Half Broke Horses

Melanie Brooks + Jeannette Walls = TLA.

I wish.

I fell so deeply in love with Jeannette's (yes we're on a first name basis) The Glass Castle that I almost 86'd a friend from my life because she kept forgiving to bring the copy I loaned her back to me. We have since reconciled and the book is happily back on my bookshelf, tucked in between Me Talk Pretty One Day and The Worst Hard Time.

I do have to confess that I bought this book with the intention of giving it away as a Christmas present. I was out of reading material and thought I could covertly read this novel and THEN gift it away. I have been very careful to not break the binding and I haven't dog-earred one single page.

But the book became my friend. Lily Casey Smith, the narrator and Jeannette's grandma, is too fun to give away. I can't. The book is now mine. I am happy about this.

But one thing makes me think -- and that is, how did my friend Jeannette know what her grandma talked like? Lily has a very pronounced way of talking and uses certain words in her conversation. He has a definite voice. Did Jeannette know this voice or did she make it up? I always wonder this when I read books like this. I wonder how realistic it all is. I mean, I believe the things that happened really happened -- I don't think Jeannette is making up her grandmother's life -- but was her grandmother REALLY this plucky woman she is made out to be? Did she really say things like "crum bum?"

In any case, it's not stopping me from loving this book. I have a literary and professional crush on my friend Jeannette. I'm so lucky to have her in my life.