Hump day recommendations, Feb. 5, 2025

Read: “You Dreamed of Empires,” by Álvaro Enrigue. This book is an amusing and, at times, hallucinatory romp (magic tomatoes, anyone?) that reimagines Hernán Cortés’s arrival at the lake city of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) and the fall of the Tenochtitlan Empire under Moctezuma. — Alex Gibson, Senior producer, GZERO World

Read: “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood. Sure, you may have seen the series (now streaming on Hulu), but Atwood’s crisp prose brings home the full horror of a theocratic American autocracy where women’s rights have been stripped away, people of color are deported, and a wealthy elite lord it over everyone else. Atwood is my favorite Canadian author for many reasons, including that she is always ahead of her time (the novel was published in 1985). – Tasha

Read: “Gold Diggers,” by Sanjena Sathian. Having worked with Sathian, I can attest to her writing ability on everything from foreign affairs, pop culture, and now — thanks to her debut novel from 2021 — fiction. This is a coming-of-age tale peppered with magical realism starts in Sathian’s hometown, Atlanta, and centers on the Indian-American writer’s idea of belonging. Worth a read before it hits TV (comedian Mindy Kaling is reportedly adapting it). — Tracy