Liza Rutherford reads great books and writes great stuff so I’ve asked her to chime in now and again about the books she’s reading and what she thinks is valuable, or not so, so you and I can sort through the maze of what’s out there on the bookshelves these days. Liza lives in Boston, has three grown children and is in the process of applying for an MFA program to further her writing career. We were classmates at the Vermont College Adult Degree Program for two years. We’ll be sharing two weeks next month at the Hambidge Center for the Arts & Sciences in Georgia where I’ll be working on compiling my writings for–well, still to be determined–and she’ll be working on her own memoir with a dramatic historical twist (really cool stuff!). Liza’s one of those people who lives an undaunted life–who cares deeply and gives generously. I love her and know you’ll enjoy what she has to say!

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The Glass Castle
by Jeanette Walls

A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order.
- The Glass Castle

I admit to initially being unenthusiastic about reading The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls memoir of her family life, when it was first suggested at my monthly book club. For some reason I’d developed a prejudice toward her and her story. The memory of why is already dim. I tell you this now because, courting my prejudices, I read the book anyway and discovered that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Jeanette Walls’s surprising memoir is an intimate examination of the relationships within a family, her family, which throughout this book precariously dance on, “the border between turbulence and order.” In this scene-driven wonder, Walls leads us through the stories of her childhood as the daughter of two parents, both of whom find themselves living in poverty on the fringes of society due to their own quirky aspirations, addictions, and ambitions. Alternatingly brilliant and abusive in their child rearing techniques, Rex and Rose Mary Walls justify their neglect of their children using denial exacerbated by alcoholism and undiagnosed mental illness. This is not a book about self pity but instead a book about the far reaches of love and how it can and does exist in a family regardless of its means or its level of sanity. Walls has amazing distance from her strange and sad memories which make this book a pins and needles journey for the reader. We are never told what to feel but instead simply allowed, through Wall’s expert storytelling, to live in her memories and feel them for ourselves. What a gift!