Here you are...the transcript for our book club chat about The Glass Castle.
In spite of the link that ate the chat room, we had a great visit and discussion about this book.
I think that killer link was just so long that it wouldn't fit into the parameters of the chat page. It might have something to do with the capacity of the system to accept links that long.
When I tried to post it on the thread about this book, the system wouldn't allow it to post in it's entire length there either. Odd, very odd.

Thanks, Colleen!
She saw my predicament and just sent me the directions to creating a tiny link from a massive one like I tried to post for you. I've inserted the tiny link along with the killer link in the transcript. Hopefully this makes it easier for you to find the right website without being swamped by a very long web address.
So, enjoy! Here's our conversation:


BGE: Hi, book lovers. It's time for our monthly chat about books!
This week, we are discussing The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Hi, Panda! Welcome to book chat!

Panda: Nearly missed this - luckily I looked at your post regarding the time and saw your time difference had changed!

BGE: I'm happy to see you...I was thinking I maybe should have sent PM's or more notice for everyone. I've been so busy that I really didn't let get the reminders out earlier like I should have.

Panda: Well, those who were there last time would have made a note - and they are the ones who will have read the book recently!

BGE: Yep, I agree with you. Hopefully, others will join us, and we can talk about the book or reschedule the chat, whichever works best for you!

Panda: We're still a few minutes off…

BGE: Yes, so we can wait for a few minutes. Terry (teaberry) cannot come. She just received the book as well, so hasn't finished it yet. Boy, my typos are bad today! (NOTE* All typos corrected, hopefully )

Panda: Not so much a circle as a small arc!

BGE: Hi, Ginger, now there are 3 of us!

Panda: Greetings!

BGE: I have both screens open for both chat rooms just in case someone drops by the Everyday Chat ...Hi! Yoo-hoo!

suncoast: Sorry, Craig just got back from visiting Sonnet and I went and got my book.

BGE: Nice to see everyone here. Panda stayed up late for us!
Sonnet is with you? And a huge “Hi” to Jill! I hope I don't keep cutting out of chat like last time...

Panda: Not too bad - 8p.m.

suncoast: No, she just got back to Gainesville from Atlanta! She was there working with Habitat and in Women's Shelter for her spring break. She was not hurt by the tornados but it was very scary.

BGE: You must have been worried about her...

suncoast: We had Zamir our Grandfid (feathered kid) and Craig had to drive her back home. I was very worried, but all is well.

BGE: That was a scary thing in Atlanta...I had no idea until I watched the news.

suncoast: It hit 2 blocks over from where she was staying.

BGE: Yikes!

BGE: So, has everyone finished The Glass Castle?

softdrink: Yep.

suncoast: Yes.

Panda: et moi!

BGE: Let's start, and Jill, will you lead off, please?

softdrink: Oh, the pressure.

BGE: hahahaha! Cut and paste like Panda did last time!

Panda: I'm going to try again.

BGE: Good for you!

softdrink: I really liked the book. I liked how she didn't succumb to self pity and still managed to tell it like it was. I liked the shift in tone as she got older. I liked her honesty.

suncoast: I love your color Panda

BGE: Jill, can I ask what you thought of the parenting she received?

Panda: I was so impressed by the interview that Brenda gave us a link to - she seemed so balanced.

BGE: VERY balanced!

suncoast: I wouldn't exactly call it parenting. I thought it sucked. Although I had moments where I was impressed by the parents creativity (remember the stars for Christmas?), I was still appalled by how, um, I can't think of a word...lackadaisical parents they were.

BGE: No doubt. But the amazing thing is that some of the kids survived.
Since there are a few of us, shall we just chat, not bother with turns? Sometimes I think that stifles conversation. Anyone mind if we do that?

softdrink: Nope, not me.

BGE: So post away!

suncoast: Me neither.

BGE: Ok, good.

Panda: They gave them intellectual 'food,' but failed in most of the other respects of care.

softdrink: I was surprised by how well the three oldest survived and thrived as adults.

suncoast: I think they had two choices, sink or swim.

