Day Two - A Book

You know when you're really tired, laying in bed reading, there are only 8 pages left to finish the book, then just 5, then 3, then you start having the 3 second blinks but you're so close! You can do it! You can stay awake! Just 2 more pages! But then, the dreaded 15 second blink and you look at the page and know you can't make it to the end. You have to put it away until tomorrow.

So, you reluctantly mark the spot you're at, shut out the light and roll over and snuggle down into the cozy warmth of your bed believing you'll finish up the last few paragraphs as soon as you wake up.

When the alarm goes off, you can't even remember that you practically fell asleep reading, you just know you only need 10 more minutes and you'll be fine, well, maybe 20, okay so 30. Then you sit up in bed in a dead panic because now you only have 30 minutes to get up and get yourself to where you need to be, and of course it will take you at least 50!

That's what happened to me last night while I was reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. I didn't not want to stop even though I knew everything worked out well for everybody, I knew the kids had gone on and done well for themselves and risen above the poverty they were raised in. I just wanted to be able to finish before I fell asleep.

I love stories about people who can rise above how they were raised, rise above tribulation, and go on to live full and happy lives. Not a life of huge amounts of wealth, but comfortable, sane (whatever that means to anyone) and contributing back to society. I love stories that make me see things I don't like to know about, because that is how I maintain and develop empathy and open my eyes to suffering and want to do something about it. I love stories where people see injustice being done, and work to stop it, even at the cost of their own lives. I like this story.

There were several things that made me like this book, I loved Ms. Walls style of writing: clearly with just the right amount of words, creatively so I could picture the different places the Walls family lived, compasionately, so I cared about Mr. & Mrs. Walls as much as I did the kids; Lori, Jeannette, Brian and Maureen. There were no chapter headings, which sometimes bothers me, but why do you need a chapter number, when all you have to do as start the next section lower on the page with a larger, bolder first letter and we all know that something different is about to go on.

I loved the sparse characterizations of the people around the Walls family. I knew enough background to either relate to or despise the character, but not so much as to take me away from the main point of the story.

I loved the feeling of catharsis I had when I finished the book, that not only Ms. Walls, but also I had had a healing moment in my own life because I read the book and participated in the lives of these 6 people.

I loved the book because my gratitude for my own life was enlarged, and strengthened. I am so grateful to have been raised by parents who were willing to sacrifice their own happiness so I could achieve mine. I have always felt appreciation, well as a child I didn't ALWAYS, for living where and how I live. To have grown up in Salt Lake and been raised by LeGrand J and Elda R Baer. They weren't perfect parents, but they did the best they knew how to do. They worked their tails of to create a life for me that was better than the one they had had.

"The Glass Castle" made me determined to be more aware of the prejudices I have and to temper them with compassion and understanding, and one day being able to be rid of them altogether.

Read this book, you'll love it, you'll hate it, you'll be warmed by it, and possibly even turned off by it, but most importantly, you won't feel "Unh" about it.