Don't feel bad - I loved RP1 and Armada lol

I only give them if they seem like a good fit for the person. For example a friend of mine was struggling with an elderly relative with end stage COPD and her adult kids moving back to the nest while renovating a shed in the back yard to live in so I bought her Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. Or my step dad just fell off a ladder he had no business being on so I bought him Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg.

No. I don't care about the personal lives of famous people and artists. They create a product for me to enjoy. They themselves aren't a product. I don't follow my plumber home to watch him cook dinner and I grant authors and musicians and actors the same space.

Plus, starting down that road, eventually you know what a Kardashian is and I have no interest in that journey.

I admit, if someone is an utter asshole or a pedo I make sure I don't pay for their books, but they need to make the front page before I care.

I think a good book will be relatable even if the reader has no shared or relevant experience. So maybe it's just a shitty book?

I'm not a serial killer if that's what you're asking, lol. It definitely has an impact on self-esteem and health, but it's basically unheard of for anyone born after 1950 within a few hours of a hospital to not have had basic corrective surgery, so Harris was really reaching. But he's older and so is the book, so from anyone without a cleft he'd probably get a pass

I was offended by the portrayal, but people with clefts get shit on in a lot of books (Stephen King and Augusten Burroughs, I'm glaring at you). Often, having a cleft is used as an example of being disgusting or a reason to shun someone. But no one cares - people get criticized for shitting on other disabilities, but no one seems to care about facial defects. Probably because we don't have any hot celebrities as spokespeople.

I will say, Wally Lamb did a decent job of portraying Thomas and Dom's mom in the Hour I First Believed

I love Harris' books, but as a person with a cleft lip and palate, I have a deep hatred for Red Dragon

I was first burned by the Mages of Ambrai, but those are such wonderful books that I still recommend that people read the first 2. I guess I'd rather have half of an epic story than none of it.

Idk, I think the authors work for themselves, and I buy their product. They don't work for me so I don't take it personally when they dnf writing a series

It's really interesting. Kind of a similar tone as The Orderly Disorderly House or the flashback parts of All Girls Filling Station's Last Reunion. She chose to write in her grandmother's voice, so we get to see what grandma was like but it's also somewhat idealized because she was Jeanette's favorite. The bit where they guide the social worker onto the Rez seems like it came verbatim from one of grandma's stories

You could tell everyone that he's spending a year dead for tax purposes, like Hotblack

You can read the bit about Saint Antwelm (the king who believed that what people really want is a good party, willed his fortune to that, and was canonized for it)

Personally, I like the bit about Arthur making sandwiches - I think it speaks to the joys of a simple life

If I were you, I'd slap a hot pink somebody else's problem field on top of the coffin and then have a funny speech with quotes to explain it. (They sell bright pink sequined duvet covers for little kids that aren't too expensive)

You could give the eulogy in your bathrobe (ideally with a bone in your beard)

If your dad drank or partied, can you serve gin and tonics (or pan galactic gargleblasters) during the eulogy? My dad died this year, and he drank a lot and dislked religion, so I served booze during the eulogy and played the parting glass in lieu of prayers or a hymn

End with So long and thanks for all the fish

And I'm sorry about your dad and proud of you for sending him off with a laugh - I think that hoopy frood would be proud of you too

The bit with the chocolate bar sticks out the most for me.

Have you read the prequel? Half Broke Horses is a novelization of Rosemary's childhood and the life of her mom- it gives a bit of perspective into how she grew up and you can sort of see why she became such a shit mom. Sort of.

After Glass Castle, I like to read The Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews (only that one or a Boy of Good Breeding, all her other books are depressing AF)

Devolution by Max Brooks

I loved all three (and still do when I reread)

I always thought that Dan was the OG literary bad boy. He probably turned a hundred years of women off church boys - the James Dean of the carriage house days if you will, lol.

I really liked the attitude towards disability - such an emphasis on do what you can, get help with what you can't - which was unusual for that time (and now, tbh).

Also, I appreciate your open-mindedness, but Jo is the queen, and Amy is a brat who only thrived because Laurie was Oprah rich

Sorry. Margaret Laurence

I hope not, lol. Stupid Gene. Phineas deserved so much better

Although if I'm still fired up 20+ years later I guess it speaks to the power of the novel

High School: To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies are ones I learned a lot by reading and still enjoy

Obasan and the Timothy Findley one where he goes to war I got a lot more out of when I reread them as an adult

Stone Angel will always be one of my favorites (our English teacher had her quote "I became a writer when to introduce oneself as a Canadian woman from the prairies was to apologize for oneself three times" on the board and I ran right out and bought the rest of her books)

We did Romeo and Juliet instead of Hamlet because the Leo movie came out that year and the teachers caved to pressure, then we did MacBeth the next year

I got to pick books off the "extended reading list" (which I think was code for "get the nerd to shut up so we can teach the other kids") and that's where I discovered The Stand and Power of One and Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera and Fried Green Tomatoes

In college the ones I remember are

Beowulf (don't EVER take a course on just Beowulf)

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Annie Moody - that one really made an impression on me

I hated a Separate Peace. I'm surprised they still teach it. I'd think homophobic friendicide wouldn't be considered okay to teach

Maybe hit up some good YA. It reads faster and the payoff comes sooner so it's easier to get engaged in the book (Tui T Sutherland's Menagerie series may have been written for kids but it's frigging delightful and I like to reread it when I'm stressed, ditto the Best Christmas Pagent Ever and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)

I like to read in the bath (without my phone) because there are no other options and I'm forced to concentrate

Kobo ereader has the Open Dyslexic font

1000 paper books, 15,000 ebooks

Sci-fi and fantasy and kids books and old classics are the majority

I buy used books (unless it's someone's first book or a Canadian author, then I pay for new). Can't stand returning them to the library as I'm a rereader

100% this

Read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, it's a great example of a fantasy novel with a heroic quest narrative arc.

I like to see what was supposed to happen, and often the book answers questions about the movie

I'm dreadfully hard on books (and on ereaders - I'm on number five right now although number two was run over by a car so that one wasn't my fault).

I drop them in baths, get food on them, use garbage for bookmarks, rip out the extra pages to use as note paper

For some reason the library has never worked for me. Idk why lol

I have a paperback copy of Shogun in 8 pieces and I've been rereading the pieces for probably 15 years

I don't dig ear pages, I just use whatever I'm holding as a bookmark. It's fun finding old business cards and notes years later although I admit it was less pleasant the time I opened a book to find a dried up slice of ancient cheese lol