“Half Broke Horses”

In her true-life novel “Half Broke Horses,” published by Scribner, Jeanette Walls recounts the story of her maternal grandmother Lily Casey Smith. “Her new book is another amazing feat of realistic storytelling based on family history,” exclaims The Huffington Post. The book is a first-person portrait of the mustang-taming, bootlegging, rancher’s wife and schoolteacher. “As a record of ranch life before and during the Depression, Wall’s book makes for a riveting read,” says The Independent. Lily is of hardy stock, and she believes there are lessons to be learned from just about anything and that you can always pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Lily winds up with a daughter who possesses an unquenchable wildness and little common sense. This is the author’s mother and her behavior had profound effects on Walls, which resulted in the startling memoir “The Glass Castle.” The latter was an examination of personal horrors, while in this book “Walls is the one figuring out what is learned, just as we are each left to make sense of how those who came before us shape who we are now,” writes the Miami Herald. Our lineage is our history and Walls animates her matriarchal line with excellent storytelling.