I applaud all the five star reviews who actually "GOT IT", in stark contrast to the negative ones who were obviously too short-sighted and couldn't see the forest for the trees. The author's depth of character is to be admired for her insight and compassion to see the redeeming qualities in her parents. In spite of the parent's chosen path in life, obviously not to cherish a shallow life full of "fancy things",the parents instilled in the children independant thought, principles, values, pride, self-sufficiency, self-worth, and how to love. A good many of the wealthiest children in the world are sadly lacking in all these qualities. BRILLIANTLY DONE BY AN OBVIOUS BRILLIANT, SPECIAL HUMAN BEING!! BRAVO!!!

an unexpected page turner for me. the glass castle caught me off guard in its honesty and reawakened my understanding of another world that lies beyond all the comforts of home. touching, that the author writes without judgment or resentment even though the story inspired both emotions in this reader.

The Glass Castle was so good that I couldn't put it down.
I am a mother of two children and would do anything to keep them healthy and safe. It's shocking to me that some people who choose to have kids are incapable of taking care of themselves, let alone their children.
It's a must read, difficult at times due to the abuse. We read it for our book club and it was a big hit.

Great narrator, fascinating story. A dysfunctional family at it's most bizarre and creative - had some very touching moments and some moments that make you angry. A fresh perspective on life, read by a terrific narrator.

This book was very well written. It definitely gives the reader a different perspective on the way some people view their place in society.
It is a fast read, and I highly recommend it.
Jen

If ever a person had the right to say they grew up in a dysfunctional family and had a bad childhood, it's Jeannette Walls, along with her siblings. They were raised in poverty so extreme that they had to dig through the trash at school to find something to eat. They lived in an unheated, uninsulated, termite-ravaged house with no indoor plumbing. Their parents were too busy with their own cares to concern themselves with the fate of their children. They were so filthy that other children, even poor ones, refused to play with or befriend them.

What makes this memoir really work is that the author doesn't sit around feeling sorry for herself. Instead, she presents the facts and lets them speak for themselves. And many of these facts are disturbing.

Each character lives his or her own personal tragedy. For me, the greatest tragedy was Jeannette's father, Rex Walls, who had a brilliant mind, remarkable creativity, and an enduring love for his family. His lost potential is heartbreaking. If he could have stayed sober, he had the capacity to be an incredible person and caregiver. But he was overcome by the addiction of alcoholism that prevented him from ever becoming the man and father he was meant to be. Instead, he was abusive of his wife, could not provide for the family (and in fact stole from the children), gave only broken promises, and used his daughter for his personal gain.

Rose Mary Walls was as aloof, selfish, and unmaternal as a mother could possibly be. Her focus, from beginning to end, was always on herself: her own wants, her own needs, her own suffering. She was so disturbingly self-absorbed and removed from reality that I had no choice but to assume she has an unnamed mental disorder.

The four siblings are wonderful together, and I was delighted when, one by one, they escaped their unsafe home and abnormal family environment. That they each made it out without being raped (there were close calls) and becoming a complete basket case is stunning. It is hinted that the youngest child, Maureen Walls, didn't fare as well as the others, but that three normal, intelligent, well-adjusted adults could result from such an environment is miraculous.

"The Glass Castle" is a great read -- but you need to be able to handle reading about child and animal cruelty, lack of parental supervision over young children, and parents who willingly put their children in dangerous situations.

I love the book. It's so fantastic!

I am a Graduate Film student at Columbia Chicago and I attended a book-signing of the "Glass Castle" by Walls at the University of Illinois - Chicago on Thursday the 18th. I had never read the book, but my girlfriend asked that I go. After hearing Walls speak on her story, I decided to pick up one of the free copies of her book. I read it from cover to cover the following day as I drove back home to southern Illinois from Chicago. The stories, though not at all identical to my stories of growing up, resonated with me and drew up memories from my past that I had long forgotten about. What a great read!

