Turn the Page...Tuesday

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

Inkspell is the sequel to Inkheart and the book that I chose this month to meet Adrienne's "Read a book and then watch the movie" challenge. 

Here is what Goodreads has to say about it:

"Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of INKHEART, the book whose characters became real. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with the ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval world of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long, both are caught inside the book, too. But the story is threatening to evolve in ways neither of them could ever have imagined."

For me, this was the book that would not end!  Don't get me wrong, it was fun and the story was good but it just went on and on...I think 635 pages was way to long and it could have done well with half of that.  I enjoyed Inkheart much more. There has not been a movie made from Inkspell, so I watched Inkheart, which was great fun!

I read a few books in June, but by far, Jeannette Walls Half Broke Horses was my favorite. 

From Goodreads:

“Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town—riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one who is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds—against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa or Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.

My thoughts:

Half Broke Horses is another fantastic read by Jeannette Walls. This one is about the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily was raised on ranches in West Texas and New Mexico by a father who was more of a philosopher and dreamer than a rancher, and a mother who was the type to never doing any physical work, but instead stayed inside the house with the vapors. Lily was the one who stepped up and really worked the ranch, even as a young girl, and this set her work ethic for her entire life. She was an exceptionally strong, hard working woman who became a teacher, a rancher, a bootlegger; whatever it took to keep her family afloat in hard times. I would have loved to have known her. If you like stories about strong women, read this book!

Here's my bonus, Just For Fun read this month. 

City Girl, Country Vet by Cathy Woodman

This was a really fun book. Maz is a vet in London who has just been dumped by her boyfriend, (and boss!). Her friend Emma owns a small animal vet practice in the country and really needs a break, so Maz heads out to help her out. We meet all kinds of fun small town characters and their pets, along with the incredibly handsome and well-built Alex who is the local large animal vet. Maybe Maz's heart will begin to heal in the clean, open air!  I enjoyed this one so much that I popped right over to Amazon to add a couple more of Cathy Woodman's books to my wish list. 

What the heck have you been reading??  Pop over to Adrienne's Some of a Kind to join in and to see what has been hanging around in other's book bags lately.