Half Broke Horses

I recently finished the book Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and my feeling after finishing the book is that I can’t wait to read it again.  I very rarely find pleasure in reading a book more than once but I am excited about this one.  This book was simply amazing!  It has jumped into the top 5 of favorite books I have read.  It is titled a “true life novel” and it tell the story of the authors grandmother and her life.  As usual, Amazon does a great job summing it up.  Here is what Amazon shares:

“So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town—riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds—against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa or Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.”

I cannot begin to recommend this book enough.  I have leant it to Mom/Cindy and I hope she loves it just as much as I did.  The details, the relationship that is naturally formed between the reader and Lily and all the adventures she has is thrilling.  I think that anyone would enjoy this book even if they are not terribly interested in the southwest lifestyle.  At the least I believe it would form a sense of respect for women of that day and age.  Read this book, I hope you love it as much as I did!