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  • A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck by Jane Smiley book cover
  • A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck by Jane Smiley book cover
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A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck

by Jane Smiley

Horses, racing, and the bonds people form with animals

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Horses, racing, and the bonds people form with animals

Jane Smiley brings together personal reflection and observations from the racetrack, following two horses—Waterwheel and Wowie—as their racing careers begin. Alongside these accounts, the book considers equine intelligence, affection, and character, and connects the world of horse racing with broader subjects named in the title: love, money, and luck. The focus on horses is grounded in Smiley’s own long-standing involvement with them, including owning and breeding, giving the chronicle a perspective shaped by close attention to their lives and behavior.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in horse racing and the lives of racehorses.
  • Readers curious about human relationships with horses, including questions of intelligence and character.
  • Readers who enjoy personal reflections that connect animal sports with themes of love, money, and luck.

Themes

Horse racingHuman-animal relationshipsEquine intelligence and characterLove, money, and luck

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes an irresistibly smart, witty, and engaging chronicle of a novelist's lifelong obsession with horses. - "Exuberant...witty, completely delightful.... A kind of National Velvet for adults." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Every horse story is a love story," writes Jane Smiley, who has loved horses for most of her life and owned and bred them for a good part of it. To love something is to observe it with more than usual attention, and that is precisely what Smiley does in this

In particular she follows a sexy filly named Waterwheel and a grey named Wowie (he "tells" a horse communicator that he wants it changed from Hornblower) as they begin careers at the racetrack. Filled with humor and suspense, and with discourses on equine intelligence, affection, and character, A Year at the Races is a winner.
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