Our book club was small this month, but as always, the conversation was quality. November’s theme was “a book about a family.” It should be noted that the theme was not “a book about a GOOD family,” or “a book about a healthy, functional family…” because it wasn’t any of those things.
The Glass Castle was an extremely good read, although it was full of heartache and themes of disappointment and self-sabotage (at least on the part of the parents.) All the children wanted to do was better themselves and fit in to their communities, although it was later acknowledged that all the families in the West Virginia town of Welch were struggling… but the Walls family just couldn’t hide it as well.
Tyler, Emily and I all acknowledged feeling privileged that our own upbringings were easier, and we didn’t worry about not having food as the kids in the story did. Tyler pointed out that their lack of warm clothes is still to this day a problem for kids in our home state of WV in winter. The book jacket describes The Glass Castle as “a memoir of resilience and redemption…” and it was certainly that. Overall, The Glass Castle was the best book I’ve read in a while, and I thank Elise for picking it.
December’s theme is “A book to curl up and read by a fireplace.” While I had a longer book in mind, we are meeting before the Christmas holiday, so we had to go with one shorter. On December 19th we’ll meet again to discuss The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.
Jaime Williams 