Amazon.com
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar).

I always find it interesting to read memoirs. Lives so different from mine. I'm not sure what to say about this book because even though Jeannette had a poverty stricken upbringing and it as sad to read about that, for some reason her writing style just didn't pull me in as other memoirs have.

I will take this to the GCBC meet up today and if no one wants it I will bring it back home and possibly release it in one of the bookbags I belong to. It's too good of a book to wild release.

Thanks Michyj, taken from the meet up yesterday, looks interesting.

update 20/3/07: passed along to browneyedgirl76 (not an active BCer) to read who will pass it back when she is done.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mooched from www.bookmooch.com
Enjoy!

I loved this - I devoured it in 2 nights and a morning. It is now on its way to Queensland via bookmooch.

And this one has found its way to me via bookmooch!!!

I gave up reading 'misery memoirs' ages ago... there almost seems to be a culture of one-upmanship amongst the authors ... "You think YOUR childhood was bad... listen to THIS!"

I made an exception for this one and wish I could have 'enjoyed' it more. It would be churlish of me to suggest that Walls has 'embroidered' her story at all... but regardless I don't think the quality of writing, or the lack of self-reflection, make up for the misery of this memoir!

Taking it along to meetup tomorrow in hopes that another bookcrosser will 'enjoy' it more than I did!

Taking to meetup where it will either be snaffled by another bookcrosser or set free to travel!



To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free!) And if you do choose to join, I hope you'll consider using me, lmn60, as your referring member. Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!

Caught at today's meet-up at Green Sage Cafe, Templestowe - looking forward to reading it so have added it to Mt TBR.

Couldn't put it down....I felt so frustrated and angry with Jeannette's parents, however even though they undoubtedly failed as parents they must have done something right to rear such a forgiving daughter. Jeannette has written a poignant, candid memoir and I admire her courage in doing so.

Taking this along to today's meet-up

To the finder of this book -
Lucky You! You have found a travelling book, there are no strings attached, however you may consider making a journal entry on the Bookcrossing site, just to let us know where the book is, it can be done completely anonymously.
You don't have to read it, you can keep it or just set it free again at some stage by passing it on to a friend or simply leaving it somewhere.

Picked up at The Green Sage cafe in Templestowe.

Planning to leave out the front along the wall as part of a Bookcrossing flash mob.

I found this book in Southbank outside La Camera restaurant on 26/8/12 and, after logging on here and reading some of the comments, I wasn't inspired to pick it up. So I left it on my bedside table without reading it for a month. Eventually, however, I did pick it up and found it quite easy to read once I did. I'm not really sure what I thought of the actual story - biographies are often self indulgent. This was sad at times, other times amusing, but I found the writing style very toned down in terms of emotion. The author seemed to report what happened (as she saw it), but without much blame. I kept flicking back to the photo of Walls' parents at the front of the book and imagining them in the scenes described. It was hard to believe at times.

Released into the wild at Princes Park, Carlton - outside Optus Oval.