The Glass Castle

Since I always try to say where a recommendation comes from, this time I must give a shout-out (as the kids say) to Amazon. In their recommendations, they pushed it over and over, to the point where they were saying, "If you like air, you'll love The Glass Castle". Ok Amazon, you win, it was awesome. Jeannette Walls is a successful journalist, most notably writing the gossip page for MSN. This book is her memoir, which gives new meaning to "hardscrabble childhood." Her parents, while not overtly abusive and at times loving, are basically unable and or unwilling to provide for them. Not only do they not work or not work steadily, they don't try to find work or even apply for unemployment. What is motivating them is up for debate, theories range from mental illness to plain laziness. Their four children basically learn how to scrape by for themselves but her childhood leaves permanent marks on Walls' psyche. This may sound depressing, but its not, mostly because Walls seemingly has no anger about her parents actions. This book has left me committing to giving to hunger charities, because of its all too real description of NEVER having enough to eat. Sidenote- my husband and I listened to the audio version and it was excellent, the reader did a great job.