Horse Heaven

By: Jane Smiley

Narrated by: Shelley Thompson

Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Many astonishing and affecting things happen at the racetrack, and the mysterious universe of horse racing, passionate, cold-hearted, pure, corrupt, is woven into a marvelous tapestry of joy and love, chicanery, folly, greed, and reckless courage. Spanning two years on the circuit, from Kentucky and California to New York and Paris, Horse Heaven, puts us among trainers, nervey jockeys, billionaire breeders, and restless track wives.

©2014 Jane Smiley (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Great for horse people.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Really got into a real horse person's mind. Some misses on horse terminology, but only a few. Wonderful story line. Yes, I would and have recommended this book.

What other book might you compare Horse Heaven to and why?

Seabiscuit

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made you laugh and cry. I own and love horses and it captured the feelings I have everyday.

Could Listen Forever

If you're a horse lover or racing fan, you will love this book! Jane Smiley really knows horses, and it shows. The cast of characters (both equine and human) is daunting, but fascinating. And the narrator, Shelley Thompson, is fantastic! This is on my Top Five list!

Wonderful writing, rambling vignettes

I love Jane Smiley as an author; I love the format of several vignettes joined together- lots of characters to keep straight, but that keeps it interesting. But it's distracting to have words consistently mispronounced- the narrator must not be American, how else to explain the city of La Jolla called "La Jaw-la" (one example). If you are a horse lover, parts of this book may make you cringe a bit, but I really did enjoy it.

Chock full of horse knowledge

Well written, performed well. Just so very long that it’s hard to keep track of the various stories because you certainly can’t listen to this horror short period of time

Love the book; narration pretty good...

Reader had some odd (Canadian?) pronunciation quirks that took me out of the story. She did Ok on most of the real-life racing names, but not all, and it was jarring every time.

It's one of my all-time favorite books, though, so she's forgiven.

Amazing journey of the track life

Very well written and full of all the personality angles surrounding horse racing . Both horse and human perspective

I wish I could review book and narrator separately

The book is very enjoyable -- and I'm only 1/2 finished. But the narrator can be quite distracting. Doesn't anyone "proof-listen" these? How can a professional narrator pronounce khaki "cocky" -- let alone the mangling of anything that's not strictly Anglo Saxon??? It took me a while to realize where/what "La Joe La" is. Despite this, I'm loving the book. In summary, 5 stars for the book and 2 stars for the narration, but the book outshines the puzzling pronunciation.

Excellent listen.

It is difficult to restrain the amount of praise this book deserves. This is, in my opinion, the finest of this award-winning author's novels. It is amusing, touching and engrossing. Not only for those who are intrigued by the world of thoroughbred racing, the character development is extraordinary and the individuals as well as the animals are finely drawn. The way the author makes you like and understand her characters is the more surprising as the cast is quite a large one. This is one of those tales you never want to end, and I can't recommend it enough.

Was put off by previous reviews but loved it

I was put off by previous reviews where they stated that the narrator mispronounced a lot of the words. As I am not an America, I didn't know what the real pronunciation should be of various place names so it did not bother me. I found the narrator lively and easy to listen to.

I loved the story immensely, particularly how the animals were included as characters bit not overly anthropomorphised.

For the Love of Horses

I live in Saratoga Springs home of one of the most famous race tracks in the world. It was a pleasure to read this book and learn of all the goings-on and unspoken animal thoughts behind the scenes. Many references were made to real racing personalities even though the characters were fictional. The narrator did a fantastic job! Her mispronunciation of some towns was amusing and she gave life to the characters especially the younger ones. I wish the book was not quite so long, but the way the characters come together at the end was a delight!