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Summary: Underdogs, gamblers, and fighters
Review: Here it is: the quintessential American saga for the ages. "Seabiscuit" is the ultimate, true tale of what it means to start poor, to feel rejected and abandoned, to travel life's toughest roads; and yet, to never give up, never give in, until your dreams are finally fulfilled. All the characters are as richly drawn as those in a Damon Runyan short story. They include: Charles Howard, the self-made automotive magnate who knew early heartbreak and loss through the death of his own son in, of all things, an auto accident; Tom Smith, the high plains cowboy drifter who was the original Horse Whisperer of his day; Red Polland and George Woolf, the self-made, plucky jockeys, who undertook some of the most horrific training methods known to sport; and Seabiscuit, the ungainly horse who lost many, many races in his early years before finally finding his stride. Ms Hillenbrand, herself an unlikely heroine in her real-life battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, weaves these characters into a delightful tapestry that the reader will want to savor again and again. The climactic match race between Seabiscuit and Triple-Crown winner War Admiral is alone worth the price of the book, as western upstarts are pitted against blueblooded eastern racing establishment. Finally, don't forget the acknowledgements and interview sections at the end of the book for insight into the author's writing and thought processes. I guarantee when you finish the book (and watch the Oscar-worthy movie version) that you will want to make a beeline for the nearest racetrack and bet two dollars on a longshot, for "Seabiscuit" is proof enough that, here in America, the odds are never too long to have a chance at success.
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Summary: Quite a book!
Review: I wanted to read this book before I saw the movie, thinking that it would be one I "had to just get through." I don't like horses and non-fiction books are usually a bore for me. This book had me going from chapter to chapter with hardly a break in between! It was excellent. Factual but with interesting emotions playing into it. I could clearly see the character of the horse and the people were almost as enticing. I learned a lot about the world of horse racing, which was surprisingly interesting, and the life of a jockey, which was absolutely horrifying. I can only hope the movie is as good as the book (yeah, right).
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Summary: seabiscuit: the people's champion, and that's it
Review: the writing is overdone. the horse is overrated. the book is overhyped. the author makes some irrational and blatantly untrue claims ("seabiscuit probably would have won the triple crown"...please, lady, we know you love seabiscuit but at 3yrs old he was a claimer, an average horse.) his whipping of war admiral was brilliant (on video), but overall his career was so-so. the blood-horse has 'the biscuit' as the 25th best thoroughbred of the 20th century, which is quite a reach considering that there are many superior horses ranked behind him (ex. whirlaway, alydar (minus veitch), ruffian, assault, etc. by the way, war admiral was 13th and would have been much higher if it wasn't for his humiliating upset loss to the biscuit). but of course everyone in the horse business has jumped on the seabiscuit bandwagon because it is "reinvigorating" the game. whatever. to read a few books on actual champion horses, try: nack's secretariat, schwartz's ruffian, eisenberg's native dancer, and georgeff's citation.
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Summary: check out the special collector's edition
Review: Seabiscuit: An American Legend (Special Illustrated Collector's Edition)
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Summary: Laura Hillenbrand brings Seabiscuit back to life!!!!
Review: Laura Hillenbrand brings Seabiscuit back to life in Seabiscuit: An American Legend. It tells the true story of a horse, his owner, trainer, jockey, and a few others as Seabiscuit rises from a nobobody to the greatest horse that ever lived. I love to read fiction novels, and I usually don't read non-fiction books but I bought this one anyway. It reads like one of the highest quality fiction books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. I cheered at Seabiscuits triumphs and was crestfallen at his downfalls. It was heart-pounding and churned at my emotions. I highly recommend this book to non-fiction and fiction reader alike.
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Summary: Great Book, Great Stories
Review: We carry our boundaries around with us. Many of them are simply the limits of our experience. Great books help us transcend those boundaries. By that test, Seabiscuit is a great book and Laura Hillenbrand is a great writer. The story that she tells, by now, is well known. We have the short, funny looking horse whose potential is recognized and realized by an unlikely trio of men, each of whom is distinct and each of whom is damaged in some way. Tom Smith is the silent cowboy watching the world he loved slip away into history, holding on by doing the one thing he can do well-work with horses. Red Pollard is the jockey who's not having a lot of success. He's a little too big and a little too battered. Charles Howard is the successful businessman who had lost a son. The trio, with occasional help from jockey George Woolf, rides with Seabiscuit to heights of popularity and interest that exceed even the President. Along the way there is triumph and despair, winning and losing, good luck and bad, all the stuff of a gripping yarn. Along the way you learn a lot, too. You learn about horse racing. Laura Hillenbrand knows a lot about horses and horse racing, but she wears that knowledge lightly. If you, like me, knew next to nothing about horses and racing before picking up this book, by the end you will know a lot more. And you will have learned it painlessly. Hillenbrand is exceptional at wrapping her teaching in stories. She explains and defines only as much as necessary and lets the stories do the rest. She can convey technical details without damaging the pace or passion of the story. Like most good true stories this one has lots of lessons, but they're yours to fashion. There are no "author's message" passages that tell you what the lesson should be. But there are stories that grip you and pull you forward. This is more than just a book that will keep you up reading late into the night. It is a book that is so engaging and powerful that when it is over, you will not want it to end. When the Most Beautiful Woman in the World finished the book, at about 2 AM, she kept reading all the way through the acknowledgements in their tiny type until there was absolutely no more she could read.
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Summary: The Horse With a Heart of Gold
Review: This was one of the best books I've ever read. The action was so intense I couldn't put the book down. Laura Hillenbrand has made the world of horse racing come alive in the pages of her book.
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Summary: Great story
Review: An exhaustively researched, detailed, but also very entertaining and dramatic story of the famous racehorse. Seabiscuit was an unlikely candidate for a throughbred champion, which Hillenbrand makes clear in her discussion of Seabiscuit's inauspicious start in life. But through the sheer persistance, drive, and loving care of his owner, trainer, and rider, Seabiscuit eventually emerges as a champion despite all his disadvantages. Although it's about a horse--this is a true Horatio Alger story if there ever was one. One final minor point, I recall one amazing statistic about Seabiscuit, which I knew before reading this book, was that Seabiscuit got more mentions in the newspapers in his biggest year than the president of the United States (unfortunately I don't recall what year that was now). That is truly an amazing fact and is just one other testimonial to how popular and famous he became.
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Summary: wonderfully delightful book
Review: If you've seen the movie but haven't read the book, the book will clear but any misunderstanding that you might have had. I recommend the collectors edition of Seabiscuit. It does cost just a little bit more but you get over 150 never before seen pictures of Seabiscuit, Red Pollard, War Admiral, George Woolf, Tom Smith, Marcela Zabala, Charles Howards and the whole lot of them.
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Summary: Not just for horse racing fans
Review: I gave this book to my husband (a mad horse racing fan) as a gift and after he finished it he pressed me to read it saying he thought I would enjoy it. Well, gentle reader, "enjoy" is too mild a word to describe my reaction to this book. I missed my train stop once because I was so glued to the story. I would never have believed that a book about a racehorse could make me cry, not once, but three times. This horse had a heart as big as all outdoors and Laura Hillenbrand has done him justice with her brilliant portrait. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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