The Girl Who Was On Fire

My second resolution is off to a good start; I finished The Hunger Games today. After we hosted a volunteer training session for a new crop of Morning Reading literacy program volunteers in our living room, my husband granted me the pleasure of indulging in my book for the majority of the day while he sat beside me and watched movies on Netflix. (Well... a movie and some youtube videos) Stopping just momentarily to chitchat with a friend, eat a fried egg sandwich and read a semi-controversial blog post, I blew through it in an afternoon. I'm hooked.

I've made my way through some oppressive fare lately. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry was really well-written and featured both racial oppression and kids battling that injustice. After that, I made my way through the dystopian melodrama of The Handmaid's Tale. It kept building and and building and thought something would pan out-- but then it left me hanging. Utterly unsatisfied. I pushed through till the end and felt cheated.

But. Not so with The Hunger Games. Somehow combining the theme of injustice to children with a dystopian society made for an even more compelling read. It was slightly gruesome and painful at times, but great character & relationship development and riveting internal battles that rivaled the gripping external ones.

When I finished the book, I went into the kitchen to marinate some steaks for lunch tomorrow. But they weren't store steaks, they were butcher steaks, so they were crudely wrapped and when unthawed, rather bloody. It was kinda gross. At any other time, I might have left the meat on the cutting board and asked Todd to come prepare it, but I quickly caught myself thinking, "This animal is already cleaned and butchered. I didn't have to shoot it or field dress it or eat it raw, and no one is trying to kill me. This is NOT a big deal." And I proceeded to cover it in seasoned salt and pepper and worcestershire sauce and A1, rub it all in and stick it in a bowl in the fridge.

I'm not planning to start Catching Fire till Monday... but we'll see what happens tomorrow. :)