BGE: I agree...their parenting sucked. I was horrified most of the time while reading

Panda: I'm going to paste something that jumped out at me as I read it: Page 84 (after talking about scavenging, eating margarine and saying they were hungry) "Mom gave me a startled look. I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure."

suncoast: They were obviously mentally unstable. I can't think why no one noticed.

BGE: I missed that, Panda, that's good!

BGE: The funny thing in my book club...most of us thought that, but 3 people thought the parents were "innovative, inventive and creative."

BGE: Those 3 people were standing up for the PARENTS!

softdrink: I had a harder time with the mom than the dad...although at the end, when he stole the girls' money, that pi$$ed (can I say that?) me off.

suncoast: They were selfish, narcissitic egomaniacs.

Panda: The mother was teacher, but was still willing to see her children starve, so she could indulge her ‘art’ – breaks the first rule of parenthood, that protection of children comes above all else. I knew a sad girl as a teenager, dragged around by her mother trying to make it as actress(mother), when all hope really had faded. Brave face of bohemian life but desperately wanted some stability.

The mother also had a share in valuable land, but refused to sell, although it would have meant so much to the family.

BGE: And the mother could have saved everyone's butts by teaching! She was a teacher and there are JOBS for them. That would have fed everyone.

softdrink: I think narcissistic is the perfect word to describe the mom. When he set his daughter up to be pawed by his pool buddies, that was the last straw for her….and me.

BGE: Ginger, I agree..he pimped her, basically. Sad, sad, sad.

suncoast: She also was sitting on an enormously valuable piece of property.

BGE: YES!

Panda: A lot of the father's actions came from drinking - but the mother’s wasn't - so what was going on with her?

BGE: Food, clothing shelter, the basics of humanity and they did not provide ANY of those properly.

Panda: My jaw dropped when I read about the valuable land.

suncoast: I find nothing redeeming about them, but what I do find interesting was that their daughter's fullfilled the Mom's dream. Lori was an artist and Jeanette a writer.

softdrink: In today's world (at least in my county) those kids would have been yanked from the parents sooo fast. Good point...I never made that connection, Ginger.

BGE: Stealing their money, feeding them nothing, no running water, no clean clothes..unforgiveable, yet she seems to have forgiven them. That's interesting Ginger...I never thought of it.

suncoast: There ideas on what was acceptable were weird. Lori couldn't get glasses because it would make her eyes weak.

softdrink: I remember the dad being disappointed in the son's choice of career with the police.

BGE: The strange thing is that Jeannette has said she has great self confidence today. How come?

suncoast: She has balls. She needed them to survive

BGE: I would think she'd not have any. If parents don’t value their kids, the kids don't value themselves.

softdrink: And she had brains…and an enormous capacity for love and forgiveness

BGE: No kidding. What an amazing child and adult she was…and is.

Panda: The parents were obviously intelligent - but not emotionally intelligent

BGE: Worlds apart...they are worlds apart today. Did you watch the video clips of the interviews with Jeannette and her mom?

suncoast: She was also loyal to the death. I don't think I could be as accepting if I had lived through that. No, I didn't Brenda. Are they in the thread?

Panda: I missed that - I'll go back to see it later

softdrink: I didn't either.

BGE: Yes, there is a couple of video clips with her and her mom today. Her mom is still the flake, painting, not selling, dreaming about a huge success for herself.

suncoast: Maureen didn't make it though.

BGE: Nope, and that's the sadness. I think that each child suffers with different sorrows.

softdrink: No...did you read the dedication? Not the dedication...the acknowledgements

BGE: No, I will, be back in a moment.

softdrink: I thought it was interesting the order she acknowledged her sibs...her brother first, then Lori, and then she said she would always love Maureen.

BGE: Do you know if they are not in contact?

softdrink: I don't know, but it doesn't sound like it

Panda: Reading it now - what an extraordinary forgiveness!

suncoast: I know this sounds terrible, but all I could think of was the stereotype of poor white trash.

