She grew up dirt poor, moving around from Arizona to Nevada to West Virginia. Her parents never held jobs and at one point, her father offered her up to the winner of a game of pool. Any money the family had went towards paying for her fathers booze and her mothers painting supplies. Jeannette Walls spent many years sleeping in a cardboard box and eating things like popcorn for a straight week because the family did not have money for anything else. She picked through the bins at school for discarded lunches and washed her face in the snow because they did not have running water. They did not have a flushing toilet or a working oven or insulation or any of the basic necessities that I couldnt live without. Not only did Jeannette survive her past but came to terms with it, accepted it and has become very successful. The book is honest and is written without a shred of anger towards the parents who couldn't give their children hot lunches and warm beds.

It's a truly inspiring memoir that is a must read. The Glass Castle would have to be my pick for best book of the year. So if you can only find the time to read one book, let this be it.

Jeannette and I did an interview, you can read it here.

posted by CINDY BOKMA @ 10:51 PM