I remember Jeannette saying at the signing that she has checked the reviews on Amazon. So, Jeannette Walls, if you're reading this, I would love to do a grad student short film based on one of the chapters in your book. This film would not be for profit, only a class exercise. I already had an adaptation in the works for my class, but after reading your book I just had to give it a shot. I'm not sure how, but please contact me if this would be ok.

Thanks so very much.

B <><

This was a beautifully written memoir, full of warmth and humor while describing a lifetime of poverty and neglect. I loved it, and my mature 11 year old daughter is mesmerized by it.

This autobiography provides an example of how children, in the most disasterous situations, can not only survive but excel as adults. Three of four children of an alcoholic father who repeatedly broke his promises and a mother who was his voluntary partner/enabler were resiliant enough to provide the support they were denied by their parents and execute a successful escape plan.

The writing is wonderful---couldn't put the book down. But as I continued to read and become involved in the Jeanette's life, I was appalled that these 2 people, her parents, could treat their children with such neglect and abuse. Were they mentally incompetant? Could they really believe that starving their kids, making them live in squallor, no clothes, and continually on the run was an adventure. And at the end, to find out that the mother had land in TX worth one million dollars. I don't think I could forgive my mother for such neglect and irresponsibility.
Although, well written, and perhaps a catharsis for Jeanette, it just confirms the point that not all people should become parents.

I loved this book--absolutely riveting. The author is so matter-of-fact about her ordeal and defines true success in life. I'm in awe of her drive and ambition through the toughest times.

This memoir was outstanding. It is beautifully written & mesmerizing. I found myself laughing at one point and shaking with anger at the next. It is the kind of book that you just cannot put down and it is rich with discussion possibilities on the merits of family, responsibility & love. A must read!

With the first sentence I was sucked in. Never before have I read a story that was so real.

I feel like Miss Downer for not falling in love with this book. After reading several discussions and reviews my opinion has increased some but I still disliked the whole experience. Of course more than a little discomfort is necessary because of the subject matter and some of the things I doubted as factual have been defended by the author but I still am struggling with the concept of a woman who has over one million dollars in assets raising her children in squalor and letting them practically starve. I did notice that while in one discussion the author came on-line and defended her ability to find housing in New York City while she and her sister waited tables. She also defended her own response to the sexual assault by her uncle. However when asked about the land in Texas and the house in Arizona, she did not come back on and clarify things.

I understand it is author's license to present what she wants to present and withhold what she choses but a reader could get the impression that there are no health consequences to malnutrition (heck the author grew to a height of almost six feet!), no dental care (they didn't even brush their teeth and never went to the dentist) and little treatment to injuries. Some readers responded with comments about how much fun it must have been to be in the Walls family. Fun? To me it seemed like sheer torture.

EXTRAORDINARY! 7 stars

What a story! Jeannette grew up in a family that was almost unbelievable! Her parents were total whackos. Dad was a drunk with good intentions and big dreams but never followed through on anything. Her mother was more about herself. The fact that Jeannette and most of her siblings were able to get their lives together and live normally is remarkable.

I recommend this book highly. It's a good read and you never know what's going to happen next!

a wonderful book about a disfunctional family whose children overcame terrible odds. It will make you cry, laugh, and be happy for the obsticles that are overcome. a terrific read. i give it six stars!

One of my all time favorites! I love this book, found it very well written and it is truly a remarkable story. Highly recommend it!

In the genre of Angela's Ashes or Let's not go to the Dogs Tonight; Jeannette Walls had a totally unconventional childhood and has moved on to write about it in an oddly humorous, unsentemental manner which leaves the reader not only stunned but unable to put the book down. This story is all her own and she shares it beautifully. It will make you certain that you are not the "worst mother in the world", no matter what your teens say.

Read the book and I would recommend it to anyone that likes to read autobiographical books. Yes, there are people/children that live like that either through their own choice or not.

I couldn't put this book down once I started it. One of the best books I have read this summer by far. It's one of those books that you keep thinking about long after you've finished it. Loved it!

This is a wonderfully written autobiography. You will laugh many times. You will also cheer for these children to overcome their start in life.

