Babel by R.F. Kuang

The subtitle of this book is An Arcane History and mysterious it is. Part fantasy. Part dystopian history. Part political discourse. All ideas you just wish you could discuss in a book group that was willing to read all 545 pages. This hefty tome can't be sold as a quick read because on almost every page is something you really want to spend time dissecting. One of the most thought provoking books EVER!
Robin Swift, orphan from China is taken to England by the Englishman he will learn is his father.  There he joins the new cohort of students at the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University in the 1830's.  He is joined by Letty, a typical blond haired English rose, Rany, a privileged but bitter young man from India, and Victoire, a young woman from Haiti tired of feeling like an outsider. All brilliant. All hand picked. All so excited to be at Oxford - and yet.... 
 The Institute is housed in a secured round tower on the Oxford campus referred to as Babel. In this dystopian society, there is power in the fact that very few ideas can be exactly translated from one language to another. This "lost in translation" power is stored in silver bars which run the industrial, colonial power that is England.  All four students eventually come under the influence of the Hermes society. Led by a former disillusioned R.I.T. student, the society is looking to change the existing balance of power - a power that begins with the students in Babel. Can this be done without violence is the question? In fact in some countries (this book has been translated into many languages - haha) the title translates back to English as Babel(or the Necessity of Violence):An arcane history of the Oxford Translators Revolution - which says perhaps more than necessary in a title.  But then, it's all in the translation.

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

I remembered reading this years before, but I thought it was long before it's 1985 publication date.  I remembered it as a feminist story (Did I have time for feminist thoughts with two small children in 1985?) - women reduced to the value of their uteruses,  But this time it read more as a political tale about power and its abuses.  I didn't see the Netflix series but would be interested to see where they made the emphasis. A different focus for dystopian literature.  It was interesting that the city? state? country? was named Gilead.  Atwood always gives you something to ponder and discuss.