Rated of 5
by dodie toombs my story
I felt I was reading my own story, Jeannette's humor and strength is amazing. To have the self esteem to pursue a future any way she could, she is a "mountain Goat" to push for a better life.
I recommend this book for those of us who have little to complain about. Compared to the little girl. The true love of family is amazing and how they all stuck together and ambled on.
Rated of 5
by carrie as unpleasant as it gets
I'm only halfway through this book and can hardly imagine finishing it. The parents are reprehensible. The readers who describe these people as "eccentric" are jumping on some sort of sick bandwagon to justify their own inept parenting. There is no other explanation for ANYONE saying one kind or supportive word about the Walls parents. I find them to be delusional, selfish, irresponsible, abusive pigs. Anyone drowning himself in alcohol and visiting the whorehouse while his children eat butter for dinner needs to be put in jail. But then, you have the mother throwing money away on "art supplies" when she could actually be working........all while believing her 3-year-olds third degree burns were attained while learning a valuable lesson of self sufficiency. Good one. I hate this book.
Rated of 5
by Jordanna Robinson Great for Bad
Jeanette Walls captivated me in the first chapter. Describing her early childhood and her life from then on made me appreciate my good fortune as girl. It made me cry and life, and all though the story and plot weren't pleasing, Walls told it in a way that made the novel a masterpiece. I am incredibly grateful for the way her, and her family's life turned out!
Rated of 5
by Horst D. Weinberg, MD Why was this book published?
This book is about a family which is really 'poor white trash'. They abuse their children, they steal, have really no ethical compass, and the worst part is that they do not have to be like that, unlike most poor white trash which does not have the intelligence or ability to do better, Yes, it is 'OK' to do 'your thing' - but it is NOT OK to then have children and subject them to the abuse that this family did to theirs. CPS really did not do their job. The fact that the children did as well as they did is due only to circumstance, and to the fact that they were intellectually gifted. Each chapter is about another 'family problem' due to their own lack of 'drive' and it is really quite boring after a while.......
Rated of 5
by Hani Excellent read, but.....
I must say that I truly enjoyed the telling of this story even though it was as one reviewer described it, a 'train wreck that you can't get off'. It was touching and it was very telling about the state that a lot of young children in this country are in.
There are comments about the book saying it doesn't sound plausible, that it is impossible for her to remember the conversations she had at such young ages. My answer to that is that this woman apparently had a very trying childhood, one that isn't considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. In order to get that story into some sort of readable form she must fill in quite a bit with what she thinks 'may' have happened. She more than likely remembers snatches and bits and comments made and has either turned them into full conversations or looking back through her life she reviewed certain situations and conversations and still remembers the gist of them. If she hadn't done this, the book would have been such a disjointed mess that nobody could read it.
Give the woman her due, I whole-heartedly believe her story is true and I commend her and her siblings for breaking out of what could have been a vicious cycle of poverty and abuse. Someone commented on the lack of the mothers' believability, that mother acts JUST like my sister and we had a very normal childhood. The resentment of the children and the artistic bend, the lack of any interest in the home itself and the odd views towards the children esp when it comes to medical issues and such. So mothers like Jeannette's DO exist here in America in 2008!
Rated of 5
by Elaine Kluttz The Glass Castle
This book was recommended to me by a friend. When I started reading it I couldn't stop. It is the kind of book, anyone who feels sorry for themselves should read. It makes you ashamed, for ever thinking you didn't have a good enough childhood. I heard it is being made into a movie. I hope so, and can't wait for it to come out.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
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of 5
by dodie toombs 
of 5
by carrie 
