The Handmaid’s Tale
Paperback | Kindle | Audiobook
By Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Anchor Books | Penguin Random House
Release Date: December 31, 2013

Offred is a Handmaid, whose only purpose is to live a simple holy life in the household, and procreate with the Commander and his wife. In this new dystopian society that had overthrown the government, women have no rights and men have few as well. Well, men had more than most, but really only the rich ones. Offred is allowed to shop, but may only exchange minimal words with her shop partner. She was trained for this. The only place Offred can be herself is in her mind and her memories and even she second guesses herself doing that. When the Commander starts breaking the rules, Offred begins to remember what “before” was like, and the power of women.

Check out what my book club thought about The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Angel Catbird
Audiobook
Written by Margaret Atwood
Narrated by”Ž Kyra Harper,”Ž Allegra Fulton,”Ž Christo Graham,”Ž Julie Le Mieux,”Ž David Calderisi,”Ž Michael Cash,”Ž Andrew Jackson
Audible Studios
Release Date: February 13, 2018

I’m no stranger to audiobooks, but I dare say few have been in radio play format. I wanted to call Angel Catbird a radio drama but that would be a misnomer. For while it embodies the same concepts at its core, there was little dramatic about it. Words I would use instead include hilarious, rollicking, and ludicrous. It was almost off-putting at first for I had never read one of author Margaret Atwood‘s comics before, instead having consumed her novels in the past. As I listened longer, however, I found it quite amusing and even began to laugh while the audiobook played out.

I’ll get to the point first: The Handmaid’s Tale, as adapted by Hulu, is an excellent production and one well worth any TV lover’s time. Elisabeth Moss, an actress who spent nearly a decade understanding how female characters manage a life of oppression under male domination, uses her time on Mad Men to translate a fictional written diary into an uncompromising television reality.

With that out of the way, there’s a lot to unpack regarding the several episodes we took in before the show’s wide release on Wednesday, May 26. Hulu works in the best spirit of this current golden age of television. It presents an audience that’s hungry for thought-provoking content with a story that resonates with our current, unprecedented unique political climate.

The Kindle ebook deal of the day over at Amazon today is Margaret Atwood‘s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale for only $1.49 (that’s 83% off the regular price of $8.99).

Note – this deal is valid only for today, Thursday, December 29, 2011, until 11:59pm PST.

If you’d like to purchase a physical copy of The Handmaid’s Tale, the book is also in paperback for only $10.20.