Jeannette Walls gave a talk about her memoir The Glass Castle on September 5, 2008 in Boone, NC. She discussed how she struggled with how to describe her unconventional upbringing to others and decided to just tell the truth. Walls also hoped that students who read the book would understand what it's like to grow up without many material things and that others from similar backgrounds might find hope in her story, just as she did from reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.