100 books like Black Beauty

I think this is one of the most wonderfully whimsical and beautiful books. I love the message of hope and strength you get from it, and I also love the deeper meanings given through allegory.

I enjoyed this book’s breadth, but incredible spiritual depth and it also made me look at his other books. I also liked that it’s not necessarily a happy ending, and yet, on another level, it is. I learnt a lot from this book and I know others who say the same.

When I first picked up Seabiscuit, I was dubious; I had already read too many stories of champion racehorses that were either dry histories or overblown hero-worship.

A hundred pages later (where did the time go?) I was completely engrossed and headed for an all-night read. In Hillenbrand’s hands, carefully researched history became the foundation for a sweeping story of a great horse, the incredible cast of people who gave him what he needed to become a legend, and the world of horses, horse racing, and American life in the 1930s.

If I ever write anything half as good, I will be well content.

The story is narrated by Joey, a beautiful bay horse brought up on a farm, who is ‘called up’ during World War I to carry supplies, guns, and pull ambulances among the trenches of the Western Front. Joey witnesses the horror and futility of war with great compassion and a simplicity that still affects me today when I think of the 20 million people who died and the eight million horses, mules, and donkeys killed by their injuries, disease, and exhaustion. The book further resonates because I live in the town where Joey and 10 million soldiers and nurses, including my grandfather, left for France. The officers’ stables still stand at Shorncliffe Barracks and charity, the Shorncliffe Trust, is trying to get listed status to stop them being knocked down.

This is an unlikely story, yet it is also a true one. Harry de Leyer, a Dutch immigrant, saved a horse named Snowman from the slaughterhouse. Harry trained Snowman to become a show-jumping champion. This is a story about an incredible long shot and about a man who believed in his horse. What’s not to love?

I am a third-generation horsewoman, and I grew up hearing stories about the “great horses.” I remember my mother sharing the tale of Snowman and Harry de Leyer with me. For the most part, equestrian stars are incredibly expensive, pedigreed animals. Snowman, in contrast, pulled a plow. The story of Snowman makes it seem possible that we can also find or encounter our own magical plow horse who can carry us to the rarified air of the top of the equestrian world.

I don’t know how many times I stayed up late, unable to put down a book, but The Black Stallion was my first ‘stay-up-all-night’ read. Alec’s journey of survival and winning over the Black Stallion exploded in my mind. I drew, I wrote, I joined a swim club and started riding lessons.

I learned to never give up on my dreams, no matter how impossible they might seem. It also drew me into the world of natural horsemanship as well as to choose an interesting career: forestry. I wanted to live the adventure and did!  For me, this is where it started.

I loved this book because it is a memoir of one woman’s journey across the United States on horseback.

This is a true story of courage, connection, and fortitude. Descriptive and emotional, I felt like I was on the journey with the author, experiencing everything as she did and being completely in awe of the strength and determination she had to complete such a life-changing journey. 

This memoir captures the journey of child soldiers during the civil war in Sierra Leone, and shows how once-innocent children with ordinary lives became killing machines in the hands of a ruthless rebel leader. Beah doesn't shy away from the gruesomeness of civil war, but there is beauty in how he weaves this memoir that reads like a novel. Though I am not usually a fan of books with a lot of violence, I was drawn to this one and could not put it down. I believe history is best learned from those who have first-hand experience. This is a one-of-a-kind book and to Beah’s credit, well-written as well. 

I loved this YA because it contains many of my favorite things: an evocative island setting, strong characters, high stakes, some romance, and animals.

The Celtic-inspired island of Thisby felt so incredibly real to me, as did the dangerous water horses the men raced every fall. I loved how brave the female protagonist, Puck, is to want to enter this race with her ordinary pony, Dove. Sean, an island boy, has his own sympathetic reasons for entering the race.

I’m always drawn to books with impossible problems. Neither Puck nor Sean can afford to lose, even as a romance develops between them. I also really like a YA book that touches on sibling relationships. This book stayed with me for a long time.

Gaskell wrote this novel at a time when workers and their families in Britain’s industrial cities labored under intolerable conditions, and it was all too common for their suffering “to pass unregarded by all but the sufferers,” as Gaskell puts it in her preface. Her aim in writing the novel was to bring their plight to the attention of those better off—and to engender sympathy for their plight in the hearts and minds of readers. In the first half of the novel, she succeeds completely; it would be impossible for any reader to remain unmoved while reading of the lives of the Wilson family and the Barton family. The second half of the novel succeeds less fully, but the first half remains as powerful a piece of writing as I have ever read.

One of the very important agricultural issues is treatment of animals especially those grown in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Singer was among the very first who wrote about how animals are treated by the agricultural enterprise and by people. He was among the first to tell us that animals can suffer and therefore we must consider our moral obligation to any creature that can suffer.

Animal science has made more progress than most other agricultural disciplines in changing the way animals are treated. There is still a long way to go.