"It's not true," says a character in Jane Smiley's funny, passionate, and brilliant new novel of horse racing, "that anything can happen at the racetrack," but many astonishing and affecting things do -- and in Horse Heaven, we find them woven into a marvelous tapestry of joy and love, chicanery, folly, greed, and derring-do.

Revivivng the stalled ring from http://bookcrossing.com/journal/4052755...

To help ensure that things run smoothly (or that is the plan
anyhow), I've put together a few rough guidelines for this one. I
know that some people take longer to read a book (busy, got a bunch
of books to read before, work, etc)...

1. Please try to have this book read within 3 weeks. I know this
isn't possible, but if you make an effort to try that is all I can
ask.

2. Please journal when you receive the book.

3. When about halfway through, please contact the next person on the
list for their mailing address.

4. Please journal again when you've read the book and it is on its
way.

5. Have fun! Reading is supposed to be fun!

6. To the last person in the ray: Please send this back to thegoaliegirl


Sending order:

BigrTex- TX, US
a1856- CO, Int'l
Cray17-NJ (Int) <---book is here
katyan- Finland, Europe/Int'l
Rivercassini- UK, Int'l
dark-draco- UK, Int'l
Miss-Owl- Australia, Int'l
*home to thegoaliegirl, USA*


If interested, please PM with your location and shipping
preferences. I'll PM back. If you don't hear from me, then I didn't
get your PM. I just moved from OH to WA and my computer isn't set up
yet due to lack of space in my current location. I'm trying to get
online several times a week. If you don't hear from me, please be
patient. Thanks!

Received in the mail last week. I have enjoyed all of Smiley's other books and look forward to reading this as soon as I finish the book I'm reading.

Thanks!

It takes me longer to read books than it used to, which makes it harder to keep track of all of the characters. The study guide at the end recommends that you follow the horses instead of the people, but I didn't read that until I was finished with the book. It was interesting to be reading about the horses and trainers at the same time that the controversies around the euthenasia of Eight Bells was bringing up the subject of race horses breaking down.

Thank you very much for sharing thegoaliegirl.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I sent this off to a1856 on Saturday. Sorry that it took so long.

Enjoy!

I just received the book in the mail today! Thank you BigrTex! I am looking forward to reading it!

This was a fun book to read. As others have noted, it's got quite a cast of characters, so there is a lot to keep track of. It's also a very long book! I used the author's suggestion to follow the horses and the people are just revolving characters around the horses. I enjoyed the book - it was an interesting look into the world of horse racing.

I have PM'd Cray17 for her address to send it on it's way!

I sent this to Cray17 in October. I PM'd her twice, the last time at the end of November, and I never have heard back from her.

Really, really sorry. I have the book and I expect to have it ready to move to the next person on the list in the next two weeks

I have read quite a few of Jane Smiley's books and never had a problem. But with this book, I struggled with tracking the characters and the horses. I was on my third attempt before I read the suggestion in the Reader's Guide to follow the horses. After that I was able to make it past the first 200 pages and enjoy the book. I especially enjoyed the characters Elizabeth Zada and Justa Bob. Thanks again for thegoaliegirl's patience.