half broke horses

as you know, i am the slowest reader on earth. so slow that i am still reading harry potter 2 that i started back in august. lucky for me, i found a book club entitled the slow readers and im so happy!

i really like the idea of everyone reading together and that it is not at a time crunching speed. i even finished the first book on time! actually, i finished the night before! woo hoo! and this was despite the fact that i had an awful month and a half in school that turned me into an attempting to study hermit! im VERY impressed with myself.

the first book we read was half broke horses by jeannette walls and i surprisingly enjoyed it the entire time! it is not a book i would normally pick up because part of the story is set in the depression (which always reminds me of my torturous high school english attempt to read the grapes of wrath) and also involves ranching.

walls wrote it in a memoir style from the perspective of her grandmother, lily. i loved how it began with her as a child and followed her all the way to becoming a grandmother. it made me view the depression era in a completely different light. i now have less negative thoughts towards it and made me value the strength of people in that time, especially lily (walls' grandmother). there were many events that happened in her life that could have made her shut down as a person but she remained strong the entire time. she always stuck to her values and refused to let people push her around because of them. even when she was going to be fired from her job (which happened many times) she didnt back down. she was always optimitic and knew other opportunities, and possibly better ones, would come her way regardless of the situation she found herself in. she was also a daredevil. she did not stick to the normal roles that most people felt women should stick to. she loved flying planes, she could beat the best guys at poker, and she was great at keeping the ranch running smoothly.

i really enjoyed reading this book and love how the slow readers is opening my mind to options that i would have never looked at twice. i cant wait to find out what our next book will be and to begin the journey of reading it!

love.