Three Strides Before the Wire

Three Strides Before the Wire
Author: Elizabeth Mitchell
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2003
Genre: Derby (Horse race)
ISBN: 9781840187175

'Charismatic, a colt nobody wanted, is ridden by Antley,a jockey everybody doubted.That either could be a mere mile and a half from winning the Triple Crown would be astounding; that the two of them together are so close to racing immortality would be a fantasy... except that it is real. So THE BOSTON GLOBE reported days before jockey Chris Antley and his horse Charismatic attempted to make history by winning the third and final race othe Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes.After bouts of depression and drug and alchol abuse, Antley had made a stunning comeback by riding the unknown Charismatic to victory at both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Antley's success was viewed as symbolic of the new path he was forging in his life, but his story, and his horse's would not have a fairy-tale ending. In Three Strides to the Wire, journalist Elizabeth Mitchell takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of horse racing by tracing the intertwined lives of jockey Chris Antley, trainer D.Wayne Lukas, the owners Bob and Beverly Lewis, 1999 Derby winner Charismatic, and the author herself, who placed a crucial bet on the race.The adventure takes us behind the scenes of the world's racetrackes, revealing the colourful history of horse racing, while also exposing the underbell

The Perfect Ride

The Perfect Ride
Author: Gary Stevens
Publisher: Citadel Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2003-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780806524504

Foreword by Bill Shoemaker. In this thrilling autobiography, champion jockey Gary Stevens chronicles his incredible career that has spanned more than twenty years and taken him around the world on the backs of some of the greatest horses. Told by a man who has lived it, this is a behind-the-scenes account of the racing world with all its thrills and perils.

Three Strides Before the Wire

Three Strides Before the Wire
Author: Elizabeth Mitchell
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2004-10
Genre: Horse racing
ISBN: 9781840189216

Charismatic, a colt nobody wanted, is ridden by Antley, a jockey everybody doubted. That either could be a mere mile and a half from winning the Triple Crown would be astounding; that the two of them together are so close to racing immortality would be a fantasy . . . except that it is real.'So ran a newspaper story days before jockey Chris Antley and his horse Charismatic attempted to make history by winning the third and final race of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. After battling depression and drug and alcohol abuse, Antley had made a stunning comeback by riding the unknown Charismatic to victory at both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Antley's success was viewed as symbolic of the new path he was forging in his life, but his story, and his horse's, would not have a fairy-tale ending. In Three Strides Before the Wire, journalist Elizabeth Mitchell takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of horse racing by tracing the intertwined lives of jockey Chris Antley, trainer D. Wayne Lukas, owners Bob and Beverly Lewis, 1999 Derby winner Charismatic, and the author herself, who placed a crucial bet on the race. The adventure takes us behind the scenes of the world's racetracks, revealing the colourful history of horse racing, while also exposing the underbelly of racing scandals. The story of horse racing goes beyond the jockeys, the trainers, the owners and the swindlers. For all people, rich or poor, horse racing offers a dramatic tale that is thrilling at its best moments and heart-wrenching at its worst.

Liberty's Torch

Liberty's Torch
Author: Elizabeth Mitchell
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2014-07-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802192556

“Turns out that what you thought you knew about Lady Liberty is dead wrong. Learn the truth in this fascinating account.” —O, The Oprah Magazine The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, a powerful symbol of freedom and the American dream. For decades, the myth has persisted that the statue was a grand gift from France, but now Liberty’s Torch reveals how she was in fact the pet project of one quixotic and visionary French sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Bartholdi not only forged this 151-foot-tall colossus in a workshop in Paris and transported her across the ocean, but battled to raise money for the statue and make her a reality. A young sculptor inspired by a trip to Egypt where he saw the pyramids and Sphinx, he traveled to America, carrying with him the idea of a colossal statue of a woman. There he enlisted the help of notable people of the age—including Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Pulitzer, Victor Hugo, Gustave Eiffel, and Thomas Edison—to help his scheme. He also came up with inventive ideas to raise money, including exhibiting the torch at the Philadelphia world’s fair and charging people to climb up inside. While the French and American governments dithered, Bartholdi made the statue a reality by his own entrepreneurship, vision, and determination. “By explaining Liberty’s tortured history and resurrecting Bartholdi’s indomitable spirit, Mitchell has done a great service. This is narrative history, well told. It is history that connects us to our past and—hopefully—to our future.” —Los Angeles Times

W

W
Author: Elizabeth Mitchell
Publisher: Berkley
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780425194324

Adding a new Afterword and updated information on the 2000 election and the War on Terrorism, journalist Elizabeth Mitchell discusses the high and low points of George W. Bush's life and political career.

The Age of the Horse

The Age of the Horse
Author: Susanna Forrest
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802189512

A “superb” account of the enduring connection between humans and horses—“Full of the sort of details that get edited out of more traditional histories” (The Economist). Fifty-six million years ago, the earliest equid walked the earth—and beginning with the first-known horse-keepers of the Copper Age, the horse has played an integral part in human history. It has sustained us as a source of food, an industrial and agricultural machine, a comrade in arms, a symbol of wealth, power, and the wild. Combining fascinating anthropological detail and incisive personal anecdote, equestrian expert Susanna Forrest draws from an immense range of archival documents as well as literature and art to illustrate how our evolution has coincided with that of horses. In paintings and poems (such as Byron’s famous “Mazeppa”), in theater and classical music (including works by Liszt and Tchaikovsky), representations of the horse have changed over centuries, portraying the crucial impact that we’ve had on each other. Forrest combines this history with her own experience in the field, and travels the world to offer a comprehensive look at the horse in our lives today: from Mongolia where she observes the endangered takhi, to a show-horse performance at the Palace of Versailles; from a polo club in Beijing to Arlington, Virginia, where veterans with PTSD are rehabilitated through interaction with horses. “For the horse-addicted, a book can get no better than this . . . original, cerebral and from the heart.” —The Times (London)

