I just finished an amazing book about a girl who grew up with dysfunctional parents who were unrealistically big dreamers, and because of that big failures. The Glass Castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls's past, and I honestly don't know how she found the courage to write it. Her life really is an amazing story: she has a drunk for a father and a free-spirited mother, neither of which took on the responsibility of raising their children.
Here is an excerpt from a scene where Jeannette and her brother had found a diamond ring outside their house in the woods of West Virginia, at a point where they were so poor they didn't even have a lunch to bring to school:
"We brought the ring home and showed it to Mom. She held it up to the light, then said we needed to have it appraised. The next day she took the Trailways bus to Bluefield. When she returned, she told us it was in fact a genuine two-carat diamond.
'So what's it worth?' I asked.
'That doesn't matter,' Mom said.
'How come?'
'Because we're not selling it.'
She was keeping it, she explained, to replace the wedding ring her mother had given her, the one Dad had pawned shortly after they got married.
'But Mom,' I said, 'that ring could get us a lot of food.'
'That's true,' Mom said, 'but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.'"
- The Glass Castle, p. 186
This doesn't even begin to describe the ridiculous hardship this girl lived through because of her selfish parents. I honestly could not put it down from the minute I started - it is that good. What completely astonished me is that it is all true. Read the book. It is truly incredible.
Check it out here: amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir
well, this answers my question of what book i should read next!
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