Author Jeannette Walls creates a heartfelt retelling of her childhood in her latest book,The Glass Castle, when she and her three siblings led a nomadic life. Like something out of adventure clips from the National Geographic Channel, they pitched tents in the mountains and slept underneath the skies as they made their way through the desert towns of the American Southwest.

Walls and her siblings were brought up by unconventional parents whose values and ideals were too idealistic for practical living. Mother, Rose Mary, would paint, and read Shakespeare aloud as she justified her hatred for domestic chores. Rex, her father, was no prize either. An ingenious liar and a hopeless alcoholic, he blamed his inability to keep a job on his claims that mobsters were running the corrupted electrician’s union.

The Glass Castle is filled with hilarious but dubious moments. Rose Mary encouraged her children to do toe-touches as she believed better circulation lifts a person’s outlook. It’s a touching real life page-turner of this gossip columnist to 24-hour news channel MSNBC that sheds a heartwarming light on family ties. – BY HAJAR MANAF

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