The Glass Castle

Why I'd hand it to you

Jeannette Walls grew up with a gifted, charming father who drank and a free-spirited artist mother who didn't seem to notice when the kids went hungry. The family moved constantly, from desert towns to a decaying house in West Virginia. Remarkably, Walls writes about her parents with humor and love, not bitterness. It is hard to forget. The neglect scenes are painful, and some readers feel the book goes too easy on parents who put their kids in real danger. If you can sit with that tension, it is a remarkable story about resilience and complicated family love.

— Matt Jordan