Author: Margaret Atwood Acquired in: October 2020 Ah, the glee of finally reading a book you've wanted to for a long time is a feeling like no other. And yes, The Handmaid's Tale is like no other. Books like these belonging to speculative fiction have enormous potential for imagination. Margaret Atwood's work aims to show what a government led by a fundamentalist regime would pan out. A radical quasi-Christian outfit overthrows the US government and establishes a totalitarian theocracy named the Republic of Gilead where women have no rights. They have no right over their bodies; only fertile women are considered useful. Women hold different positions on the social ladder according to their past roles in pre-coup America- the Wives, the Handmaids, the Marthas, the Econowives and the Unwomen. Due to the dangerously high levels of radioactive pollution, most Gileadians are sterile, including the new elite consisting of the Commanders and their Wives. To somehow salvage a chil...
Author: Fredrik Backman Acquired in: July 2022 I'm a fan of Fredrik Backman's books. Subtle humour, a tear or two, Ikea meatball fanatics, police silently hating their jobs, grandparent-child dream teams, hostages rallying for their incarcerator - love it. To this hodgepodge pile I've happily added A Man Called Ove, a book about a sad old man who cares little for anybody's sympathy. Ove is a stickler for principles. He drives only a Saab, does his own house and car repairs, distrusts technology, hates bureaucrats and goes to work without fail, even on the day after his wife's funeral. Emotions confused him and he found work to help him understand or often, repress the intangible. Losing his job was the final straw that sent him into a depressed spiral leading him to decide to kill himself. To his eternal chagrin, a riotous Swedish-Iranian family who introduces themselves to the neighbourhood by mowing down Ove's mailbox have other plans. Being taciturn meant...
Author: RF Kuang Acquired in: September 2021 In a volatile world, if a girl, sick to the heart of the wrongs done to her, can channel her hurt into flames, will she give in to a dangerous deity who offers to make her pain disappear or rein in her anguish but burn herself? As an orphan in the impoverished town of Tikany, Fang Runin or Rin doesn’t have many choices other than to work like a slave for her foster parents, the Fangs, and handle the running of the Fangs’ opium business. When the family decides to marry her off to a much older customs official in return for protection for their drug trade, Rin decides to take matters into her own hands. Her only hope, she decides, is Sinegard – the capital city of the Nikara Empire and the home of the pearl of military institutions. But the way leading to it isn’t easy, nor is what comes after. Sinegard may seem like salvation to Rin, but within those gilded walls are secrets which could be her doom or the key to saving a crumbling Nikan...
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