Jeannette Walls at Book Passage - What a Treat

Joni and I saw Jeannette Walls last night at Book Passage in Corte Madera.  It took us 1:45 in Friday afternoon commute traffic to get there.  And guess what?  It was worth every minute of it.  Jeannette is promoting her 3rd book, and 1st pure novel, The Silver Star (her 2nd book, Half-Broke Horses, is a combination of facts she learned about her grandmother from her own mother and some imagining on Jeannette's part).  Lots of people (including me) bought The Silver Star and had it signed.  But, really, most people were there because of her 1st book, the memoir The Glass Castle.  Let me give you a few facts about The Glass Castle that I learned last night:

1.  4 million copies sold world-wide
2.  Translated into 31 languages
3.  On the NY Times bestseller list for 6 years (that is NOT a misprint)

The Glass Castle is so good that it's on my top 12 ALL-TIME! (take a look at my post from March 12, 2013 for a complete list - you know you want to see it).

So what was the format last night?  Well, many authors read from their new books, but Jeannette decided not to do that.  She spoke about her life.  She gave all of us insight into her family, what led to her writing The Glass Castle, and what has happened since.  It was mesmerizing (it was like listening to Beth Hoffman).  Jeannette is an excellent speaker (I know this because I stayed awake during the entire talk!).  And the whole audience (between 100-125 people) was just fascinated to learn all about her.  I won't go into the details here, but if you want to know more about her life since the writing of the book, let me know, and I'll put out another post.

That's basically it.  Love author events and loved this one more than most.

P.S.  I read The Silver Star from Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, as an ARC and will be reviewing it in the next couple of weeks.  But I liked it and gave it a 3 out of 4.