First Fab 5 Report

Last night the Fab 5 met to discuss "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. The Fab 5 Book Club is actually made up of four people ever since we lost Amy to breast cancer a year and a half ago. Since we could never replace Amy in our close knit group, we have continued on with one less. Our original group was made up of people who are connected in assorted ways--former Cincinnati residents (3), former roommates (2), moms of boys in the same class at the same school (3), cousins (2), employees of the same denomination (4), and shared childhoods in Sheboygan, Wis. (2).

We meet every month, and twice a year we have a Book Choosing Night where we choose books for the next 6 months. This is actually the part we look forward to the most. We usually bring way too many books, with the exception of Barbara, who brings one or none. If she brings one, we pick it, and somehow she is always sorry we have to read it. Nancy brings about 15 or 20 books, each with a carefully clipped out review from a newpaper or magazine that she has kept in a file created for this express purpose. Sonia brings a good number of books, from which she has intended to read the first couple of pages but never quite gets around to doing. But she always likes the covers.

It was unanimous--we all loved this book. Even though Sonia didn't come because she was sick, we had all heard already how much she liked it too. This book has such a grim premise; a future, former North America is governed by a Capitol, which requires each of the 12 districts of the land to send 2 kids each year to the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death. We agreed that it's a tribute to the author that in spite of the grimness, we wanted to keep reading and maintained a sense of hope throughout the book.

We liked it that Katniss, the main character, had survival skills in the game that she learned in her daily life, attempting to keep her family alive. And yet she's no superhero--she has weaknesses, one of which is that she cannot read or "work" people. Peeta complements that with his easy nature and ability to connect with the audience.

We were quite proud of ourselves for a couple of insights. Nancy pointed out the David and Goliath image of little Rue preparing for the games. Tiny, vulnerable, but good with a slingshot. Katniss says "But what is a slingshot against a 220-pound male with a sword?" Barbara noticed that there are several instances where there is a sort of "sacrificial lamb." Katniss stepping in for her little sister, Rue taking Katniss's place. There are many layers in this book, and I can attest that the second in the series has at least as much depth.

Nancy put some thought into snacks tonight. She picked out foods that Katniss would eat: berries (chocolate covered raisins), nuts (fantastic almond crisps) and rabbit (chocolate bunnies and blue, bunny-shaped Peeps). She also brought Toasted Corn Doritos, and she ran down a short history of Doritos. Apparently, they were the first tortilla chips that were widely available. Then Doritos came out with taco flavor, which she unknowingly stuffed in her mouth and found disgusting. Since then, Toasted Corn flavor Doritos have only been available west of the Mississippi. Nancy buys them whenever she can. But this time, she found them at Meijer, which seems to be very exciting to her. She even divulged that when traveling, she loves food tourism. She likes to go in the grocery stores in other places and check out the local foods.

It turns out we all have food quests. For Nancy it's been the Toasted Corn Doritos and some unnamed candy that look like Chuckles but have a white glaze on them. Kristy would like to find Marathon candy bars and Trader Joe's frozen walnut and gorgonzola tortellini, but alas they seem to be unfindable. Barbara is most interested in meat that still has bones in it. Even Byron Center Meats had very little to offer with the bone still in! Plus she likes Chewy Runts and can't find them anywhere. If anyone knows where to find any of these foods, please let us know. There may be a reward in it for you.

All this talk of food is making me hungry, which brings me back to the topic at hand: "The Hunger Games." We all say it's a 5 star book, and you should all devour it.