"I had no idea what my life would be like then, but as I gathered up my schoolbooks and walked out the door, I swore to myself that it would never be like Mom's, that I would not be crying my eyes out in an unheated shack in some godforsaken holler." - Jeannette Walls

"I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening (party), when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster ... She had tied rags around her shoulders to keep out the spring chill ... To the people walking by, she probably looked like any of the thousands of homeless people in New York City ... I was embarrassed by them, too, and ashamed of myself for wearing pearls and living on Park Avenue while my parents were busy keeping warm and finding something to eat." - Jeannette Walls

THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls is the second-best book I've read this year to date, the best being Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Rose Mary and Rex Walls were married in 1956. Over the next several years, they had four children - daughters Lori, Jeannette and Maureen and son Brian. Anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian individualists frequently on the run from something, the couple refused to enter the societal mainstream even to the extent of supplying their children with the conventionally acceptable American upbringing that stipulates freedom from hunger and the provision of adequate shelter and clothing. THE GLASS CASTLE is Jeanette's poignant and powerful memoir of growing up emotionally loved but materially deprived.

From Jeannette's narrative, it's soon apparent that her parents are gifted and intelligent human beings. Indeed, Rex, who's self-taught and knowledgeable about subjects that would challenge many university graduates, reads "Los Alamos Science" and "The Journal of Statistical Physics" and becomes interested in the Chaos Theory. Rex's mind is constantly ablaze with technically sophisticated plans and enrichment schemes, the former including designing The Glass Castle, an energy self-sufficient family home to be built of glass. However, Rex's rebellious streak against society, complicated by alcoholism, dooms him to a succession of failed blue-collar jobs and petty confrontations with the law that keep the Walls constantly on the move from California to Nevada to Arizona to West Virginia to New York City. In the Southwest, the family lives in a succession of dilapidated buildings in isolated, desert mining towns until Rose Mary inherits a home from her mother located in Phoenix, where life for Jeannette and her siblings is relatively good. Then Rex again becomes unemployed and the Walls move to the decaying coal mining town of Welch, WV, where Rex grew up. In Welch, the family's living conditions bottom out when they take up residence in a wretched, unheated, leaky, unplumbed shanty on stilts built on the side of a mountain. Here, the children don't even have enough to eat. Jeannette describes the experience of scavenging food at school:

"When other girls came in (the girls' restroom) and threw away their lunch bags in the garbage pails, I'd go retrieve them. I couldn't get over the way kids tossed out all this perfectly good food: apples, hard-boiled eggs, packages of peanut-butter crackers, sliced pickles, half-pint cartons of milk, cheese sandwiches with just one bite taken out because the kid didn't like the pimentos in the cheese. I'd return to the (toilet) stall and polish off my tasty finds."

I've had occasion to read memoirs by authors recalling happier upbringings: Knots in My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli, Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood by Susan Allen Toth, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson, Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham. In the early pages of THE GLASS CASTLE, I had to ask myself, "Is this a parody?" But one couldn't make up the events that Jeannette relates.

What's remarkable about Jeannette's story is her lack of bitterness towards her parents. Only on a couple of occasions does she even hint at laying blame on them for irresponsibility and negligence. Besides, her love for them endures. To me, and perhaps other readers with more "normal" childhoods, Rex's and Rose Mary's treatment of their offspring was neglect verging on abuse.

The fact that Jeannette and her siblings apparently grew up to be well-adjusted and, in the author's case, happily married and professionally and financially successful, is evidence for the resiliency of the human spirit. But, as you read THE GLASS CASTLE, you will perhaps weep and/or rage for the Walls children.

During their Phoenix period, Rex took Jeannette, whom he'd nicknamed "Mountain Goat", to the city zoo. There, led across a low fence by her Dad to get closer to a cage, Jeannette's palm was licked by a captive cheetah.

I'm really not much on non-fiction, but this book reads like a novel. Incredible what this woman went through as a child. Just shows the resiliency of children. So well written; you can picture every place and detail that is described. A book you won't want to put down, and will pass on to others.

