The Glass Castle Audiobook By Jeannette Walls cover art

The Glass Castle

A Memoir

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The Glass Castle

By: Jeannette Walls
Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
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Buy for $19.49

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THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER—FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON

The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts. Biographies & Memoirs Memoir Essentials Relationships Women Inspiring Memoir Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Authors Art & Literature Journalists, Editors & Publishers Feel-Good Witty

Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

Featured Article The top 100 memoirs of all time
Raw Authenticity • Complex Relationships • Remarkable Resilience • Vivid Imagery • Emotional Depth • Personal Narration

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The Glass Castle is the remarkable tale of Jeannette Walls growing up with her whacky parents. It is such an entertaining, outrageous story that it is hard to believe. Assuming that it is true, Walls' youth certainly provides some framework of appreciation for me as I look back at my "boring", stable family. If it is all hyperbole, then it is an inventive memoir of a highly dysfunctional family. Either way, it is a very entertaining listen.

Like peeping through your fingers at a car wreck

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I found this book so very sad, that the parents in this true story were so self absorbed and neglected their children so horrifically. The children still loved the parents, and it made me so furious, especially at the mother. But it is well written, and very thoughtful, and as tough as the circumstances were in these lives, I still really enjoyed the book.

Pathetic child rearing.

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loved it easy to follow and an amazing story highly recommend would read it again!

amazing memoir

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How did the narrator detract from the book?

This is such a wonderful story, the reader didn't bring any personality to the characters and had the horrible habit of dropping her voice a the end of each sentence. It was so irritating I stopped listening for a couple of weeks but the story lured me back.

Great story, bad reader

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Jeanette Walls by most accounts had a hard upbringing. She tells her story with vivid details to bring you into her world. Great book of reminders how fortunate you are with the little or abundance of things. And in the end, all that matters is family.

Nicely Writen

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