BGE: Maybe the father pulled the same stunts on the youngest and she didn't survive like Jeannette did.

suncoast: They trashed the house in Phoenix to live in a falling down shack in Welch.

softdrink: I can't believe they just walked away from Phoenix!

BGE: Jeannette is amazing...that kind of forgiveness is so necessary for HER to survive and to not be consumed by the anger and the rage that would be so understandable.

Panda: The mother's background seemed different to the father's.

BGE: That's the perfect description of the necessity of forgiveness to make it through.

suncoast: I would bet money the mother had some kind of diagnosable mental illness.

softdrink: The mother almost had a sense of entitlement...that she could just do whatever SHE wanted, no matter the impact on others.

suncoast: The candy bar incident was so sad.

BGE: I think the father had a really rough upbringing, and maybe the mom had it better, do you think maybe?

softdrink: Yes, Brenda, I agree.

suncoast: Yes, his mother was from hell

BGE: I actually understood the dad better than I understand the mother.

Panda: I agree, Brenda

softdrink: Yes, you can see where his problems/issues come from.

BGE: I had more compassion for him, because he did make attempts to change, the mother never made any attempts to change a thing.

suncoast: But what was incredible was that they told them they made the entire thing up.

BGE: My birth mother married someone a little like Rex, and I understand him, so that gave me a point of reference for Rex.

Panda: Actually, we don't get to see so much of her background - there was obviously more affluence.

BGE: Ginger, what was made up?

suncoast: That the Grandmother molested Brian

BGE: I missed THAT!

softdrink: Grandma had major issues!

BGE: Yikes! No kidding.

Panda: Reminded me of the last book, when the molestation of the older sister was dismissed.

suncoast: It was when the parents went back to Phoenix to see what they could salvage.

softdrink: Remember when the parents went back to Phoenix and left the kids with the grandparents?

BGE: ok, and...yes....

softdrink: Jinx Ginger!

suncoast: LOL

softdrink: Go ahead...

suncoast: I was so glad that their hard work paid off in NYC.

BGE: Can you imagine the courage it took to leave home? When the home is that poor, that dysfunctional, usually the children cannot leave. Ever.

suncoast: Maureen...

softdrink: But didn't Maureen spend high school with Lori in NY?

suncoast: They had each other, that's how they survived.

BGE: I also thought the father showed some kind of amazing courage to tie himself to the bed to stop drinking. NO HELP for him from the mom, though. She almost seemed to laugh it off. Seems like there is no compassion or empathy there at all.

suncoast: Yes, but it was too late by then. They tried to get everybody out but she was just not as resilient. Both of them never wanted to work.

softdrink: No, but dad sure had some grand ideas (the glass castle) not to mention some paranoid tendencies.

Panda: I can understand that people get used to living on the streets and find it difficult to leave, in a way, but they seemed to 'choose' it.

suncoast: Do you think he's John Nash's alter ego?

softdrink: Who is John Nash?

suncoast: A Beautiful Mind

softdrink: Oh, yeah...I know who that is, just never saw the movie.

BGE: Oh, maybe...why do you think that?

suncoast: Both were brillant, John won his battle and Rex didn't.

BGE: The father must have been a brilliant man, but so damaged and so unable and unprepared to support a family and married the worst possible person for him.

softdrink: I think he had charisma and she admitted to being an excitement junkie.

Panda: They were locked into such a destructive relationship - destructive to their children as well as too each other.

BGE: Panda that says it all, doesn't it. The mother seemed like a drama queen...if there's no drama they will create it to feel comfortable. I know a few of those!

softdrink: Me too...they always have to live in crisis.

Panda: So do I.

suncoast: She hated her mother with a passion. Her entire existence was devoted to flouting everything her mother stood for.

BGE: You think that's why she was so neglectful?
Of course, none of US are DQ's.

softdrink: Princess maybe, but not queen.

