Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

I became a fan of Jeannette Walls' writing after reading her first book, "The Glass Castle." I wasn't disappointed after reading her newest book, "Half Broke Horses."

The book tells the story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Walls said that the book was originally going to be about her mother, Rosemary Smith Walls who if you read "The Glass Castle", know her to be quite an interesting character. But Walls' mother said that the real character to write about was her mother, Walls' grandmother. And a character she is!

Walls tells her grandmother's story in a first-person voice and immediately you are sucked into her life. She tells us what her life was like as the oldest of three kids living on a ranch in West Texas, and her eventual move to Arizona to start her first teaching job at age 15. This move set in motion a series of several other moves in her life where she met triumphs, tribulations and tragedies.

Although the book is number 9 on the New York Times Best Seller List under Hardcover Fiction, Walls definitely captures Lily's voice. Because her grandmother died when she was 8, Walls has had to draw on her imagination to fill in missing details of Lily's life and thus her book is considered fiction.

I give the book 5 stars.