Kick the Latch

By Kathryn Scanlan,

Book cover of Kick the Latch

Book description

Kathryn Scanlan's Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman's life at the racetrack-the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner's circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the "particular language" of "grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards,…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Kick the Latch as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’ve never read anything quite like Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch. Crafted from interviews conducted with a woman named Sonia who’s worked in America’s itinerant and hardscrabble horse racing industry all her life, it’s not quite a memoir, but it reads like one.

I love how Scanlan doesn’t waste time explaining jargon or inserting herself as an interlocutor—reading this book feels like meeting Sonia herself without any intermediary or filter. It’s impossible to tell what’s direct from the interview transcripts and what’s Scanlan’s artistic intervention because all of it rings so true.

That’s what makes this book so fascinating to…

Want books like Kick the Latch?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 78 books like Kick the Latch.

Browse books like Kick the Latch

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in equestrianism, horse racing, and horses?

Equestrianism 34 books
Horse Racing 45 books
Horses 122 books