BGE: Same, Jill!

suncoast: It looks like she had a conventional wedding with all the trimmings.

BGE: Yeah, the photo in the front of the book...it is amazing. They look like any other newly married couple, clean, well-groomed and then...what happened?

suncoast: Alcohol.

Panda: I don't have photos in my edition - are there many?

softdrink: Just the wedding photo in the beginning.

Panda: What was wrong with the maternal Grandmother - she treated the children well.

softdrink: Maybe the wedding was her mom's doing?

suncoast: And her ideas of family values. Trying to buy the other half of the land she never cared about for 1 million bucks. She was definitely loopy.

softdrink: I don't think there was anything wrong with maternal grandma...they were just two very different people.

BGE: I thought the grandmother was not so bad...it must have been a horror for her to see what was going on.

suncoast: Jinx.

softdrink: you owe me a coke…

suncoast: With rum.

softdrink: hahahaha

BGE: looking on the internet for the photo, Panda...back in a moment...

suncoast: All in all a very disturbing and harrowing tale

softdrink: It very much reminds me of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight...only the mom was actually diagnosed at the end of that story.

suncoast: I am such a cynic, because I kept thinking, I hope this doesn't turn out to be another "A Million Little Pieces."

Panda: There are many tales of hopeless lives lived in poverty - but this is distinguished by the fact that it was almost willful - there always was the land.

softdrink: Ginger, I thought of James Frey through so much of that book!

BGE:http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/associates/kskibbie/jeannettewallsphoto.
jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/associates/kskibbie/2007/07/the_glass_castle.asp&h=300&w=400&sz=116&hl
=en&start=7&sig2=R7lHcpVvNpaJ46tNHBXgwQ&um=1&tbnid=GTZ8M9jb56NbfM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&ei=M4XdR4ftAY24gQPckNS-Cw&prev=
/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bglass%2Bcastle%2B%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US%3Cimg%20src=

Interview with Jeannette Walls

suncoast: WTH!!

BGE: Yikes! It's a long one!

Panda: Blimey

softdrink: I'm afraid to click

suncoast: LOL

BGE: ANYWAY, she has a speaker’s company that reps her and there is her link...looks pretty crappy to me.
Sorry! I'm scared to try to post it again!!!!!!

suncoast: I can't believe they all survived into adulthood

softdrink: I like the screaming face superimposed over the link!!!

suncoast: Very appropriate!

BGE: This is hilarious! How to break the mood of a great book talk! Sorry, sorry, sorry!

suncoast: No, it's great!

softdrink: That's okay, we were talking about James Frey, so it fits.

Panda: James Frey?

suncoast: After you, Jill.

softdrink: The ‘A Million Little Pieces’ author who was "outed" for making up much of his memoir
There's a new term for it...fakoir, I think it is

Panda: Ah - there have been a couple of those.

suncoast: Oprah read him the riot act on her show

softdrink: I actually liked that book, too.

BGE: You know, I read that book and although he was caught up in his story, I thought Oprah was more pi$$ed at herself for getting taken than she was at him for doing the taking.

suncoast: I love her.

BGE: I thought her public lashing of him on her show was unfair, actually…

softdrink: Embarrassing moments, and all that.

suncoast: She is always so concerned with authenticity and when this great book that could have helped millions of people, endorsed by her exactly for that reason, is proven a fake. She stepped up to the plate and called him on it.

Panda: Difference between 'Don't Let’s Go to the Dogs' and this is that the Fuller father was not work-shy - he was always ready to take on another challenge and knew his job.

softdrink: True. Both parents were hard workers. It's just the alcohol and the living conditions that make me compare them.

BGE: And, they took care to feed their kids and clothe them and take them to good schools and all that stuff that makes a parent a good parent. That’s the difference for me with Bo Fuller's life was that I thought there were similarities, but Bo’s family was a loving family and they showed it.

suncoast: Yes, these parents loved themselves first and then their kids. And some of BoBo's Mom's problems were not diagnosed.

