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Jeannette Walls
(Scribner; $14)
Jenny recommends this book to people to feel better about where they are at in life. Jeannette Walls does an amazing job of writing a haunting memoir of her life. She is so matter-of-fact and accepting of her life and her family that you really have no choice but to sit down and take inventory of what is right and wrong in your very own world and family and perhaps adjust the perspective.
Jeannette's parents were "different" and eccentric. While both parents were loving, giving and caring parents they each were independently and jointly horrifically neglectful, selfish and destructive to each child, person and the family as a whole. Growing up around the United States, Jeannette describes a life so bizarre that it's hard to really find a companison unless you, too, have had similar experiences.
Jeannette's teen years were spent deep in the heart of West Virginia coal country and the most recent mining accidents made me go over her descriptions of the cycles of poverty, abuse and hopelessness against the backdrop of natural beauty.
This is a truly haunting, insipiring and engaging memoir. Perfect for a book club. A good pick for a mature teen. We loved it.
To order this book online click here.
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