Book Report: The Glass Castle

When my mother-in-law handed me The Glass Castle she said, "You are not going to be able to put this book down."
She was right.
The memoir of a woman who grew up in abject, absolute poverty and went on to become a writer and journalist, The Glass Castle is captivating from page 1.   The stories are horrific but not in a sad way.  Walls writes of her childhood as a matter-of-fact.  The poverty in the stories is so severe that you find yourself wishing it was a joke.  Example: the family lived in a three-bedroom shack in West Virginia that had no running water so they used a bucket in the middle of the kitchen.  It rarely had electricity and never had heat.  The roof was full of straight-out holes and Brian (the brother) would sleep with a tarp over him to keep dry during the rain.  Still, the four Walls children had an amazing way of always overcoming the life they'd been given.

The Glass Castles is a run, don't walk to get and read this book.  But don't start it until you have a few hours to yourself to read because once you pick it up you will be powerless to put it down.