BGE: Yes, Ginger, agreed.

softdrink: I'm reading Scribbling the Cat...the parents are no longer in a real house.

BGE: Is the book as good?

softdrink: I'm only about 20 pages into it, and I wouldn't recommend reading it while eating, but so far, so good. I'll bring it to Savannah for you.

suncoast: The only thing I can give them credit for was that they did not take charity, even when they should have.

softdrink: The family could have used food stamps, but their pride got in the way.

Panda: False pride, when your children aren't eating.

BGE: I think the family should have taken something from social services...might have helped, but then again..maybe not. At least the kids might have been fed, clean and clothed.

suncoast: Also what I found interesting was that the unteachable kids in her first job actually improved under her methods.

softdrink: And, maybe a fear of the gov't played into it

BGE: It's all about the children for me, always, every single time.

suncoast: Good point.

softdrink: Ginger, I'm surprised she got a teaching credential, she's so unorganized!

BGE: I really don't understand not doing it for your kids.

suncoast: Me, either. I would have taken them out of there so fast.

softdrink: I'm still baffled by why they even had kids, they were both so selfish.

suncoast: Too lazy to use birth control

BGE: I wondered if she was not so weird at the beginning of her life and gradually withdrew into that world of hers as the burdens grew larger, marriage to a tough guy to be married to, kids one after the other...overload? Maybe.

Still, my daughter has 5 children and she's as loving and caring a mom as you could want. I want her to be MY mom!

suncoast: Or to have their own little band of followers, the chance to bring them up uncorrupted by society.

Panda: There is a story in the English papers at the moment about a 15 year old UK girl murdered in Goa. What the papers are concentrating on now is that the mother took her 9 children on one 6 month holiday to India and paid for it by the family living on rice and little else for 6 months before. Echoes of a badly focused idea of what matters to children’s upbringing..

suncoast: They both had big enough egos to want worshippers.

BGE: Maybe, Ginger...still, I don't think the mom even gave that any thought. Seems like she had those kids and then lived her life in her own world, not caring about anyone outside of herself. No empathy.

Panda: Saved for it out of welfare benefits, I may add

suncoast: Once you have kids you no longer belong just to yourself.

BGE: Panda, that's stunning. WHY do people think they can treat their kids like that?
9 kids, rice only????? Arrrrgggghhh....
Panda, where was the child murdered, in India?

Panda: The girl got left in the 'care' of some people they didn't know, whilst the rest of the family went to some other beaches. Yes, in Goa - South India - bit of a hippy paradise.

BGE: Unreal...shades of Jim Jones and his commune in Africa.

suncoast: We seem to be on a role with bad parenting. Our next book is
The Poisonwood Bible, right?

BGE: Yes, The Poisonwood Bible...better lifestyle but religious-addicted parents, IMHO.

softdrink: That's how I remember the book...I read it years ago.

suncoast: That is one creepy book, IMO.

BGE: Shall I choose a feel-good book, instead?

suncoast: Yes, lets.

Panda: Maybe a change of tack?

softdrink: Yes please!

BGE: Leave the PWB for later?

suncoast: I love it, but I think we do need a change

BGE: OK, I'll check the list, and be back in a mo...any suggestions for a feel-good book?

softdrink: I can't think of what's on the list

BGE://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kepple...sociates/kskibbie/%3
CBR%3Ejeannettewallsphoto.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/associates/kskibbie/2007/07/
%3CBR%3Ethe_glass_castle.asp&h=300&w=400&sz=116&hl=en&start=7&sig2=R7lHcpVvNpaJ46tNHBXgwQ&um=
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Interview with Jeannette Walls

BGE: Nope, still not working!!! Hahahaha!

Panda: Again, s’trewth!

suncoast: WTH!!!

softdrink: The Scream is back

suncoast: LOL
So Panda are you coming to Savannah?

