Horse by Geraldine Brooks

(New York: Penguin, 2022), 417

She hadn't meant to stay in America, but careers can be as accidental as car-wrecks. (15:29)
All horses were handsome and good. You just have to find the right use for them. (48:42)
I have found it is easier to plead frank poverty than to tell the simple truth that matrimony with its tight shackles to a certain hearth and the daily inanities of female conversation does not interest me in the least degree. (1:12:38)
It wasn't a good idea to speak without putting a deal of thought into it. Words could be snares: the less of them you laid out there, the less of them that could trap you up. (1:22:09)
Scott: "All men are equal on the turf or under it. That's the saying but the folk who own the horses, it's much more for them than an exciting day out. Here's the ground of it as I see it: a racehorse is a mirror and a man sees his own reflection there. He wants to think he's from the best breeding, wants to think himself brave. Can he win against all comers and if not, does he have self-mastery to take a loss, stay cool in defeat, and try again undaunted? Those are the qualities of a great racehorse and a great gentleman. A gentleman likes to have a horse that gives the right answers to those questions, then he can believe that he will give the right answers too. To do my part I have to give a man a likeness that shows not just how beautiful the horse looks but how beautiful it feels to him." (1:26:57)
Theo had learned to turn his anger into something he could use. Maybe this was a fruitful area of exploration: depictions of enslaved people in equestrian people in the antebellum South. (2:05:00)
Jarret's father on lineages: Put it in your head, boy, then you don't need to be running to no book. (2:20:09)
Hundreds of thousands of people followed him. They invented a mass-produced stopwatch because people got so interested in his record-breaking times. They even wrote poems about him. (3:49:32)
Young women cannot engage in wild escapades without the direst consequences. That is the world as it is. If you do not like it, join me in attempting to change it. Otherwise keep your peace. (4:41:44)
Theo: "All these different laps, all trades, their gear and tackle and trim." That's Hopkins, said Jess. He's one of my favorites. My mom's always quoting him. (5:02:09, cf. Pied Beauty)
He liked to risk better than most men, but he liked it all the more when it paid off. (5:07:45)
Jack leaned down and rummaged in the tied cloth bundle that contained his lunch fixings and his tin water cup, he pulled out the worn Bible. "You take this and you keep on striving to learn how to read what's in it. You hear? I can't take this. The white preacher got plenty. You going to get me another one? Take it son. You're going to need it in New Orleans for sure, that is." (6:34:35)
Preparing for a show, she had her mother's undivided attention and that mattered more to her than blue ribbons. (8:05:16)
"Why wouldn't I?" Jarret blurted. "Treat me like a person." Ten Broeck raised his eyebrows. "Unfortunate to have caused a fungus removable." (9:15:32)
Meanwhile an enterprising clockmaker in New York devised an affordable stopwatch and advertised it as a necessary accoutrement for what was now being branded as the "race against time." (9:33:22)

Topic: Novel, Lexington

Source

Kudija Family Book Club (Mom)

Created: 2026-09-07-Mon
Updated: 2026-09-15-Tue