My choice for a book club selection is ½ Broke Horses by
Jeannette Walls.
Here is a brief summary from the website BOOKRAGS:
""Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette
Walls is a work of fiction touted as being a "true life novel." The
main setting of "Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette Walls is located in
western Texas. The Casey family lived on High Lonesome, a ranch in the heart of
a difficult land. Lily describes the property: "When you looked out across
the land, most everything you could see - the horizon, the river, the fence
lines, the gullies, the scrub cedar - was spread out and flat, and the people,
cattle, horses, lizards, and water all moved slowly, conserving
themselves."
From a young age, Lily was the kind of
person who took charge. She took care of her siblings, broke horses, trained
horses, and did every farm chore that needed to be done. There was nothing that
Lily Casey couldn't do.
Lily's life was filled with turbulence
often turned into opportunities. She landed several teaching jobs before she
was certified. Lily also had run-ins with many different people - some of whom
were trying to assert their manliness while others do not understand or
appreciate Lily's outspoken ways. Lily got fired often.
It was Lily Casey Smith's amazing life that
caused her granddaughter, Jeannette Walls to forgo her original plans of
writing a novel about her mother and to focus instead upon on her grandmother,
a true pioneer."
I have always loved biography, historical type books.
Many of Lily’s teaching positions were here in Arizona so I especially like
reading about the 1900’s in AZ. You will feel very pampered when you read what
she had to do on a daily basis just to exist!
I am very passionate about
having good relationships with my daughters (actually all my children) so it
saddens me that people have those bizarre family dynamics. It amazes me
that Lily could not develop any compassion or even concern about Rose
Mary. However, I did think that Lily was an amazing woman.
What a pioneer! She had a lot of determination and courage.
Enjoy!
Kathy
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