Panda: Sadly, no - family commitments for that particular week. I am very envious.

suncoast: Darn

Panda: Would have been great to meet everyone.

suncoast: XXOOX

Panda: We had a London GTG a couple of weeks ago for Judy -AKA Tourmama - she is so nice.

BGE: The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

suncoast: I haven't had the pleasure, but I have never been disappointed at any GTG I've attended.

Panda: Well, The Lovely Bones isn't exactly feel good....

softdrink: The Lovely Bones is good, but depressing.

BGE: Not a lot of happy books here!!!!!

suncoast: Well $#@!, the only one that isn't depressing, sort of, is The Secret Life of Bees!

BGE: Any ideas? I can add Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. Loved it totally.

softdrink: I agree with Ginger. What's the Scipio book about?

Panda: Is it about bees?

suncoast: The Dream of Scipio sounds like historical fiction. Scipio Africanus was the Roman General who defeated Hannibal.

BGE: Lovely Bones is about a 14 year old girl who was murdered by a pedophile of sorts, and the story is about her watching her family struggle with her murder while she's sitting in heaven. Happy, happy, happy……

suncoast: I know, lets read Wicked!

BGE: What is Wicked?

softdrink: It's a kick in the pants!

Panda: I'm getting leaned on by my husband to allow him some keyboard time (and my brother phoned to tell me about his honeymoon in luxury in Italy - sigh - so I have to phone him back) so I must go in a minute.

suncoast: The untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. It's the book the play is based on and I have heard it's really good.

BGE: ok, Panda...a quick bit about Wicked, please? Shall we try it? I’m up for that. Luxury in Italy...yum!

suncoast: I think the author is Gregory McGuire?

softdrink: I've read it...it's good. A bit deep in parts, but not insurmountable.

Panda: Sound different - and fun.

BGE: Ok, not so darkdarkdark as these last ones?

suncoast: Yes, tell us, I haven't read it.

BGE: So, that's it, then...Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

suncoast: Please check for the spelling, I may have got it wrong.

softdrink: I read it when it first came out, so it's been awhile...he has quite a few books...all re-told fairytales. I think it's McGuire. It is Gregory.

Panda: When?

BGE: EVERYONE DUCK!!!!! AGAIN!!!!! Here comes the link!
Wicked by Gregory Maguire!

softdrink: Well done!

BGE: hahahaha...gotcha!

softdrink: But where's the screamer, I miss it.

suncoast: Is it a fun read? A break from bad parents? LOLLOLLOL

softdrink: Hold on, give me a minute to go look.

BGE: ok, Panda, thanks for joining us...Ginger, happy to see you here. Jill, good to chat again! As always, a lovely way to spend my afternoon.

BGE: Happy now?

suncoast: You’re bad! I'll bet you're related to the very misunderstood WW of the W

BGE: The Day of the Killer Link...this day will go down in infamy!

softdrink: Hah! There is bad parenting in the book, but it's fiction...I can't remember the end.

Panda: Great time - look forward to the next one (Panda being dragged off office chair by ear.....) Bye!

suncoast: $#@!

BGE: (cackle, cackle) I'm stirring my cauldron of witch's brew as we speak, my darlings!

softdrink: Bye!

suncoast: bye!

BGE: Bye, Panda! Thanks for coming by...

softdrink: It is a fun read...I went as Elphaba, the main character for Halloween, once. No one got it.

suncoast: So are we going with Wicked?

BGE: Yup, it works for me.

softdrink: I say yes...it's different and should be an interesting discussion.

suncoast: Okay, gotta go! Love you Guys.

BGE: So, SAVANNAH! SOON!!!!!!!

BGE: Bye, Ginger!

softdrink: Woo-hoo!!!!! I got your PM this morning...sounds like a good plan.

BGE: Jill, are you ready for Savannah?

softdrink: So, so, so ready.

BGE: Thanks for showing up today! It was great, as usual and WICKED? Great idea!

softdrink: Thanks for another great chat! You're the bomb!

BGE: Thanks, same to you! Take care, we'll talk again...see you in the Big S!