Teaser Tuesday: The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

"Liz was one of those people who always made grown-ups, particularly teachers, go slack-jawed and use words like "prodigy" and "precocioous" and "gifted." Liz knew all these things that other people didn't know--like who the pre-Raphaelites were--because she was always reading, usually more than one book at a time." 

       p. 12, The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

From the jacket description: It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who “found something wrong with every place she ever lived,” takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.

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I really enjoyed this book. Of course, I love anything that Ms. Walls writes. Also read the fascinating NYT article, "How Jeannette Walls Spins Good Stories Out of Bad Memories."