MashReads Podcast: 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a timeless and terrifying vision of the future

"Better never means better for everyone...it always means worse, for some."

This week on the MashReads Podcast, MJ Franklin, Aliza Weinberger and Peter Allen Clark are joined by Mashable's assistant science editor and senior space reporter Miriam Kramer to read and discuss Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. The book envisions a world where women are controlled by the government, and they are only considered valuable if they can have children.

Join us as we talk about what makes a good dystopian novel and whether Margaret Atwood's dystopian future can ever come true.

Then, inspired by the world in The Handmaid's Tale, we chat about the dystopian novels that scared us the most.

And as always, we close the show with what we've been reading and life recommendations.

• Miriam is on a quest to read all of David Mitchell's work (she just finished ) and recommends checking out his many books.

• Aliza is about to begin her quest to reread all of the Harry Potter books again. And she also recommends watching Zootopia because of its poignant allegory of modern life.

• Peter Allen Clark has been trying to watch AMC's adaption of Preacher, which has been a rollercoaster of a show for Peter. But he recommends reading the comic book version of Preacher.

• And MJ recommends Natalie Shapero's poem 'My body is an injury the world.' Also, he recommends reading 'A non-gamer's best guesses as to what Pokémon Go actually is,' an outsiders look at the phenomenon that is Pokémon Go.

Finally, next week will we be reading Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard, and Hannah herself will be joining us! We hope you'll read along too.

And if you're looking for more book news, don't forget to follow MashReads on Facebook and Twitter.

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