Half Broke Horses

I became a Jeanette Walls fan at the James River Writers Conference a few years ago when I heard her speak about—and read from—her memoir, The Glass Castle. I enjoyed The Glass Castle so much that I figured I'd like other books she wrote. A few weeks ago, I read—and indeed liked—Half Broke Horses.

Half Broke Horses, described as a "true-life novel" about Walls' grandmother, is pretty much a biography of Lily Casey Smith—and it's a doggone good read. Lily Casey Smith was a liberated woman before the term "liberated woman" existed. She was a cowgirl at six, a school teacher at fifteen (she rode her horse five hundred miles to take her first job), a rancher, airplane pilot, wife and mother, and survivor of various disasters.

Good reviews of Half Broke Horses abound on the Internet—The New York Times and The Washington Post are two—so I won't repeat what other reviewers have written. I enjoyed the book immensely for its content, feisty protagonist, and Walls' wonderful writing style.

In this video, Walls discusses Half Broke Horses:



I highly recommend her both her books.

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