You Should Be Reading This, Too

I've been on a bit of a memoir kick lately, so I was pleased to see in today's Books section of the Globe "Local bestsellers" list that number 5 on the nonfiction paperback list is Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle. I've written about this book before, but it bears a second mention.

Walls, the "Scoop" columnist for MSNBC, climbed out of the direst poverty in the hills of West Virginia to carve out the life she has today. Her parents appear to have been simultaneously truly loving and grossly irresponsible, allowing their children to go days on end with little or no food despite having the resources to provide for them. Throw some mental illness in the mix, and you get some hair-raising episodes. And yet Walls--who, along with her siblings, realized at a fairly young age that she'd need to leave her parents to survive in this world--holds an abiding love for her mother and father. They're her parents, after all.

An amazing story, beautifully told. Take a cue from your fellow Boston-area readers and keep this one on the local bestseller list.