THE HUNGER GAMES

Ah! I'm dropping in to say that if there's a book you should read now before the movie comes out next year... it's "The Hunger Games." Okay, so maybe it's three books. I read the first book over my birthday weekend in New York, then spent an ungodly amount of time - maybe 4 months - on the waiting list for the second book in the series at the Ann Arbor District Library. I finally got the third one last week and stayed up till 3 am finishing the trilogy. Holy fack! I think the series actually starts getting really interesting toward the end of the first book (maybe the last half, after the repercussions for winning the hunger games sinks in), when the political undertones of the novel starts to surface. This book is intense. And angry. Here's what happens in the first book, briefly:

• Protagonist Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place in a cruel challenge put on by the government, the hunger games. The game is an annual event where children are forced to kill each other. Winner gets food in a time of severe rationing (imposed by an evil government, of course).
• Katniss wins game (er, I'm skipping lots of interesting characters and pee in your pants obstacles)
• Katniss figues out that there will be severe backlash from the way she gamed the system to win - and that her family and friends will suffer.

This is where it shifts from an adventure novel to a political one meant to question a whole host of issues: How do we take care of people we love? How do we cope with loss? How do we take a stand against injustices, despite great personal cost? How do we forgive, absolve, come to terms with the fact that we are all different in our capabilities? It's interesting because I don't always make the connections between all these questions, but the author (Suzanne Collins) makes those links so naturally. This is a story about a young woman who is forced to lead a revolution. She also has to live with the consequences of her actions, which is why most revolutions fail - we don't think about the after. One toppling infrastructure doesn't mean another one magically appears. And um, like any good young adult novel, "The Hunger Games" is also about falling in love. 

Did you know that Stanley Tucci is in the movie?? As is Lenny Kravitz? Don't you want to read it now, just to imagine them? Yes, yes you do.

Randomly, a few of my friends and I are being incredibly diligent about sharing our music via dropbox. 

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

• Tumi and the volume (South African hip hop band... found out about them through the podcast French Radiolab! Really love the songs "Bus Stop Confessions" and "Volume Trials.")
• Sa Ra Creative Partners
• Shabazz Palaces (and Digable Planet, while we're at it...)
• Jason Isbell & the 400 Units (Jason used to be in one of my favorite bands, The Drive-by Truckers)
• Lykke Li (I really love this live version of "I'm Good, I'm Gone"; Robyn and The Shout Out Louds make cameos!)

I opened a link my friend sent me this morning only to find like every album Def Jux ever put out in the 90s. Heh. Nostalgic, much? Coincidentally, I also met someone who used to be on the Def Jux label over the summer in Boston. And then I went on a date with someone who grew up in the same projects in the South Bronx as my friend....I am really efficient at social networking, okay?

 I'm just going to go stare longingly at my imaginary pets now. 

Nite!

xo t