Trigger Warning: This book and conversation contain discussions of rape, incest, and abortion.

Happy 2024 everybody! We're excited to start our reading for the new year with Ian's pick, John Irving's: The Cider House Rules. Ian chose this novel partially because he's wanted to read the story for a while and because it's Buffalo's Literary Center's Babel pick for March—the novel centers around a young Homer Wells who is an orphan at Saint Clouds. It deals with many topics such as abortion and morality and is very Dickensian in its voice. At the very least, it's an important piece of literature but spoiler alert, it's more than that. 

Check out the podcast, let us know what you think, and read along with us next month when we start Ronnie's pick, The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer. You can send us comments over at Twitter.com/SharedPagesPod. Also, please consider leaving a rating and review wherever you're listening if you enjoyed this episode.