The book to be discussed is "The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America" by Elizabeth Letts. Adults are invited to this monthly book discussion program, which is free and open to everyone!
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts is available as a print book, an e-book, a downloadable audiobook, and as a large print book in the Library's collection.
"The incredible true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion. In 1954, Annie Wilkins, a sixty-three-year-old farmer from Maine, embarked on an impossible journey. She had no relatives left, she'd lost her family farm to back taxes, and her doctor had just given her two years to live--but only if she "lived restfully." He offered her a spot in the county's charity home. Instead, she decided she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean just once before she died. She bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, loaded up her horse, and headed out from Maine in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. She had no map, no GPS, no phone. But she had her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness. Between 1954 and 1956, Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, journeyed more than 4,000 miles, through America's big cities and small towns, meeting ordinary people and celebrities--from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx."
The Wayne Branch Library first opened in December of 1969 in a shopping center located at 7341 Rockville Road. Due to high demand, the storefront space was enlarged in 1973, but the need for more space was evident. A permanent 13,500 square foot location opened in 1984, and the branch remains in that same building today. The Wayne Branch underwent a $1.1 million renovation in 2020 to add more seating and activity space, study rooms, and a quiet reading area, but still features the split design of a separate children's and adult wing.