Jeannette Walls has a message for us: As times get harder, as they all too often do, we should all get back in touch with our tough-old-broad (or tough-old-coot) roots.

The upbeat, extremely funny Walls spoke Tuesday night at Miami Book Fair International about her bestselling memoir The Glass Castle, the aftermath of its publication and her new book, Half Broke Horses, a ``true life novel'' about her grandmother, Lily.

Lily, Walls told an appreciative audience, was a ``tough old broad'' who learned to break horses on her father's ranch when she was 5. She got certified to teach at a rural school at 15 because all the men were off fighting World War I. She was a card shark and dealt in bootleg liquor. She did not give up, ever. When the car broke down, she'd pile the kids out and tell them, ``Push and pray, kids!''

The lessons weren't lost on Walls, who was 8 when her grandmother died and who learned the best stories about Lily from her own mother.

The most important lesson: ``I believe everybody has what it takes to get up from a fall,'' she said.

But you wouldn't say Walls, a journalist and former gossip columnist, was preachy or grim or depressing. She told funny stories about going on Oprah Winfrey's show with her mom and seemed truly happy to be in front of a Miami crowd that nodded in understanding at most everything she said. She joked about once being invited on an Outward Bound vacation: ``The first 17 years of my life were an Outward Bound vacation!''

Walls calls Half Broke Horses ``a family story'' and added that she hopes it inspires readers to think of their own ancestors. But most of the talk focused on The Glass Castle, in which she revealed the details of her impoverished childhood, her father's alcoholism, her mother's homelessness. It's the sort of book that evokes compassion, empathy and devotion.

``It causes me such joy to be standing here because my story was such a source of shame to me,'' she said.

Joan Herman of Aventura said she read The Glass Castle before it was a bestseller. ``I sent it to everyone I knew who was angry with their parents,'' she said.

``She took the sadness of her life and planted a seed, and out of that tree came acceptance. She accepted what life gave her. And the people in her family, she forgave them by accepting them.''

The rest of the audience surely would agree with that assessment, including Suzanne Pearl, who teaches college-prep reading at Miami Dade College.

Pearl urges everyoneto put The Glass Castle at the top of their reading lists.

Of course, Pearl -- like most of the people in attendance -- has another big passion: the fair itself.

``This is the highlight of the year for me.''

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