February+2011

Southwestern Food Sign-up:Matt-Southwestern Rice (with Mexicorn) Meg-Tiny Tacos Beth - Southwest Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad- Black-Bean Pop'ems, soft drinks and my favorite sweet red wine Shawn - spicy corn & jalapeno dip with chips Raisse-guacamole Brandi - dessert and sodas Kristen- Cinnamon sugar tortilla chips with a cream cheese dip Colleen- toffee brownies Jill-- Banana Quesadillas kp-pizza LVL- Fudge Brownies (Sorry Collen! I didn't mean to copy you!!!)

** February 22, 2010, TUESDAY ** **// Half Broke Horses //**** by Jeannette Walls ** Jeannette Walls's memoir //The Glass Castle// was "nothing short of spectacular" (//Entertainment Weekly//). Now, in //Half Broke Horses//, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.

"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 ("I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn't need to be fed if they weren't working, and they didn't leave big piles of manure all over the place") and fly a plane. And, with her husband Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom 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 audiences everywhere. Directions to Beth’s house: **809 Sanderson Drive** Durham, NC 27704 H – 477-7046 C – 417-4134

The house is blue/gray with black shutters and door. Park in the driveway or on the street.

From Granville County: A) **Take I-85** south to Durham. **Take the Duke Street Exit** (also 501 N). (Turn right at the light at the end of the exit ramp. **Travel north on Duke St. about 2 miles**. (You’ll pass signs to Durham Regional Hospital. After Staples on your right, continue through the Horton Rd. light. **Take a left on Holt School Rd**. (Taco Bell on your left. The road curves around and passes a church and Holt School on your left.) ***Take a left on Valley Dr**. (just past the sch.) **Take a right on Sanderson**. (the second right) 809 is on the left.

Or

B) **Take Old 75** towards Durham. **Take a right on Hebron**. (at the light) The road ends at Denfield. **Take a left on Denfield**. Travel through the Roxboro Rd. light. Denfield becomes Horton Rd. at Roxboro Rd. (only in Durham!) ** Take a right on Duke St. ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: left;">**Take the next left on Holt Sch.** (Taco Bell on left) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: left;">Finish as above.*

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">From Colleen’s, Jill’s, Meg’s house:

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">Take Guess Rd. to Horton. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">Left on Horton. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">Left on Stadium Dr. (Horton Hills sign) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">Right on Sanderson Dr. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">809 is on the right.