On the list of 1001 books.

What a good book, and what an absolute nightmare to think of living in a society like this one.
It is sometime in the not too distant future pollution has caused the birth rate to decline astronomically. A religious sect stages a coup of the US government, killing the president and all members of congress. They take over the USA and rename it the republic of Gilead.
Women are stripped of all power. They are not allowed to hold property, work or even read. They are divided into very specific social strata:
Wives, who are all married off as early as 14 in arranged marriages to leaders of the new military regime and dress completely in blue.
Marthas, older women, past menopause that are like maids in military households and are responsible for cooking and cleaning and dress all in green.
Handmaids, who are women of childbearing age, dressed in red, who are given to a "Commander" - a married, high ranking military leader. The sole purpose of the Handmaids is to have perfunctory impersonal sex with these men in the hopes they will conceive, and then will give the baby to the Commander's wife to raise.

Turning this book into a US only book Ray
Participants so far:

1. amcamp1644 (Pennsylvania)
2. bobbarama (California)
3. mrsboknows (South Carolina)
4. Parisfrance312 (Tennesee)
5. ImagineArtMgmt (Pennsylvania)<-- The book is here
6. mhs160 (Pennsylvania)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Pennsylvana to start a book ray!

Got it today and am starting right away! Thanks newshound!

Very depressing, but very interesting take on the future. The historical notes section at the end, was a nice twist that I wasn't expecting. PMing next person.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Happy Reading!

Got the book today. I'll finish Natsuo Kirino's 'Out' in a few days and dive right into this one. Thanks for sending this out, News-Hound. And thank you, amcamp. On my shoulders now. :)

I liked this book quite a bit, apparently, because it's hard to stop thinking about it.

I get that I wasn't supposed to have a good time reading about a patriarchal dystopian society, so I was prepared to slug it through to the end.

And, give her credit, it never felt like Atwood was lecturing or beating me over the head with her warning of a future where women are subjugated to secondary roles and valued only for their ovaries, where people are hanged on college campuses for even the smallest acts of disobedience, where truth and courage give way to real fears of reprisal.

Made me wonder as I trudged on whether this sort of bleak, faceless kind of future really is possible, but then I reminded myself that we've already been there ... with the sexually repressive ways of the original Puritans, with the dangerous fanaticism of cults and religious sects, with the Salem witch hunts, with the totalitarian, genocidic regime of some guy named Hitler.

I'll mail it forward quickly. I want this thing out of my house. ;)

UPDATE: Mailed it this morning to mrsboknows in South Carolina. Book rate. Five to 7 days to get there. Enjoy.

Arrived today. I'll start reading it as soon as I finish my current read.

Much better than I had expected it to be! What an interesting, and slightly depressing story. I loved the "historical notes" at the end.

Thank you for sharing. I'll have the book moving within the next few days.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to parisfrance312. Enjoy!

I recieved this book today. I hope to start reading it in the next day or so! I have been looking foward to reading this. Thank you so much for including me in this book ring!

What a wonderful book! Very disturbing in certain ways, but very thought-provoking. I love books, such as this one, that promote feelings like anger, resentment, confusion, etc. I like the books that don't provide the lovey-dovey, warm and fuzzy feelings all the time.I have been told that there is a movie out about this book. I would like to watch that and compare it to the novel itself. Thank you so much for including me! I am sorry if I have had the book longer than I should. When I recieved it, many things were going on.
I have PMd the next person in line. I hope to get it sent out within the week.

Due to a very sick little girl, I have been able to get this book sent out when I would have liked to. I should be able to get it mailed on Saturday. I have already PMed the next person in line to tell them. I truely apologize for this inconvinece. I hope y'all understand.

Thank you so much!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to the next person in line! I enjoyed this very much! Hope I haven't kept it too long.

Welcome to Book Crossing! If you are reading this, then you have caught one of my books. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. Please register the book and tell me what you thought about it. When you are done reading it, please release it again and we will see where it goes. If you decide to join BookCrossing, please put my name, ParisFrance312, in as your referring member.

Have Fun!

Book arrived safely from Tennessee and is next on my heap to be read. Thank you.