content: I first read this book as a teen after it was named one of the year's best by Time. I was a fan of dystopian fiction, but this was something else. Atwood creates a future that seemed real and familiar and possible, and normal, everyday female characters I could identify with, even in 1987. It changed my life and I credit it with my feminism and healthy distrust of organized religion and government. I've read it many times since, and I'm always surprised at how much closer to this reality we're getting, rather than farther away.