What a WILDDD ride! I listened to this one on audio and hearing Jeannette narrate her life was truly jaw-dropping. I was SO angry at the parents so many times, but talk about a family of resilience! Another great memoir in the books!
*also decided to not give star ratings to memoirs anymore, who am i to judge what someone else has gone through!*

It took me a while to get into this book, but there's a lot of interesting family dynamics and complicated familial love despite all the awful things that happened. I think this book would feel more complete if the author had written more personal insights rather than recounting things that happened. I want to read more about her reflections of the events that happened, her emotions, and how she processes her feelings towards her family.

This memoir has to be one of the most unique memoirs I’ve ever read. My review might contain spoilers.Jeannette Walls shares the raw and honest story of her childhood leading up to adulthood. She was raised in a highly dysfunctional family with her three siblings. Her parents were like nomads and just couldn’t really settle down. Jeannette’s mother loved to read, paint, and had a teaching degree, but most of the time she refused to work. She viewed work as a waste of time. Her dad was a very int...

Who here has seen the show Shameless? (I am thinking of the American version, but I know there is a British one, too, that it is based on.) To me, that show could have been inspired by this memoir. Frank Gallagher and Rex Walls are the same guy!I enjoyed all the vignettes from Jeannette Walls' life. She did a great job throwing them all together to create a story even without a specific plot. I am not sure that any of the stories lasted more than a few pages, but each one of them was interesting...

Now I get why people like this memoir so much.Though it is a memoir and a true story, both the writing style and the way Walls reminisces about her childhood make it seem like more of a fairy tale. My favourite non-fiction books are those that don't lose the compelling flow of a good fiction book - that still pull you into another world and life, dragging you along for the ride. This is one of those.I especially liked reading about Walls' complex and conflicting thoughts about her parents and ch...

My sister saw The Glass Castle on my coffee table and said, “Oh, I read that. It’s kind of . . .” then she paused and we both were awkwardly silent for a minute. “Well, I was going to say, it’s kind of like us, a little bit, but not –““Yeah,” I said. “I wasn’t going to say it – because not all of it – ““Yeah, not all of it.”We didn’t talk about it again. When I first saw this book, I think I died a little inside because of the cover. I didn’t hate The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood like ...

Another Update: I just saw the movie!!! I liked it! Woody Harrelson - Brie Larsonand Naomi Watts were all great! I thought they got the important 'duel' emotions just right. On one end - the parents did not 'protect' their kids appropriately at all-- lots of crazy dangerous chaos- On the other end - there was no question the parents loved wholeheartedly their children AND there were 'some' great gifts they gave their children - so our emotions are 'mixed'. At the end of the movie when they show ...

I guess I have a somewhat different frame of reference than several of the reviewers here. I can relate to many of the lessons she learned, and as such, I never had an issue believing her. These things can and do happen. The system fails children, and addicts (whether they're addicted to alcohol or excitement) will seek their fix above all else. As long as the addiction is in the picture, the person just doesn't exist. Children in alcoholic families eventually become aware of this, and the soone...

What I loved about this book is this: it presents her parents, with all their faults, and the poor mentality, at its worst, without anger, exasperation, or even really any judgment, just with the quirky love we all view our own childhoods. If she had been bitter in her description it would not have been believable, but instead it was tinged with forgiveness making me respect her for not only surviving such a strange childhood to become a successful, even functioning, adult but for being able to ...

Okay, I originally gave this one star but then had to go back and re-rate it to a two b/c I surprised a couple of you guys and in my impulsive way, I realized perhaps one star was a bit too knee jerk.It's not that I hated The Glass Castle, it's just that it irritated me with its self-conscious narrative style. Too much "look at how horrible things were!" and not enough detail or challenges to make me really care.The same stories are told and re-told throughout the memoir novel, and they rely too...