she had before being swept up into the Games.
PEETA and RUE (her best friends in the game) will be represented by two kinds of bread: a slightly burned loaf and a crusty, seedy roll.
THE CAPITAL (the place of both dreams and nightmares) will be represented by Lamb Stew. I don’t know how to make lamb stew, but I’m pretty sure epicurious.com won’t let me down.
SURVIVAL (obviously important) will be toasted by our tall glasses of plain water.

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I like lists. Quite a lot. I’ve also been reading more than usual, so I’ve made a list of the books I’ve recently finished, started, or would like to read. I obviously need more on the waiting list. Suggestions welcome.

Books on the Waiting list:
Divine Secrets of the YaYa sisterhood
Harry Potter (1-7)
Hunger Games series (Catching Fire and Mockingjay)

Books Underway:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Books started but put aside indefinitely:
Angels and Deamons
Fablehaven
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Consider the lobster
Walden
Life on the Mississippi

Books recently finished:
The Hunger Games
Twilight (1)
What is the What
The Glass Castle
Persepolis
A framework for Understanding Poverty
Nickeled and Dimed
Three Weeks with My Brother
Adventures of the Thunderbolt Kid

Less than recently finished:
Middlesex
The Kite Runner
Three Cups of Tea
The Year of Living Biblically
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Alchemist