Memoirs of the Author

The Glass Castle

After years of a nomadic life in the southwest, the family is finally desperate enough to move back in with Rex’s parents in Welch, West Virginia. It is here that the story takes a dark(er) turn, as the children meet their abusive grandparents for the first time and begin to understand why their father left. The story follows Jeanette and her brother and sisters through their tumultuous childhood, culminating in their escape to New York City at the end of their teen years. But are they finally free of their parents?

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Angelou’s writing lends a poetry to her life that makes the terrible things somehow okay, and the good things even better. Caged Bird is stunning portrait of a young black girl’s place in not only the south, but the greater world beyond it, and is a VERY worthwhile read.

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I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.

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Heads, We Fly

“We’ve got freedom,” my husband would say, treading on eggshells. “We could take up drinking, or fly to Italy! People with children can’t do that. What’s wrong with another couple of years of freedom?” I’d furiously point out that we never did those things, and he’d drop it; his face falling. Nobody ever says “Heads, we fly to Italy. Tails, we get pregnant!”

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