MY THOUGHTS:

Half Broke Horses is based on the life of Lily Casey Smith, the grandmother of Jeanette Walls (The Glass Castle). I was riveted from page one. Lily is sassy, opinionated and relies only on herself to get things done. She was born in a dirt hut and had to be resourceful from a very early age. The skills she learned early in life helped carry her through.

She was a quick thinker. When she thought that her first husband was cheating on her she went to his apartment to confirm her suspicions. His wife answered the door and she told her she was there from the census bureau. Good thinking.

Lily married in her late 20′s and had two children. She lived through the great depression, was fired from many teaching jobs (because she was always looking out for the underdog), worked hard, and worked even harder to instill good qualities in her children. Regardless of her difficult life she always tried to make the best of everything. She was the epitome of “putting on your big girl pants and dealing.”

This is a quick read and such an inspirational book. If you need a good book to read I’d recommend Half Broke Horses.

MY RATING: 5/5

DESCRIPTION:

Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” 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 who is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.