I really liked this book. I felt completely sucked-in to the story. I found it to be well-written, and thoroughly entertaining. The characters are deep and well-developed. I highly recommend this novel; it's a great read!

Some scenarios in the book are outlandish/unrealistic. Additionally I had a hard time accepting that Jeannette would behave the way she did toward the end of the book, but overall I still give it 5 stars.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall is the type of book that makes you want to give your parents a hug and thank them for being such wonderful parents, no matter how bad they were. Wall was raised by free spirits who want their children to become toughened by life and believe firmly in survival of the fittest. Her mother wants to be an artist and not to be bothered by the inconvenience of feeding and caring for her children. Her father is brilliantly smart but also a vicious drunk. Every time I thought that her childhood couldn't get any worse, I would turn the page. Which is worse? The Christmas he lit the entire Christmas tree on fire (on purpose) destroying their presents or the time he chased his pregnant wife with the car through the desert at night until he pinned her against a rock wall. Wall's story of perserverance through adversity is inspiring and amazing. You can't help but admire the courage it took to survive what she did and accomplish everything she has since. The sick thing about the book. I finished it last night, and today I realized I was a bit sad that I didn't have any more of their crazy life stories to read about!

This story is truly a must read. Jeannette Walls writes an incredible story of courage and triumph! I love that a majority of the book was written from her viewpoint as a child...it makes the story that much more real and honest. I fell in love with all the characters, and yes, even her father and mother.

This book is sensational!

my son was assigned this as a "coming of age" book for 9th grade, and I was absolutely outraged. The language is vulgar and coarse. I was prepared to hate it. He asked me to read it and it is spectacular. But the emotions it generated were really intense, and frankly the parents are beyond defensible; they are not dysfunctional; they were sick, repulsive, narcissistic, paranoid, shameful and neglectful. In fact, words fail me. They were that despicable. I kept hoping a chapter would end with a kid pushing a parent into a river or setting them on fire. Oh, sure, Dad occasionally gave 'em some good insight or information about the universe or mankind, but put enough monkeys in a room with enough paper and typewriters....and the mother was even worse. Both parent's essentially pimped their kids for room, board, and gambling money. I've never had such emotions of anger and disgust about parenting. What sets this off is that usually there's one functional but co-dependent family member creating some attempt at normalcy. In this case, nothing like it. What an amazing testimony to the resilience and internal strength of these kids.
Read it. (just best let your kid read it when they are late high school or college!)

Bought this book for a beach vacation, and once I started reading, I never put it down. It was fascinating, and the author grabs you at the first story and never lets go.

Her parents are very complex individuals, so you can't simply hate them. In a few (very few) ways they are excellent parents. I liked the book because it's not a black and white view of the world -- the author tells the facts (at least I hope they're really true) and let's the readers make up their own minds.

You can't help but cheer for her and be amazed at how she doesn't let her unfortunate circumstances get her down. Her lack of self-pity is amazing!

This book will stay with you. I have recommended it to several friends who all report the same reaction as mine.

It made me laugh, cry and get angry. I loved this book not only for the insight into the pain of childhood, but for the way it made me evaluate my own role as a parent. I could not put this book down and have recommended it to many, many people.

There is no doubt in my mind; this is one of the most disturbing books that I've ever read. Jeanette Wall's straightforward and honest memoir of her life brought out many emotions in me.

This is the story of the Wall children who lived a life of poverty and betrayal. The children were often neglected and had to fend for themselves in many ways. At one point, they are so hungry that they forge through the fields and area around where they lived to find greens that were eatable. They mostly lived in miserable housing, where they often had no heat and the children would bundle up for any warmth that they could get! One of the most amazing truths of the story is that the mother, had a teaching degree, but would work only when absolutely pushed to do so. The father was gifted in many ways, but completely undisciplined. He had little formal education, but was charismatic, bright and able to get work. However, because of his drinking binges, he was not able to keep jobs for any length of time. The four children, Laurie, Jeanette, Brian and Maureen were taught to read by their mother before they started school and were taught math and astronomy by their father. Their parents were bright, but terribly selfish!

