Book #15

People always ask me, "how do you have time to read, with kiddos, a household to run, and school...?"

Folks, my answer is simple. 

Those things all suffer when I find a really good book.  And for twenty-four hours, no teeth were brushed, no dinner was made, no homework was done - unless somebody else did it - while I read Half Broke Horses.

Shocking, right?

Well, I can't exactly explain why I couldn't put the book down, other than to say that from now on, when someone says the words "real life" for the rest of mine, I will forever envision the sights, sounds, smells, and truths of this book and what Lily Casey Smith lived through.  She was gritty, no-nonsense, real, and lived by lessons like:

"...even though I was getting a better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah [her hometown] I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma.  Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education.  You need a piece of paper to prove you got it."

(Funny - even back then people gave homeschoolers grief!)...

and

"I had learned a lot [in Chicago] - about myself and other people.  Most of those lessons had been hard ones.  For example, if people want to steal from you, they get you to trust them first.  And what they take from you in not only your money but also your trust."

I will also forever wonder where the moral and work ethic disappeared to that people like Lily lived by throughout the early decades of the 20th century...absolutely incredible.

The people that reviewed this book claimed it was "Little House on the Prairie" for adults.  I saw it more as a "Little House on the Prairie" reality TV show with happenings that I wouldn't have survived through the first page!

Great read with the voice of a woman you can swear you are sitting next to...no, not sipping on tea, more like slamming back a whiskey.

Thanks, Nancy, for another great book!! :)

Onward and Forward to Book #16!!!