9 hours ago, postscript said:

For someone who despises dancing, Gary seems to do a lot of quasi-dancing during his sermons. That picture with his arms outstretched bears a strong resemblance to Tevye in a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof. I wouldn't be surprised if he burst into a rousing chorus of "Tradition!" 

A lot of his moves look like he's playing Tevya. I see a bit of "One" from A Chorus Line now and then - imagine if he had a top hat to play with! And sometimes it's just:

Oh yes it’s definitely self published. It’s way too niche to get a big publisher. 

I hate no touch courtships so much. People who are getting married are meant to touch each other. It’s natural. Forcing them not to us completely unnatural. 

Living with Braggie just in and of itself has to be EXHAUSTING. All the constant manipulation, martyr attitude, attention-seeking, need for validation, raging or barely-restrained verbal attacks when she doesn't get her own way, endless buying and selling... I'm not surprised Shaun spends as much time as he can away from her and from 10 kids he doesn't see as his responsibility.

And I think Ezra has actually caught on, and that's why he's now apprenticing with Shaun. Once Braggie put a stop to brick-and-mortar college (even a local college would have him out of the house for several hours a day), Ezra has looked for the next best option: follow Shaun's example in order to get out from under Braggie's constant drama and the endless child-raising that has become his lot, second son's (can't remember his name) and Della's. He's taken or taking a programming course, so the next thing will be to spend huge chunks of time with Shaun in Shaun's "office" learning stuff, and of course accompanying him in all his travelling. I'll bet he's looking forward to that.

I also think second son is aware of all this, and also aware that he's got a much worse chance of escaping from being Braggie's servant. After all, how many apprentices can Shaun's business sustain? This one's on his own, and, based on stuff Braggie has said on occasion about his attitude, and based on how absolutely over it he looks in every Sunday picture (when he appears; he's missed quite a few), I think he's well aware of how much more difficult he'll have it.

18 hours ago, indianabones said:

That is a shocking amount of Reddit in-jokes for an actual published book!

You can self-publish anything these days with print-on-demand. I appreciate that someone DID though