I was astounded by the often-insensitive behavior of Mrs. Wall, who herself had the good fortune to be raised by a caring mother and apparently brought up in a nice home. I had more sympathy for Mr. Wall, who had a terrible mother and spent most of his life living in the worse kind of poverty and abuse. To me, he was much more likeable, but sadly when drunk could and did become a despicable human being.

Jeanette and her older siblings persevered and their story is amazing! I admire them and the way they pulled their lives together after a disruptive and often miserable childhood!

Judith Miller

In this book, Walls writes about her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents. Her mother is a potentially-crazy mother, and her father is an alcoholic. Walls, along with her brother and two sisters, was left largely to her own devices. Walls' removed, nonjudgmental voice is the only thing that saves this book from typical, sappy sentimentality. I found many parts of the story to be cliched, including many of Walls' reactions to her life circumstances.

An amazing story of courage, confidence, and most of all, love. The tales from Jeannette's crazy childhood are, at times, unbelievable. There were moments when I wanted to scream through the pages of the book at her parents, and even at Jeannette herself. Her parents followed their beliefs and failed to hold steady jobs. As a result, Jeannette and her siblings often went hungry, were unable to bathe, and endured freezing winter nights in their shack that didn't have running water or a heater. Rex and Rose Mary's actions were appalling and abusive. However, it's apparent they loved their children, even though their behavior was very rarely in the kids' best interest. This must be why Jeannette shows no contempt toward them; only disappointment at times. Jeannette's unconditional love for her parents is inspiring. I also loved the way the siblings stuck together throughout the good times and bad -- and the reality is there were a lot of bad times. Jeannette has plenty to complain about, but she doesn't. She rose above her upbringing and persevered; there's a lot to be learned from her story. Five starts and a must read!

I'm not going to REtell the story here, or even sum it up as others have done, but I will throw my thoughts of it out there. This is one of my absolute favorite books! I read this book one night in Iraq. I could relate to her life story in so many ways that I just absolutely HAD to finish that book! Now, while stationed in southern Baghdad you don't really have a whole lot of extra time on your hands- especially not LARGE chunks of time and especially not me. You know a book is dang good when you find time to read it in Iraq!!
This is one book that I keep repurchasing and am, in fact, buying another copy today. When I enjoy a book, I'll pass it around to everyone else who I think would like it. Eventually, everyone I know has read the book and that's just one more connection we all have to each other. My friends are all so different, that it's very rare when we all agree on something- but we ALL agree that this book is outstanding! That goes to show you how this book can affect all types of people. Practically anyone can relate to this book in at least one way or another.
All in all- this book gets the highest of ratings on my scale! I always try to keep an extra copy handy just in case I need to lend it out again :) I also keep a copy on my shelf of "must read favorites".
Loved this book!
~*luci*~

This was a very interesting but also disturbing memoir about a very strange mother and an alcoholic father raising a family of four and barely scraping by needlessly. Jeannette tells about her childhood from a child's point of view and does an excellent job of communicating the feelings she had towards her parents and their situation. Her dad was a very smart man, but drunk a lot which caused him to have difficulty holding a job and neglected his children. He'd talk about big plans, but did little in handling everyday problems.

The mother was selfish, thinking mostly of just herself, choosing to live in poverty instead of selling land she inherited. She'd rather see her children go without food that get a job. Her priorities were all mixed up.

This was a sad book from the standpoint of the parents being so pathetic. It seemed as though the kids had more sense than they did. Reading her story made me even more grateful for the parents I had and I couldn't help but think that could have very well have been the life my foster sisters and brother may have had if my parents hadn't taken them in. It is disturbing to me that kids actually live in conditions such as in this book.

The author shares many unusual experiences which made for a very interesting book.

Simply put: you MUST read this book! It's the best I have read in a very long time. You will not be dissapointed.

Walls' book is as revealing as it gets. This book evokes the gamut of emotions and should be read by anyone who considers their family dysfuncional. The story is well-told and clearly written.

