The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not an easy going read. This week as I was reading I felt like I was just reading and not comprehending where the story is going. I have read to page 70 and still am not engaged with the book. The story line is very boring and I cannot get into the character development. I keep hearing that it gets good but I am not sure I can read anymore! I have decided to switch books to Life of Pi and will start reading tonight.

I began reading  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I as began to read I got really bored and it was not engaging at all. A friend told me to keep reading because it does get better and it is a great book. I continued to read and it started to finally get more interesting. The story was very confusing and scattered at the beginnig and now it is setting up main characters and their relationship. I have to say that it is not my favorite read at all plus it is 600 plus pages!! Hopefully by next week I will be more drawn in to the story.

Well, I finished the Glass Castle this week. It was a very sad story about the childhood of Jeannette Walls. The story then moved to her young adult life with her siblings getting out of the Appalachians and starting fresh in New York City. Their parents then pick up and move to NYC too. It details the struggles the siblings have with their relationship with their parents. Their parents choose to be homeless, poor and her father an alcoholic. They are torn but realize that they cannot change who their parents are and they take them for who they are. In the end the family drifts furthers away from each other and their father dies. The story ends at Jeannette's home for Thanksgiving, the first they have celebrated as a family for a long time.
It was a great story and good to see that children growing up in sad situations can thrive and break teh cycle and be successful adults.  The kids wanted to get out of tehir home situation so bad that they madeosome big decisions that would be scary to make, such as moving to a big city such as New York with no money and no plan. We can not choose our parents or change them and we can decide to make the best of it and the children did. There was no doubt their parents loved them but their parents did not know how to be parents.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It is an easy read and very heart wrenching too. It makes you ponder your own childhood and experiences growing up. Thankfully, I had incredible parents!
Since I am finished I will begin to read "Life of Pi".

Glass castle week 6

The Glass Castle continues this week with the story of the main character and her siblings living life as poor, outcast children with their unreliable and unfit parents. Some situations this week saddened me while reading and continue to be in shock with what I read. The childrens mom does get a teaching job again and admittely hates it. Sometimes the kids have to drag her out of bed to go to work. Their mom lvoes them but has no work ethic and is irresponsible. While this is going on their Dad disappears for days and they know that he i son adrinking binge and always find him at the local bar.
Their mom goes away for  a training for two weeks and she leaves a certain amount for the kids. Jeannette the main character is more responsible and budgets for food and other things for her and her siblings for the time their mom is gone. She also is babysitting and earns money for caring for siblings.  Their Dad comes home and the only reason he does come home is to search out more money for drinking and gambling. He then manipulates Jeannette and takes most of the money. She cannot say no to her dad. It is very heartbreaking and I cannot believe that does this. Alcoholism is a serious disease and their dad has no conscience.
One scene in the book this week, the dad takes Jeannette to the bar to try to win money. He then lets a grown man flirt with her and take her up to his apartment. She feels pressured by her Dad to go up with the guy since dad won lots of money from him. The man tries to take advantage of her and she leaves the apartment unharmed. She tells her dad what happened and he shrugs it off and says that he knew she would take care of herself.  The book sadly is reality for many children today and I cannot imagine living life so out of control as a parent.
I read three nights in a row and it is hard not to keep reading. I am getting closer to the finish and want to know how the books ends!!