Three books for International Women's Day (with no shades of grey).
The radio tells me this is International Women's Day so, in defiance of the current blockbuster "Fifty Shades of Grey", here are three books every woman should read before she's fifty. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood . I still think this is one of Margaret Atwood's best books. Possibly belonging under the label "dystopia" if it were published today, the story tells of a near-future religious society in America where the birth rate is falling and those women still able to bear children are a national resource. The chilling way that these women are controlled, and in particular the simple and scarily believable way their power was taken away and handed over to the men in their lives, forms the real message of this book. Read it today, and tell me you're not afraid. The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper Anything by Sheri S. Tepper is well worth reading, and this is one of her best known books. It's science fictio...