The author, her sisters Lori and Maureen and her brother Brian were raised by parents who were dreamers. And of course, dreams do not pay the rent or feed the family. The children were often hungry (imagine eating Wonder bread and lard sandwiches), dirty, and dressed in hand-me-down clothes. Each child learned to cope in their own way with their extreme poverty, their father's alcoholism and extended absences, and their mother's moody and abstract sense of reality.

Jeannette Walls writes a captivating memoir about her and her siblings struggles growing up in the less than ideal world of poverty, hunger, and alcoholism. Her descriptions are raw and vulnerable. I could nearly feel the pain and frustration she must have felt. At the same time, her family's patience in dealing with their own family "demons" helped to inspire me to do the same in my own life. This book will catch you from the very first page. A definite must read!

Jeannette Walls' memoir of her family is a frank, unvarnished look at two parents who were self-absorbed, deep in denial, and yet at times loving and supportive of their children. Walls was quite close to her father despite the fact that he was a sometimes-violent, often-inebriated man. When he was sober, he taught his children to enjoy classic literature and to be compassionate and brave. Both parents lived in a fantasy world, her father always promising to make a fortune and build a lovely "glass castle" for the family, and her mother preferring to be a painter and earn no money instead of using her education to work as a teacher(although she did get jobs sporadically when circumstances became particularly dire.) The children lived in unspeakable conditions and were usually expected to fend for themselves. The author went through many years of trying to hide her past and her family, but her husband convinced her to write this book which is a real gift to readers, and hopefully, a catharsis for the author as well.

I thought this was a great book about how children survive with mental illness in the family. The child learns to deal with the person as they are, not as you wish they were. You also learn that you can not control the person or the illness if they don't want help. Money or lack of was not the issue, it just showed that even wealth can't control or stop mental illness.

Seriously. I loved this book. I'm running through Amazon today reviewing some of the best books I've read this year and this is one of the best of the best. It's a great, sad story without even a touch of woe-is-me. The reader doesn't pity Ms. Walls, she admires her for her great strength, humor and resolve. If you think your parents were hard to live with, read this book and you'll see how relatively easy your life was!

There are a lot of books about dysfunctional families, but the Walls family goes way beyond that...well educated, intelligent, people CHOSE to be worthless, and to let their four kids live in poverty. That's not "dysfunctional", that's evil. Mrs. Walls had considerable inherited wealth out west [Jeanette {I'll use first names, as everybody here is named Walls} could have given a bit more detail, but there may be good reasons for keeping quiet], and decided not to use it..."You never sell land". Some of the schemes coming from Mr. Walls' whiskey-soaked brain are almost funny, but remember that this was an educated man who neglected his family when he didn't have to.

Jeanette moves around, just like her family did...the parts of the book out west, I can't address; I've never been there. Welch, West Virginia, is another matter. I worked there, at the old Stevens Clinic, for a few months in the fall of 1969 prior to leaving for the Navy...I was there when they were, and Jeanette's description is spot-on. Fantastic. My Dad grew up in Welch many years earlier, but is was a far different place then, and his circumstances were better...my grandfather was a successful merchant, and my great uncle was a legendary crooked lawyer, and judge. Jeanette has captured the Welch of 1969 to perfection.

This is a quite well written book, even if it is disturbing. That three of the four kids have turned out OK is God's superintending grace, though the difficulties two have with marriage are not surprising. Lori would appear to be the champ, but she gets little space. [Of course, with living persons there are privacy concerns that don't apply to Thomas Jefferson]. All-in-all, Jeanette has done well; maybe this is therapy for her...God knows, she's entitled. I do think she missed the boat in not placing the blame for her early difficulties squarely where it belongs.

Seriously. I loved this book. I'm running through Amazon today reviewing some of the best books I've read this year and this is one of the best of the best. It's a great, sad story without even a touch of woe-is-me. The reader doesn't pity Ms. Walls, she admires her for her great strength, humor and resolve. If you think your parents were hard to live with, read this book and you'll see how relatively easy your life was!

