Half Broke Horses

Last week, I began reading and writing for this blog- A Book A Week. I immediately fell in love with the idea and began to read feverishly. Always an avid reader, I was thrilled for the challenge. My reading has always been an aside. Something I get to when everything else is done. It's not like my writing though... I do eventually get to it- always. I always have a book. I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't been in the middle of a something. Each time I finish book, I feel the need to start a new one right away... scared of the nebulous purgatory of not having a "book."

With the idea of A Book A Week, there was a goal surrounding my reading. There was a reason to read before the dishes were done or the laundry folded. There was a reason to read instead of checking e-mail. There was a reason to sit with Katherine while she watched Little Bear- chiming in about Little Bear's foibles while quietly turning the pages of Half Broke Horses.

I read Jeanette Wall's first book the Glass Castle, with strong combined feelings of love and hate. The book feeling to me like the car wreck you just can't turn away from despite your fear. Half Broke Horses is a True Life Novel- a memoir that has too much invention to be a true memoir. The story told is of Jeanette's grandmother and within her tale, Jeanette's mother, Rosemary, was revealed. As a novel, the book fell flat. The language plain, the characters relatively under-developed. In reading, I felt Jeanette Walls should stick with memoir and journalism and leave fiction to others.