Well, you can certainly tie a lot of stuff in Handmaid's Tale to reality in many places all over the world that were happening both when she wrote it and today, which is always creepy and interesting...and depressing...

I'll go on record that I don't much care for Allende and love Garcia Marquez. I'm hit-or-miss on Fuentes. I like Borges, but find diminishing marginal returns on revisiting his work. Thus ends my knowledge of Latin American literature.

No, wait. I wrote that and realized that I've read something by Vargas Llosa , Octavio Paz, and Jorge Amado, too. But I'll be damned if I can remember much about them. Amado's book was about drunkards in Bahia, maybe? Hmmm.

I remember reading an interview with Atwood a few years after HT came out, in which she talked about going on the book tour on a few different continents. When she'd be in Europe/UK, readers would come up to her and say, "This'll never happen here." When she'd go to Canada, they'd say, "Do you think this could happen here?" When she'd go to the US, they'd come up to her and say, "When will this happen here?"

I read both Allende and Garcia Marquez when I was in high school and liked them both, but Garcia Marquez made much more of an impression on me. I didn't understand it all, of course (still don't!), but at the very least he's got a terrific sense of humor and I think kids relate to that.

I also had a teacher who was big into Raymond Carver so we read a lot of his short stories and I think they were great for High Schoolers because they're so tied to actual real life.

Oh Carver is perfect for the Fractured American Dream theme.

"The Wire," But I'm guessing you a. want your job still. and b. don't really buy the "visual novel" meme. So I'll pretend I can close "The Wire likes carrots," tag.

I should audit PixKristin's course, I haven't read any of those books (unless Handmaid's Tale makes it in).

I loved 100 Years of Solitude and hated Love in the Time of Cholera. I probably didn't really understand them, but they didn't beat me over the head with my lack of understanding the way some books do.

I've started Love in the Time of Cholera twice but I haven't gotten very far. I think I should take a cue from the person who left her paper in Poisonwood and keep notes on all the characters next time I dive in.

Laga, I'd love to check out those notes! I always find taking a peek into someone else's close reading fascinating.

they're very short. Just the main characters' names and a few words about each of them.