A Book From My Top Ten

I've written this post in my head for about two months now. This is one of those books that, once read, sticks with you. I read "The Glass Castle" a couple of years ago. Then read her second book "Half Broke Horses" earlier this year. Then, I was in between books with nothing to read. I picked up "The Glass Castle" and reread it. (which I never do)

Reading this book again blew me away. If you haven't read it, I'm not sure we can still be friends (J/K). Here is the Amazon book review:

"Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover."

I simply can't throw this book away even though it is tattered.

My darling dogs got ahold of it. Apparently they loved it too!

The author

I could go on and on with my own review, but suffice it to say that I loved it and my life was changed by the story. I am more thankful for the things I have and thankful to the parents I was blessed to be raised by.

I love this video. Jeannette's mother is actually in it and it made the whole story come full circle.

I was thrilled when Jeannette Walls came out with a second book. She calls it a "novel" because there was no way for her to check her facts. Otherwise, it could be called a memoir. It is an oral history that her mother and grandmother told her about Lily Casey. She was a crazy, strong, independent lady. I will be reading this book again as well. Here is Jeannette talking about the book. I just love her voice.