The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Some memoirs you read. This one you feel—right down in your bones.

With more than seven years on The New York Times bestseller list, Jeannette Walls’ unforgettable story has become a modern classic, and it’s easy to see why. This is the kind of book that keeps you up long past your bedtime, the one you press into a friend’s hands and say, “You have to read this.”

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption—a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant, charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother, a free spirit, abhorred domesticity and the responsibility of raising a family.

So the Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, eventually finding their way to New York. Their parents followed—choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

Called “nothing short of spectacular” by Entertainment Weekly and later adapted into a major motion picture starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts, this is storytelling at its most honest and heartbreaking.

It’s a memoir permeated by the fierce, complicated love of a peculiar but loyal family. A story about survival, forgiveness, and finding your own way in the world.

Perfect for a rainy afternoon here in the cove, with the sea just outside and a warm drink close by. Come linger over the pages. We think you’ll be glad you did.

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