My Racing Heart - by Nan Mooney (Paperback)

About the Book

Part memoir and part exploration of the quirky compelling sport of thoroughbred horse racing, this book perfectly captures the lure, the glory, and the heartbeat of the track. Photos throughout.

From the Back Cover

When Nan Mooney was seven years old, she sat in her grandmother May-May's living room to watch her first horse race ... And so began a turbulent romance between a woman and a sport.

Part memoir, part journey into the compelling world of Thoroughbred horse racing, My Racing Heart gallops headlong into the wild culture and fabulous creatures that rise up around a racetrack. Nan Mooney looks at the horses, jockeys, and trainers; the gambling and corruption; and racing's age-old history and forever offbeat society. From the dusty backstretch at a small-town track to the stands at magnificent Churchill Downs, Nan Mooney captures the risks and the glory, the excitement and the passion, for horse lovers, sports fans, and anyone who has ever craved a place to run wild.

Review Quotes

"Mooney is an ambitious writer and aspires to more than a memoir. . . . Mooney has passion on her side . . . she never gives it less than her all and manages to cash her share of winning tickets." - New York Times Book Review
"[Mooney] is an ambitious writer . . . . she manages to cash her share of winning tickets." - New York Times Book Review
"But even in her most downhearted times, after the death of May-May, [Mooney] remains an optimist, embracing the best parts of the horse world ... It's hard not to join her in this love affair." - USA Today
"Mooney embraces the best parts of the horse world. It's hard not to join her in this love affair." - USA Today
"My Racing Heart offers an engaging introduction to the lure of the racetrack. [And] for those who already have an affection for the sport, Mooney's book offers a confirmation of horseracing's gritty glamour." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"An engaging introduction to the lure of the racetrack. [And] a confirmation of horseracing's gritty glamour." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Nan Mooney has sliced open her soul and let the horse run free. Her words are intoxicating. Her stories glow. All books about horse racing should leave the same mark as My Racing Heart." - Daily Racing Form
"Mooney has sliced open her soul and let the horse run free. Her words are intoxicating. Her stories glow." - Daily Racing Form
"Exceptional writing. . . . The triumph of My Racing Heart is Mooney's determination to embrace and celebrate the complexity of the world she's come to know. She recognizes, as our best writers do, that the best talk about universal truths begins with the precise observation of specific wonders. . . . Mooney celebrates them beautifully. . . . Extraordinary. . . . The book offers its readers that rare opportunity to know the writer and her world and to know, also, that the story she has to tell simply could not have been told more brilliantly." - Bill Littlefield, National Public Radio
"Exceptional writing. Extraordinary. The story she has to tell simply could not have been told more brilliantly." - Bill Littlefield, National Public Radio
"A wonderfully expressive love story . . . A dazzlingly successful blind date, deeply and unexpectedly satisfying, between readers and Thoroughbreds." - Kirkus Reviews
"A wonderfully expressive love story. A dazzlingly successful blind date, deeply and unexpectedly satisfying, between readers and Thoroughbreds." - Kirkus Reviews
"Deeply felt . . . [This] will remind lapsed fans of what they are missing and prod the simply curious to investigate what it is about this uniquely participatory spectator sport that can inspire such love." - Booklist
"Deeply felt. Will prod the curious to investigate what it is about this sport that can inspire such love." - Booklist
"Vivid memoir . . . Mooney is an adventurer at heart, and she escorts us with an unscrupulous, generous eye through her romance with the track." - O magazine
"Vivid memoir . . . Mooney escorts us with an unscrupulous, generous eye through her romance with the track." - O magazine
The gentle secret about Nan Mooney's writing is that you don't have to love horses to love Mooney's take on them. . . . My Racing Heart is about so much more than horseflesh. . . . This is not an ordinary girlhood fancy . . . This is a passion felt all the way to the bone, along with sketches of the people who feel it. This is a confession and a love story, with all the fear and second guessing that those bring." - Hartford Courant
"This is a confession and a love story, with all the fear and second-guessing that those bring." - Hartford Courant
"Open Nan Mooney's My Racing Heart and plan to stay for a long visit. [It's] a love poem to racing. . . A fine book and a joy to read." - Richmond Times-Dispatch
"A love poem to racing. . . A fine book and a joy to read." - Richmond Times-Dispatch
"My Racing Heart is not just about horse-racing--it's about life. . . . We're off on a lovely ride. In rich prose reminiscent of fellow Irish-American writer Rosemary Mahoney, Mooney recounts her own life sparingly, but she beautifully fleshes out that of her grandmother. Her style is engaging . . . We get a great deal of racing history, as well as some interesting personality profiles, and by the time she's heading for home she's got us cheering her on. At the book's end, it's clear that Nan Mooney is alive and well -- and a writer to watch." - Washington Post
"We're off on a lovely ride. By the time [Mooney's] heading for home she's got us cheering her on." - Washington Post