'Half Broke Horses' is the remarkable true-life novel by Jeannette Walls that tells the story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, a woman who embodies the spirit of the American West. With a life that begins by helping her father break horses at the tender age of six, Lily is a force to be reckoned with. By fifteen, she rides alone for five hundred miles to reach her teaching job in a frontier town. A woman ahead of her time, Lily also learns to drive a car, pilot a plane, and, alongside her husband Jim, manages a vast ranch in Arizona, all while raising two children, including Rosemary Smith Walls—Jeannette's mother. Lily's life is marked by resilience in the face of natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, as well as personal tragedies. She confronts the prejudices of her time with an unyielding spirit, and Jeannette Walls brings her grandmother's remarkable character vividly to life, evoking the untamed beauty of the American frontier with authenticity and poignancy. This true-life novel, which stands as a testament to indefatigable courage, is as moving and compelling as the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Isak Dinesen, and Beryl Markham.