Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

I was frustrated with the ending of The Handmaid's Tale  and saw that there was a sequel, so I wondered if it would answer some of the questions that I had. The Testaments , book two in Margaret Attwood's series covers a time period after Offred (from The Handmaid's Tale ) left Gilead. It follows the story of two girls: one that lives in Gilead, and the other that lives in Canada. The girl that lives in Gilead was from a wealthy family. She ends up deciding to become an Aunt - the teachers of the girls in Gilead, and the defining body of women's roles and expectations of society. They make the rules for the girls and keep the records of who people really are. They also send missionaries to Canada. The other girl is from Canada. She lives with a couple who own a second-hand store. They are killed one day in an explosion that sparks the whole action of her story. She is eventually sent to Gilead to join the Aunts as well (with the Gilead missionaries), and the two stories...

I've heard about this book, and it's been highly recommended and popular, so I thought I would give it a try. It's also been made into a T.V. series, and I was curious about what the hype was about. The Handmaid's Tale  by Margaret Attwood analyzes what would happen if society was ruled by religious zealots. Offred is a handmaid in Gilead: meaning that she is a birth mother for children she will never be able to keep. She has strict rules that she must follow, in a life that is completely different from the one she used to lead. Birthrates are declining, so as a handmaid, she is supposed to bear children for the commander she is assigned to, the source of her only value to society. She can only leave the house once a day to go to the market to buy groceries for the household. Offred struggles to reconcile the life she used to have with her husband and daughter, with the extreme oppression and fear in her new life. I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, the s...