Jeannette Walls to speak at Allegany College

Posted by Joni

I suspect that everyone in our book club is familiar with Jeannette Walls but in the event that one or two of you may have missed this amazing writer, here is a bit of background:

Jeannette Walls is the author of a heartwreching autobiography called The Glass Castle. It is the story of growing up in adject poverty, one of four children born to a mother with mental illness and a father who is the "town drunk" in a backwoods, coal town in West Virgina. Despite these circumstances, Jeannette Walls speaks of her parents in a loving, almost tender voice and she never, ever allows herself to slip into self-pity or regret. Her writing is so honest and her stories are so true to life that I read the entire book straight through, one sitting, with my mouth open in amazement. This is an an incredible, REAL (no fabrication here!) memoir.

Against all odds, Ms. Walls managed to attend and graduate from Columbia University's Barnard College with honors and she has gone on to become a very successful entertainment reporter working for MSNBC. She has been a guest of Oprah, The Today Show, CNN, and more.

Last March, Ms. Walls was a guest speaker at the Washington Street branch of the Allegany County Library. My good friend and fellow book club member, Kara, and I attended and it was wonderful. Ms. Walls is as powerful a speaker as she is a writer.

I am writing this entry tonight because I am so excited to hear that Ms. Walls is returning to speak in Cumberland! She will be at Allegany College of Maryland on Friday, April 25, 2008 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm.

The title of her lecture is "Demon Hunting and Other Life Lessons on Turning Adversity to Advantage". The lecture is free and open to the public and I absolutely plan to be there. If anyone else is interested in attending, let me know! To the best of my knowledge, you don't need to advise the college ahead of time that you are attending and this surprises me because it was standing room only at the library last year. Kara and I arrived an hour early just to get a good parking spot. We planned to leisurely stroll downtown and have a cup of coffee before walking back up to the library to hear the speaker. When we arrived, however, the library was already filling up so we grabbed some seats fast! I plan to get to ACM at least an hour early. I expect the theater to be full well before noon.

If you haven't read The Glass Castle yet, I highly recommend the read. Once you've read it, I suspect you won't want to miss hearing her speak.