Oh no! Not what I was asking! To your point, which I think is pedantic of me to say, but it's an interesting fact about the character. Francis was born on June 14, 1938, I do not know if Harris carried your initial point when he published in the 80's.

For sure the story revolves heavily around his societal rejection from his lip and how it effects his interactions with people in his later years and it's brutal.

I'll be sure to add the movie to the things to watch!

I restrain my reading because I dislike unfinished stories (and cliffhangers) more than not knowing what book to read.

I'd like to share the “Rights of the Reader”, by Gabriel Pennac, with you. In particular:

> 9 The right to read out loud.

Agreed, I thought it was about grief over losing a loved one/seeing a relationship disintegrate over time and you know why but it still hurts. The ending was quite haunting. I really thought it was a beautiful book but not one I’d recommend for just anyone.

Arguably the best crime 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

It's hard to get indoctrinated when you're aware of the author's biases and have reasonably well-developed media literacy.

Indoctrination is a problem when it's being used on people who aren't aware that they're being indoctrinated.

I've been wanting to get into Lovecraft, will definitely go by your recommendations and pick up Call of Cthulu!

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I enjoy relationships based upon fear in my fiction. Maybe I’ll give it a try.

I have the same problem and I blame social media. I've given up and just reread the page I skimmed through while I was thinking of something else. Sometimes, I'll find the audiobook version and read along but I find myself drifting off anyway. You're right though, it'll probably only get better with practice, most efficiently if you (we) lock yourself in a room for weeks and just read without a phone or computer to distract you or enable you having a short attention span.

Fun fact though, when you read something silently, the muscles in your throat actually articulate the words that you're reading and produce sound that's imperceptible to your ears. But if someone put an amplifier against your throat you'd be able to hear the words that you're "reading silently". Andrew Huberman talks about it in one of his podcasts, I forgot which one.

I heard so many people complain about the writing style being simple and the story predictable but I personally really enjoyed it. Just because a book isn’t amazingly written doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable, it’s actually nice to take a break from “heavier” literature and just relax. Reading should be fun not just educative.

I was wondering about that. I read the Lincoln Highway first. Now I will read rules of civilty. thanks for the recommendation

You should read rules of civility I liked it even better than GIM

I just opened a Free Little Library, I have a few teachers helping with book ideas, never knew of Lin and Henry working on books. Just put their series on my wish list for this coming month purchase.

This is all of her books honestly. They’re so engrossing but you can’t think too hard about if they make sense or are realistic. Just binge it and feel the things and move on.

For me it was The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Read it when I was about 20 or so, and preferred the narrative approach over some of his more gaga stories.

The last rumors I heard were that it was going to be a film, which I don’t love cause I feel like it would be too rushed. However I don’t think anything concrete has been decided yet

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I never understood why she and Harry had to have sex to have a child. They were both knowingly hurting their spouses. I could never escape the idea that they wanted to break their spouses. By that time in history, insemination was possible. I loved the book BTW,

I wish I could have gotten into this book. I love anything Old Hollywood, but I couldn't get past the (frankly, quite bad) writing. I put it down after a couple of chapters.

Yeah, Harry was such an intriguing and good character. I loved how he stepped up to orchestrate the dalliance in the car when Evelyn and her then-husband needed it (if I'm remembering correctly), and just how good of a man he was.

It’s so good, but also a really rough read.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks. I do sometimes zone out and miss stuff. I’ll often rewind. I also mainly listen to easy books and nostalgic favorites

It's a really great dark book