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jgoody

Book Goodies

The act of writing always creates something of value. When I'm reading, it is the various manifestations of that inherent and powerful value that I'm looking to capture and share with my fellow book lovers.  

 

 

From humble days as a bookseller in Colorado, I now live in NYC and work for one of the big publishing houses. I'm always reading a huge variety of books, but you're bound to find more reviews on titles that might not be on every bookstore's shelf quite yet! 

 

And I must also say that it is immensely important to support independent bookstores. Definitely consider shopping with your local bookshop if you don't already!  

If you're looking for one then check out the great store I used to work at:

oldfirehousebooks.com

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation - Elizabeth Letts A great story to work with here. Sometimes we all need to read something that just feels a little good. In all honesty, you could just look at the cover on this--The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, The Horse That Inspired a Nation--and have a good gist of what is in store for you. However, I enjoyed going deeper into the history. There is a lot of heart, determination, and communication that goes into a sport like horse jumping, so it is nice to read about those times when a rider and a horse can just use these simple tools to take a championship without having to tack them to a checkbook (horse pun!). The writing is really nothing to speak of. Repetitive, predictable, and all very matter of fact. Not that author, Elizabeth Letts, really has anything she needs to be doing other than making it readable, but compared to other non-fiction I've encountered with this type of format there is no real style. I'm also a little baffled on the heights of all the jumps. At Grand Prix events these days you aren't going to find horses doing clean rounds over several 6ft. oxers, but maybe they just threw horses over them back in the 1950s with no real regard to the safety of anyone or anything. I'd recommend this if you're looking for a nice easy read, if you have a horse, if you have any interest in horses, or if you happen to have a significant other that rides horses. I also imagine that if you have any literate horses in your present company then he/she would enjoy this one too. At the very least it is a book that can really help you out with learning some horse knowledge and lingo.