What's In Your Library Bag Wednesday?...

     Hello Reading Friends!! What's in Your Library Bag this fine Wednesday! Okay, so to update you on the Blind Date With A Book Program....I'm on my third book, but have put it down for a bit, so I can read something I really like. Let's call it, Getting my Romance Fix.
     That said, the second book I got was Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This book has been on my To Read list for quite some time, so I was happy to pick it. A very readable memoir, this book really makes you think about the way people live. Jeannette is one of four children; her mother is a certified teacher, but really an artist and her father seems highly intelligent but never really keeps a job. This is the story of their lives living with basically no food and no roof over their heads and moving from one town/job to another. Her parents believed that children benefited from no structure, so they were unsupervised much of the time; her earliest memory being of getting 2nd degree burns from making hot dogs by herself at age 3. Later in life, around age 10, she talks of living on basically no food and scrounging in dumpsters to survive. Her dad was an alcoholic and even though her mother was a certified teacher, she only took jobs when they were in fear of someone coming and taking the children out of the home due to neglect. When she took the jobs, she hated structure so much, her children did much of the grading of papers and assignments for her.
     Throughout the story, the reader does however feel love for these children. They spend hours on end reading books together and talking about them. Her dad dreams of one day building a glass castle for them all to live in that is totally self sustainable running on solar power. The parents just seem oblivious to what their choices in life are doing to their family. As soon as they can, all of the children leave home and move away to New York. They stay close to each other and get good jobs. By the end of the book, Jeannette is married and owns her own home in the country and obviously is an accomplished writer, while her mother is homeless in New York City. By choice. Both are happy.
     I, myself, have been heard saying how much structure stifles me. How I just can't do it. After reading this book, I begin to think how good structure really is and how a little bit of freedom can be found within that structure to make each of us happy and who we are.
     Stop in and try Blind Date With a Book. It might surprise you.