A deeply moving, unforgettable memoir of a truly hard-scrabble life. What I admire most about this book is that Jeannette Walls never paints her family as victims. Nor does she portray her unbearably narcissistic parents as evil (even though it would certainly be easy to do so--her drunken father, her childlike mother. Oh, how I was enraged in the scene where the mother hides the candy bar she's eating from her starving children!!!). Instead, she shows the world as she saw it growing up: the good, the bad, the hideously ugly.

But mostly this is a book about hope and strength and finding the courage to overcome.

In a nutshell, this book will haunt me for a long time.

This is an incredible story...and I mean incredible. It is almost impossible to believe that these three children (I'm not too sure about Maureen)survived such a childhood. That both parents were mentally ill goes without saying, and it actually does go without saying. At the end of the book, the mother is still living rough and being portrayed as some sort of Apple Annie.

As for the writing, it wasn't particularly good--certainly nothing like Angela's Ashes or The Liars' Club. It was like a recording of events; not too much emotional depth in what she had to say. The subject matter was what kept me reading. As the kids got older, things skipped a bit...I'm still a bit fuzzy as to how this tall, skinny, ugly kid with buckteeth was able to attend an Ivy League university, marry a millionaire and become the knock out on the back cover. Did I miss the "makeover"? I just don't believe her homemade braces actually worked.

This is a remarkable story of survival. How Jeannette Walls made it out of her family intact and alive makes her memoir a page turner that you will not be able to put down. While other memoirs often leave us questioning their veracity, Walls convinces us that she lived through the terror of growing up with two parents who could not manage themselves or their family. Even better, Walls' portrayal of her family is not two dimensional, each of her siblings and her parents are complex and we are never certain what will happen next as the book progresses. These a terrific book that should be read immediately.

I borrowed this book from a friend's bookshelf and could not put it down. Yes, even with 11 month old twin daughters, I was still able to read the entire book in 3 days -- it's that good! Fascinating story that would have made great fiction. The fact that it's a memoir makes it truly amazing. Loved it!

This is one of my new favorite books and has introduced me to one of my new favorite types of reading: memoirs. There is not a second during this novel that I was bored. I finished it over 24 hours and I would have finished it in a consecutive amount of time if I wasn't purposely trying to extend my enjoyment of the process. Ms. Walls' writing style was impeccable. Though this memoir was one of a traumatic childhood, it never made it hard to read and, as a self-proclaimed cry-er, I rarely shed tears. That may sound negative, but in fact, it was what gave the reader hope for Jeannette and her siblings. They never gave up and nor did I as the reader.

I found this story inspirational and it has truly shed new light on the way I look at life. I watched some videos of Jeannette Walls speaking on youtube (which I recommend) and the expectation of her character was fulfilled and then some. This book does not make you hate her parents, though at times I was very angry with them. After reading it anyone with family bitterness should probably think again.

Thank you for writing such an inspirational and courageous memoir!

This is one of my new favorite books and has introduced me to one of my new favorite types of reading: memoirs. There is not a second during this novel that I was bored. I finished it over 24 hours and I would have finished it in a consecutive amount of time if I wasn't purposely trying to extend my enjoyment of the process. Ms. Walls' writing style was impeccable. Though this memoir was one of a traumatic childhood, it never made it hard to read and, as a self-proclaimed cry-er, I rarely shed tears. That may sound negative, but in fact, it was what gave the reader hope for Jeannette and her siblings. They never gave up and nor did I as the reader.

I found this story inspirational and it has truly shed new light on the way I look at life. I watched some videos of Jeannette Walls speaking on youtube (which I recommend) and the expectation of her character was fulfilled and then some. This book does not make you hate her parents, though at times I was very angry with them. After reading it anyone with family bitterness should probably think again.

Thank you for writing such an inspirational and courageous memoir!

Heart-wrenching, beautiful, inspiring, funny , and disturbing... "The Glass Castle" is a wonderful memoir. As surprising as the failures of the Walls parents are, even more extraordinary are the ways in which they succeed. I will remember the 'demon hunting' trick for the day when I have a child of my own. A great book that will keep you engaged from start to finish.