Overtime, her bedroom became a mini natural history Museum, filled with skeletons of lizards, mice, birds, displayed on plinth fashioned from salvaged wire spools or cotton reels.

War Horse 40th Anniversary Edition: The beautiful illustrated

Jarret’s chapters vividly show the world of horse racing in the South. Brooks showcases her equine knowledge, and her love of horses shines through. I categorize her equine knowledge with author Jane Smiley. Smiley’s 2000 novel, “Horse Heaven” created a new world for me. While I learned to be intrigued with horse racing from “Horse Heaven”, I am now appalled at the industry after reading Brooks’ story. Brooks shows the ugly underbelly of equine abuse in the industry. After the 2023 horse racing year, and all the dead horses from the Triple Crown events, I see her point. even though I’m concurrently reading three other books….I’ve had this advance copy for over a month. Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, and attended Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues. A very informative book about race and slavery. The description of the relationship of horse and groom bringing about such success is outstanding. Also, the cost to buying freedom and the struggles to get there.I can see why my book club selected this book. It centers on race, and I think that it works well with the topic raised in Yellowface by RF Kuang – who gets to tell stories. In Horse, Geraldine Brooks hits on the topic of racism, but, based on her author photo, she is a white woman. Is she the right person to tell this story? Or are stories fair game for all? I was also soooo sad to learn that this book started with the encouragement of Brooks husband, Tony Horowitz…..the true historian in the family. Tony died suddenly when Brooks was on book tour…her partner in life and in life every day. The themes of slavery, discrimination, racism - then and now. The story is timeless. Anyone who has an affinity to animals will experience this connection as well as those who appreciate art in its many forms.

War Horse Characters | GradeSaver War Horse Characters | GradeSaver

Although this novel is entitled “Horse” and is ostensibly about a magnificent historical horse and the prestigious horse races of the antebellum South. It is also about “race” itself. “Race” when used to define us simply by the pigmentation of our skin can be such a horrible word.A great way of introducing young readers to the realities of WWI. Look out for Morpurgo’s other war fiction including Friend or Foe, Waiting for Anya, King of the Cloud Forests and An Eagle in the Snow.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo | Waterstones

Imaginative, and impeccably researched historical fiction, wonderfully written as well as skillfully structured, with characters to connect to and a story that moved me. This is pretty much everything I could ask for in a novel. All of this in a story about a horse, yet it is about much more than story a magnificent racing horse. It is about the injustice of slavery, selling people, like they sold horses, families separated and the racism that continues years later with tragic consequences. This novel is also about the relationship between Jarret and Lexington. Jarret’s love for this amazing animal. A love that is obviously reciprocated. It is about Jarret trying to buy his freedom, and escape from a world of slavery and oppression. It is about a country on the cusp of change. Horse" is a pretty mediocre novel that I would normally give three stars. There is nothing in this book that stands out as particularly excellent except maybe the research that went into it. Characters are bland, the plot is predictable, pacing is slow and dull. There is nothing particularly offensive about it, but there is nothing all that amazing about it either. This book is far more of a horse book than it is about race issues. A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American historyI found the melding of horse racing and the civil war very intriguing. I never contemplated thoroughbred horse racing and slavery. Other POV’s are added which enriched the story, although Jarret and Theo drive the plot. The third timeline is the present. Theo is a student working on his PhD. He finds the painting amongst the belongings of his neighbour’s dead husband. Belongings that his neighbour is leaving on the sidewalk. Theo meets Jess at the Washington Natural History Museum. Jess is working on articulating the skeleton of Lexington and is more than surprised to find out that Lexington is also the horse in the painting.