Challenge of Literature Blog Hop: Girl On Fire

Hello sweet friends and lovely blog hoppers!  I am so excited about this challenge!  Can you tell?  Do the exclamation points tip you off?  I have always loved books, always!  My mother read to me as a very little one and by the time I was four I was starting to read on my own.  I grew up a Navy brat and we moved around a wee bit... books were one of the great constants in my life (some of my dearest friends, in fact).  A rather awkward and odd child, I fell in love with Shakespeare at the age of seven.  I remember wandering around the Kitsap County Library, bored with they children's books and finding a slender book (the Yale Shakespeare, you know the ones, blue cloth covers?  Still my favorite!) with the gold lettering on the spine that said "Romeo and Juliet"... even I had heard of the star-crossed lovers.  Curiosity piqued I couldn't help but pull the volume from the shelves and sat down in the rather dark aisle and began to read.  At such a young age I didn't understand all I read, of course, but the language captured me.  It was magical to my young mind and from then on I thirsted even more for words, words that painted pictures, words that evoked emotions, words that inspired my imagination to fly.

Since that time I have read so many books, so many wonderful, magical, inspiring books.  I have read books from a wide variety of genres, time periods, authors... and I have very rarely found a book I truly didn't like.  I loved reading so much that I chose English as my major at the UO and loved it.  Loved!  I have many favorites... Beowulf (which I own in Old English), Emma by Jane Austen, Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (though I love all Shakespeare, it is one of my oddball favorites), The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas, almost anything by Mercedes Lackey, Emily Dickinson's poetry, John Donne's poetry... plenty of classics and modern literature alike.  I won't deny I loved every single Harry Potter novel, I have a huge weak spot for Patricia C. Wrede's Dealing with Dragons series, and I did indeed enjoy Twilight... OH!  and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon!  Jamie makes me swoon-y.  ;).  There are many others I can't think of at the moment, but they are there... hundreds of them lol.

I know, I know, you have other blogs to hop!  Cut to the chase woman!  Ok!!!  Of late I have caught the Hunger Games bug... a good friend of mine recommended it and I couldn't put it down.  What drew me to the novels was Katniss, the main character herself, the three novels can be seen in so many ways... but it was the parallel between the greater plot and Katniss inner struggles that truly captured me.  I don't want to spoil anything for any of you who have not read it and I am worried if I try too hard I will blab on and on... so I am going to cheat a wee bit and borrow from Wikipedia's article on the novel:

"The Hunger Games is a young adult novel written by American television writer and novelist Suzanne Collins. It was first published on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic, in hardcover.^[1]It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, holds hegemony over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle until only one person is left." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games)


One of the themes throughout the entire series is fire.  Katniss' district is in charge of coal mining, when she ends up a participant in the Hunger Games her stylist, Cinna, and his female counterpart, Portia, choose fiery costumes to represent District 12.  From there all of Katniss' "promo" (remember this is a televised event, scary reality tv) outfits involve the look of fire in its many forms... earning her the nickname "the girl on fire".  To me the fire theme is so perfect for that parallel between Katniss and her world... she is like a phoenix... going from ashes to coal to fire and back again as she grows and changes... and the journey is never easy for her, her world is a very harsh one.  Enough of my rambling, here is my piece inspired by the "Girl on Fire"












Featuring Fallen Angel Brass Co. brass chain, wire, and bead caps, a stunning boro by Amanda Cargill Austin of Sea Shore Glass, garnet chips from Legendary Beads, faceted onyx rounds, and a brass stamping blank from B'Sue Boutique.

I hope you enjoyed my piece :)  Now, off to see the others!  I can't wait!

Erin Prais-Hintz

Rebecca Anderson

Rose Binoya

Lori Bowring Michaud

Shannon Chomanszuk

Marlene Cupo

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Kim Dworak

Beth Emery

Therese Frank

Amy Freeland

K Hutchinson

Jennifer Justman

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

Lisa Lodge

Lisa Lowe

Kirsi Luostarinen

Beth McCord

Melissa Meman

Sharon Misuraco

Tracey Nanstad

Melinda Orr

Kashmira Patel

Alice Peterson

Sally Russick

Niky Sayers

Pam Sears

Amy Severino

Tracy Stillman

Emma Todd

Melissa Trudinger

Lesley Watt

Shai Williams

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Thank you all!

~Jenn