The New Great American Writers Cookbook

The New Great American Writers Cookbook
Author: Dean Faulkner Wells
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2009-10-20
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1496801296

Published in 1981, The Great American Writers Cookbook was a treasure trove of recipes submitted by the country's most celebrated authors. This all-new collection, a fine follow-up for a new era, features recipes that range from peanut butter sandwiches to eggplant caviar, with dishes—and anecdotes—offered by writers of every imaginable stripe, ethnicity, region, and culture in America. Contemporary novelists such as National Book Award winners Jonathan Franzen and the late, great Bernard Malamud share space with columnists Dave Barry, P. J. O'Rourke, and Christopher Buckley, with journalists and novelists Andrei Codrescu, Anna Quindlen, and John Berendt, and with poet and novelist Sandra Cisneros. The interspersing of recipes from older and younger generations reveals cookery as creatively diverse as the writings from David Guterson, T. C. Boyle, Elizabeth McCracken, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. This unusually tangy assortment of more than 150 recipes runs the gamut from tofu to heart-clogging chili. Writers play fast and loose with ingredients and forewarn readers planning to try them that some of the most seductive recipes are loaded with cholesterol. With such temptations as “Thighs of Delight,” “Crevettes Désir,” a “sexy spaghetti sauce,” and a lemon icebox pie that allegedly elicits proposals of marriage, the recipes—and stories revealing their origins—is enticing, bizarre, and promisingly tasty. The collection gives particular emphasis to contemporary southern writers—Padgett Powell, Jack Butler, Larry Brown, Ellen Gilchrist, and Josephine Humphreys, among others, although their recipes are often far from being quintessentially “southern.” Scintillating with writerly antics and witty histories as transfixing as the recipes themselves, The New Great American Writers Cookbook is not just for daring cooks. It's also a collector’s item for food-doting lovers of American literature.

The Little Red Book of Horse Wisdom

The Little Red Book of Horse Wisdom
Author: Yvette Grant
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2012-07-01
Genre: Pets
ISBN: 1620873303

Many first-time horse owners start out thinking they’ll teach their animals a thing or two; but eventually most horse lovers end each day impatient to find what their horse will teach them next. Share in hundreds of pearls of horse wisdom and discover what the pros have learned from these mighty animals. In this charming collection of quotes from experts and enthusiasts in the horse world, you’ll find humor, poignancy, advice, and more. Share in the touching an d exciting memories and experience stories that demonstrate all the good (and sometimes bad) parts of the relationship between horses and humans. Each little quote conveys a whole range of entertainment and information, yet they’re brief enough that you can get a quick fix of horse sense anytime you want! The book is also conveniently divided into sections by theme, so you can easily jump to a quote to match the mood you’re in.

Horse People

Horse People
Author: Rebecca Louise Cassidy
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801895960

The world of Thoroughbred racing is glamorous, secretive, dangerous, and seductive—the sport of kings and the poor man's obsession. While the spectacle of racing stirs the imagination, it belies the ruthless business that lies beneath. This engaging original study demystifies this complex world by comparing centers of excellence in Britain and North America. Drawing from intensive field work in Suffolk's Newmarket and Kentucky's Lexington, Rebecca Cassidy gives us the inside track on all players in the industry—from the elite breeders and owners to the stable boys, racetrack workers, and veterinarians. She leads us through horse farms, breeding barns, and yearling sales; explains rigorous training regimens; and brings us trackside on race day. But the history of Thoroughbred racing culture is more than a collection of fascinating characters and exciting events. Cassidy's investigation reveals the factors—ethical, cultural, political, and economic—that have shaped the racing tradition.

Lady with a Past

Lady with a Past
Author: Elizabeth Mitchell
Publisher: Byliner, Inc
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2011-10-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1614520178

Much of what you learned in grade school about our most beloved American icon is wrong. For starters, the Statue of Liberty was originally meant for Egypt, conceived to be a slave greeting travelers on the Suez Canal. And when instead she landed on American shores, she wasn't an outright gift from France, but the remarkable scheme of a grandiose Frenchman who tried to hustle everyone from Ulysses S. Grant to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in an attempt to get his colossus built--somewhere. In this surprising and entertaining biography of America's most famous metal Amazon, Elizabeth Mitchell, author of the Byliner Original bestseller "The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin", provides a portrait of not just the Statue of Liberty but her deluded creator. Powered by fierce ambition and ego, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi spent nearly two decades building Lady Liberty, which he considered to be less a symbol of freedom than a monument to himself. In Bartholdi's remarkable, mostly overlooked diary and in colorful letters to his mother--the model for Liberty's imposing face--Mitchell finds a comically self-serving artiste who looks down his Gallic nose at the young and burgeoning United States.But it's those same "subpar" Americans who, in the end, get the job done. Timed to the 125th anniversary of the statue, Mitchell's book tells the real, unvarnished story of how Lady Liberty, beacon to the world, came to be.Elizabeth Mitchell is the author of "Three Strides Before the Wire: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing", "W.: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty", and the Byliner bestseller "The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin."* * *Praise for "Lady with a Past""Elizabeth Mitchell is one of the smartest writers I know and you won't want to miss her take on our lady of the harbor."-- Ron Rosenbaum, author of "Explaining Hitler" and "How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III.""Mitchell has written a page-turner, exposing the riveting history of the Statue of Liberty, a tale far more brilliant in its complexity than the short-hand version we all know. A stunning jewel of intrigue.-- Martha McPhee, National Book Award finalist and author of "Bright Angel Time," "Gorgeous Lies," "L'America," and "Dear Money."