Oxmoor Page Turners is a book group and meets March 13 at 6:30 p.m. We pick one title per month from various fiction and nonfiction writers. Snacks are served at each meeting. Come join us!!
Our pick for March 2018 is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood.
Margret Atwood – her mother was a nutritionist and her father an entomologist. Her family would go into wilderness for 6 months at a time, and there she would read – Flash Gordon, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell.
40 books – fiction, poetry ,essays – This Canadian writer spent some time in Alabama as the Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Honorary Chair at the University of Alabama in 1985. In fact, Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in West Berlin, Germany and finished it in Alabama during the mid-1980s. Published in 1986, the novel quickly became a best-seller.
The Handmaid’s Tale won the 1985 Governor General’s Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. It was listed on the American Library Association’s list for the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000”. It was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. The book has been adapted into a film, an opera, a television series, and other media.
Not afraid of technology and the future of storytelling, she co-wrote a book on wattpad along with writer Naomi Alderman called The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home. During this process she helped invent the Long Pen. Atwood also tends to her own social media about 10 minutes each day. When asked about her thoughts on technology she said, “Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow … But if you are going to live in that world of technology you should explore it.”
The Handmaids Tale was picked up by Hulu. This series created by Bruce Miller, started its first season with 10 episodes and a second season set to premiere April 2018. It received widespread critical acclaim and won eight Primetime Emmy Awards from thirteen nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. It is the first series on a streaming platform to win an Emmy for Outstanding Series.[2] It has also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Drama and Best Actress .
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now..