Intending to write a book about her mother, made famous in "The Glass Castle", Jeannette Walls ended up writing the biography of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily's adventures tell the story of the taming of the wild west. She grew up on a homestead in New Mexico raising cattle and breaking horses with her father and her siblings. Her story of indomitable spirit led her off the farm to Chicago where she worked as a servant and in the factories to save up enough money to attend college, and then from one remote town to another in Arizona as a school teacher. She learned to drive a car, fly a plane, run a cattle ranch and survive all manner of disaster both manmade and natural. While written for the adult audience, her captivating story is suitable for high school age students.