Jeannette Walls Books

I never wrote *The Glass Castle* to stir pity. I wrote it to help others see that even an imperfect beginning can grow into a life of strength and meaning. When I first saw my mother rummaging through a dumpster on the streets of New York, I was riding in a taxi, headed to an elegant party—a world f...

From The Glass Castle

The earliest memory I have begins with flame—the smell of hot dogs in the kitchen, the bright flare that leapt higher than I expected, and the searing pain that followed. I was three years old, cooking my own lunch because in our house, self-sufficiency was an unspoken rule. When my dress caught fir...

From The Glass Castle

We never stayed in one place for long. My father called it 'skedaddling'—our grand escapes from bill collectors, from laws, from responsibility itself. For us children, each new desert town meant another patch of earth to explore and more nights beneath the boundless stars. In Needles, Battle Mounta...

From The Glass Castle