Thursday, November 07, 2024

Eight top books about horses for adults

Christina Lynch is at the beck and call of two dogs, three horses, and a hilarious pony who carts her up and down mountains while demanding (and receiving) many carrots. Besides Pony Confidential, her new novel, she is also the author of two historical novels set in Italy and the coauthor of two comic thrillers set in Prague and Vienna. She teaches at College of the Sequoias and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

[My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party; The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party; Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018); My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure;Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023); The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure]

At Electric Lit Lynch tagged eight top horse books for adults, including:
Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is one of those rare writers who can make you laugh out loud on one page and weep on the next. A sprawling novel set in the world of Thoroughbred racing and told from many different points of view, including a Jack Russell terrier named Eileen and several racehorses, Horse Heaven chronicles lives that are familiar but utterly poignant—down on their luck gamblers, too-tall jockeys, insatiable rich people, all desperate for a win. My favorite character is Justa Bob, a downwardly mobile Thoroughbred who passes from owner to owner without losing his optimism (a certain pony would have bitten all of the humans who let Bob down). Smiley’s prose is eagle-eyed but also laced with kindness, making Horse Heaven a world that keeps pulling you back in even as it breaks your heart.
Read about another book on the list.

Horse Heaven is among Karen Joy Fowler's ten top books about intelligent animals and Megan Wasson's eight great books about horses.

--Marshal Zeringue