Walls

by PATRICK BABCOCK
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Reporter

New York Times bestselling author of “The Glass Castle” Jeannette E. Walls will be in the Town of Boone today at 10 a.m. to speak at fall Convocation at the Holmes Convocation Center.

“Convocation helps students get familiarized with the faculty, and helps bring freshmen together and develop a community mind-set,” Martha E. Eskridge, sophomore special education major and AppolCorps leader said.

Walls is visiting through Appalachian’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series in conjunction with the Summer Reading Program.   

“The Glass Castle” is a memoir outlining Walls’ unconventional upbringing, extreme poverty, neglect, abuse and her struggle to persevere.

“Ms. Walls wrote a compelling memoir about her childhood and her family. I think we can all relate to loving our families but sometimes being disappointed by them,” Kay E. Taylor said.

Taylor is a member of the summer reading committee and will introduce Walls during convocation.      

In the book, Walls wanders with her nomadic and neglectful family around the country and lives in various impoverished areas. She finally decides to emancipate herself and move to New York to attend Barnard College and become a writer. 

She now lives in Virginia with her husband, writer John Taylor.

“It’s my little, funny story… this is just my past,” Walls said. “That it somehow became a bestseller is just a little bizarre.”

“The Glass Castle” has been on the on the New York Times Bestsellers Paperback Nonfiction list for 133 weeks, according to nytimes.com.

“There are these things we keep to ourselves out of shame,” Walls said. “I’m not saying we have to go around revealing our innermost secrets to everyone we meet, but one of the lessons that I hope I’ve learned is that if you carry around something… cut yourself a little slack.”

Walls has spoken at several colleges around the nation including Boston College and Moravian and is now bringing her message to Appalachian.

Walls is also the author of “Dish: How Gossip Became the News and the News Became Just Another Show,” a comprehensive look into the history of gossip columns.

Walls wrote a gossip column for MSNBC.com entitled The Scoop for nearly eight years.

She published her last column on July 26, 2007.

She now focuses solely on writing books.

Several students around campus have mixed feelings on the book. Many agreed the book was compelling, but very disheartening at the same time.

“I wasn’t really a fan of the book,” Kelly L. Allaband, a freshmen elementary education major said. “It made me want to cry a lot of the time. I thought it was very depressing.”

Other freshmen related better to the book and found it to be gripping.

“I really liked the book,” Jeffrey A. Remien, freshmen marketing and finance major said. “I found minor similarities because of my current economic hardships, and the fact that my family has also moved around a lot allowed me to relate to the kids.”

“It poses important questions about dreams and dreads, aspirations and fears and how to follow one’s life’s path amidst really difficult circumstances,” Summer Reading Program Director Emory V. Maiden Jr. said.

“We are really thrilled to have Jeannette Walls and this particular book to be our summer reading book,” Director of Materials for the Summer Reading Program, Janet K. Beck said.

“This book in particular seems to speak to students and connect to them in personal ways,” Beck said.  “It’s a story of triumph in spite of great adversity, and I think it speaks to all of us as human beings.”

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