The Testaments
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, was released a few days ago. The original novel was released in 1985. I’m a Margaret Atwood fan. I have signed, first edition copies of a number of her books, and The Blind Assassin is one of my favorite books of all time. Even …
The Dreamers
Early on in the The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker, two college students discuss the Trolley Problem, a very popular thought experiment in ethical decision-making. It’s a scenario (would you kill one person to save five?) that has made its rounds again and again in academics, pop culture and in meme form, sometimes referred to …
The Age of Miracles
As Karen Walker Thompson’s The Age of Miracles opens, the world is in the initial stages of “the slowing” — a gradual decline in the speed of its rotation on the Earth’s axis. This is, of course, problematic, and sends our narrator Julia’s life into chaos, along with the rest of the world’s population. I …