Search - Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

This is the second book I've read by this author and I have to say, I really like the way she writes. I feel like I'm reading a diary of a long-ago relative (though the book isn't written in diary style). It's a great story about a woman growing up in the "wild west" during the early 1900's, but she's not a "typical" woman of the era. She helps run ranches, teaches school, sells bootleg liquor from under her baby's crib to make ends meet....she just never allows anyone to fit her into a certain role or stereotype. A very entertaining book that makes you wonder how much of it is true and how much is creative writing but doesn't make you wonder why you're reading it.

Another really good book by Jeannette Walls. It's hard to believe that this is actually an account of someone's life - it is so very interesting and full of adventure. How this family survived and even thrived throughout life with so little to call their own is just amazing. This was the story of her maternal grandmother's life -- it left me still wanting to know more from her mother's perspective. It's an easy read & I highly recommend it.

A very enjoyable read about a fiercely independent, rather remarkable young woman. She faced injustice and disappointments with a stubborn determination, learning to cope early in what was then very much a "man's" world.

Good story.

I really enjoyed this book. It's the author's grandmother's stories written down in the first person. I didn't realize when I first started reading this book that it's not really fiction. Everything that happened to Lily are true. The part that is fictional are all the thoughts that the author, Lily's grand-daughter, probably didn't know and made up. Unless it was a part of the oral history told to her. There's no way to know what parts she made up and what was originally told in the oral history.

Still, I thought the format made the story much more interesting to read than straight history and since I love historical fiction, it was a great read for me.

Jeannette Walls's memoir, the Glass Castle tells the story of her life and now she brings to life her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily is a no-nonsense women who starts helping her father break horses at the age of 6. Great story of a women's resourcefulness and determination to live life and make the best of it. Wonderful portrait of a true pioneer women.