Glass Castle

"Walls has joined the company of writers such as Mary Karr and Frank McCourt who have been able to transform their sad memories into fine art." - People

Compared to Frank McCourt, I much more thoroughly enjoyed Jeannette Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle.  Though I've never read Mary Karr, so I can't compare, I did enjoy the tale of the unconventional and poverty-stricken upbringing of the Walls children by their uniquely dysfunctional parents. The Walls' parents chose an alternative lifestyle for them and their children which they saw as beneficial; the children only learned to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to break the cycle. I couldn't put down this heartfelt memoir.