One of my favorites....dark and disturbing - compelling!

Thanks, g3d! Yet another book that will be placed on the to-read shelf only to be torn off days later in a fit of excited impatience. (I seem to want to dive into bookcrossed books more than "regular" books.)

I wasn't even finished with the book before I started recommending it to anyone I could. What a great book, for so so many reasons! The language is just spectacular: several times I would reread a sentence just to absorb how perfectly composed it was. And the story itself is very compelling... It is not likely (the way things look now) that underpopulation will be a threat to America any day soon, but an overbearing corrupt theocracy? Hmm.... that could be so many places in the world (Taliban?). *political comment coming soon* If the Bush administration continues its gradual destruction of women's rights, then how far are we *really* from the world portrayed in this book? Will we soon be banned from reading, forced to stay at home and fulfill rigidly state-defined roles for society while men roam freely?

The best part was the ambiguous but hopeful ending. I cannot wait to dive into more of Margaret Atwood's work, and wonder at why I haven't already.

Released on Wednesday, January 15, 2003 at D. H. Hill Library, N. C. State University in Raleigh, North Carolina USA.

...given to buttonbright to release at Official Crossing Zone in lobby of library...