Glass Castle and Other Thoughts

Hi all! Merri, I'm sorry it has taken me this long to respond to your post. My other grandma died last Tuesday (my first grandma died three weeks ago), and Maddie and I were out of town all weekend attending her funeral with my family in Idaho. It's been a crazy, emotional week, and unfortunately it's not over. My first grandma's memorial service is this coming Saturday, so we're gearing up emotionally to do this all over again in six days. Wild.

Anyway, I loved your comments about The Glass Castle. This book is so powerful, and as Cheryl said last Tuesday, if it was fiction, you would think "This author went way too far; there is no way any family could be this dysfunctional." But it's totally true! Crazy. This was my second time reading it, and I found this time I was a lot more forgiving and sympathetic to the parents. Not sure why, as my child-welfare-lens typically makes me want to club neglectful parents over the head and ship them to a desert island somewhere. Nevertheless, I saw lots of ways that they built those kids' self-esteem and nurtured them emotionally despite the glaring physical neglect. I was, however, really angered by the mom's response to the uncle trying to molest Jeanette. That might have been the only time I thought there was just no excuse for her. Great book. We had a good discussion and marveled at how Jeanette turned out even remotely functioning :)

As far as next month's book goes: I chose Out of Africa by Karen Blixen. I have read it twice, the first time being when I was living in Kenya, and the book is very close to my heart. I identify very powerfully with her experience--a white woman with no connection to Africa arriving (somewhat haphazardly) in Kenya only to discover, rather quickly, that her soul feels at home there. Her writing is not the most consistent writing you'll ever read, but she has moments of poetry that are just beautiful--the way she describes the land and the people. It's primarily a love story between her and the land, but it's also a love story between she and Denys (which the movie focuses on a bit more than the book. I also love the movie. I hope to show a few clips when the girls are here in November). Anyway, please join us in reading it if it sounds good to you! If not, no worries :)

Hope everyone is well. Cheryl, if you could post that recipe for the chicken soup you made us, I would greatly appreciate it! I'm in full "soup mode" over here and am making all the yummy soups I can find.