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Displaced Persons

'Recommended for a wide range of readers, and a perfect book club choice.' - Library Journal, starred review
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New Author Interviews |
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Carol Lynch Williams
Carol Lynch Williams discussed The Chosen One, and what inspired her to write a book about polygamy.
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C. W. Gortner
A video interview with C.W. Gortner in which he talks about his 2010 historical novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici.
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Vanessa Woods
Vanessa Woods discusses her first book, Bonobo Handshake, and her experiences with the extrarodinary Bonobos.
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Kwei Quartey
Kwei Quartey talks about his childhood in Ghana and his first novel, Wife of the Gods, set in a small Ghanaian community where long-buried secrets are about to rise to the surface.
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Summary and Book Reviews |
The Glass Castle: Summary and book reviews of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, plus links to an excerpt from The Glass Castle and a biography of Jeannette Walls. |
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Book Summary
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity
were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four
children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest
desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man
who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics,
geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted
and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family,
called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in
fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last
forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded,
the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family --
Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery
money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated,
Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one
another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the
resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the
guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her
parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph
against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a
family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve
out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story.
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| BOOK REVIEWS |
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Media Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Walls's journalistic bare-bones style makes for a chilling, wrenching, incredible testimony of childhood neglect. A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story.
Publishers Weekly
With a fantastic storytelling knack... Walls doesn't pull her punches.
Booklist - Stephanie Zvirin (starred review)
Shocking, sad, and occasionally bitter, this gracefully written account speaks candidly, yet with surprising affection, about parents and about the strength of family ties--for both good and ill.
The New York Times - Francine Prose
The Glass Castle falls short of being art, but it's a very good memoir. At one
point, describing her early literary tastes, Walls mentions that ''my favorite
books all involved people dealing with hardships.'' And she has succeeded in
doing what most writers set out to do -- to write the kind of book they
themselves most want to read.
Dani Shapiro, author of Family History
Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of
the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. This
deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all
good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit.
Patricia Bosworth, author of Anything Your Little Heart Desires and Diane Arbus: A Biography
The Glass Castle is the saga of the restless, indomitable Walls family,
led by a grand eccentric and his tempestuous artist wife. Jeannette Walls has
survived poverty, fires, and near starvation to triumph. She has written this
amazing tale with honesty and love.
Dominick Dunne, author of The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper
Just read the first pages of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I defy
you not to go on. It's funny and sad and quirky and loving. I was incredibly
touched by it.
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Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Bruce L. Beck
The Glass Castle
Ms Walls is a wonderful writer. Her descriptions of things and people are wonderful. This is the best book I have read all year... I found it interesting that she refers to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in that she has a similar writing style. I ... Read More
Rated of 5
by LOREDA
Good honest reading
Many of us do not realize that people live like that. It proves any of us can pull our selves up from any condition. A wonderful book.
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| Editor's Choice |
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Brodeck
Phillipe Claudel |
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Set in an unnamed time and place, Brodeck blends the familiar and unfamiliar, myth and history into a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Readers of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by Brodeck. |
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
C. W. Gortner |
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From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen. |
Bonobo Handshake
Vanessa Woods |
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A young woman follows her fiancé to war-torn Congo to study extremely endangered bonobo apes - who teach her a new truth about love and belonging. |
Rock Paper Tiger
Lisa Brackmann |
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American Ellie Cooper, deserted by her husband, has made a number of friends in China. But suddenly one of them disappears, and security organizations are hounding her for information. Contacted through an online role-playing game by a group claiming to be friends of Lao Zhang asking her for... |
Beirut 39
Samuel Shimon |
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An exciting collection of the best new writing from the Arab world, by thirty-nine writers under thirty-nine. |
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| Latest BookBrowse News |
Publishers Weekly accepting paid reviews (Aug 26 2010) Publishers Weekly, one of the USA's oldest publishing industry magazines, today announced that they are accepting registrations from self-published authors...
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Larsson's ex-partner hits out at renaming of trilogy (Aug 23 2010) Stieg Larsson would not have approved of the renaming of the opening book to his Millennium trilogy from "Men Who Hate Women" to "The Girl with the Dragon...
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