Jeannette Walls used to sleep in a cardboard box and dig food out of the trash cans in the school bathrooms. Now the Barnard College honors graduate is the best-selling author of this year's Freshman Common reader, "The Glass Castle."
Freshman Connections is bringing Walls to speak to students, staff and community members at 7:30 p.m. in Emens Auditorium. The presentation is free and will be followed by an open question and answer session.
Walls worked as a gossip columnist for years before getting up the courage to write "The Glass Castle" and share even with those closest to her the truth about her impoverished past. Her memoir tells of growing up under the care of parents who provided their children with books and stars in lieu of food, clothes and indoor plumbing.
Melinda Messineo, Freshman Connections director, said a committee of students, faculty and staff associated with the freshman experience selected her memoir from a list of more than 100 titles considered for the common reader — a book all students in the incoming freshman class are given at orientation, asked to read over the summer and given a chance to discuss the first weekend they move in.
"One of the reasons this book was chosen is because Walls talks about struggling with having her own identity," Messineo said. "She's trying to define who she is and how who she is connects to her parents, but is also separate from her parents. The committee felt this is something college students experience and something that would resonate with them."
Messineo said that as far as she knows, the reception of the book on campus has been positive, and students are interested in meeting her.
Freshman exercise science major Kimberly Forsythe said she's planning to attend tonight's event.
"I want to hear her actually speak about it," Forsythe said. "The book kind of ended and I feel like she had so much more to say. The story keeps going."
Messineo said she's expecting 2,500 to 2,800 people to attend Walls' presentation, which will cost Freshman Connections about $15,000. But Messineo said paying for a speaker like Walls to come is part of the function of a university.
"At the beginning of each common author event we'll ask the question, ‘For how many of you is this the first time that you've met the author of a book that you've read?' and over 75 percent of the people will raise their hands," Messineo said. "This is a unique opportunity for students especially in this region, [where authors aren't] doing a lot of book signings or speaking engagements."
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