Racing Books

From the Presidential Suite to the mailroom, and all the levels in between, the customer service aptitude of employees can make or break the success of a business. In his book, Superior Customer Service, Blacharski provides a fresh primer to reinforce the power that customer services has in the compettive world of business. Old conventional widom is shined up with new and fresh perspectives that make the informational, accessible and practical information provided a MUST for every employee. It is my opinion that this is the perfect text to build a customer service in-house training program around. Alternatively, it should be distributed as required reading at new employee orientation with the name badges and insurance information. It really is that good.

So you have a business, and you have customers; what now? "Superior Customer Service" is a one-stop-shop for all of your customer service needs.

Blacharski provides business owners with a fool-proof guide to keeping customers happy and business booming. With easy to read large type and bulleted checklists, finding the solution you need to any customer service issue could not be easier.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to run a successful business. In fact, buy this book for your employees and keep the "Ten Commandments for Employers/Employees" on hand too keep things running smoothly.

I bought this book because I wanted to increase my conversion ratios. I wanted to know how to generate business and keep my costumers coming back. There are tried and true tricks for building consumer loyalty, and many of them are revealed in Blacharski's manual.

If you're a follower of the author's, you'll really appreciate this book. It's past-paced and, like it says, a ready-made step-by-step costumer service training manual. His "Ten Commandments for Managers" and then "...Employees" are great checklists/tools.

Blacharski also covers ethical ways to effectively collect client information and outsource. Superior Customer Service is also an entertaining read. There's a section that shows when to put on specific kinds of customer service "hats." My favorite description is of "The Spelunker's Helmet." It makes perfect sense. So does explanation of "The Mind Reader's Turban."

With so many stores retail and online selling the same products at nearly the same prices, what makes consumers decide to shop at one place over another? SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE is the answer - and a book that tells both brick n mortar and online stores how to win over the competition. Chapters detail innovations, tips and tricks which are easy to implement and that drive customer attention and interest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Author Dan Blacharski has done it well. He's written a book about one facet of business that has not been dealt with much recently, despite its critical importance to business success. Blacharski discusses all aspects of customer service for both web-based and conventional businesses, and he defines guidelines for establishing a business whose employees have the "customer service mindset" that, undoubtedly, leads to increased sales and profitability.

This book is chock full of advice and specific steps and procedures to follow to create a customer service-oriented environment that will set a business apart from the competition. It is an excellent treatment of the subject and will be invaluable to business owners, customer service managers and personnel, and sales personnel.

When you pick up this book, jump right to "The Ten Commandments of Customer Service for Managers" and "The Ten Commandments of Customer Service for Employees" (pages 252-254), read them, and then start at the beginning.

Klein, Michael. "Track Conditions: A Memoir", University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

Memorable Memoirs

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

Michael Klein is an award winning poet and should win awards for his wonderful memoir "Track Conditions". It is both shameless and fascinating. After he followed his lover to an Ohio race track, Michael Klein began a three year career as a groom in the world of horse racing. He managed to bond with the 1984 Kentucky Derby winner, Swale. However he was plague with alcoholism and deeply concerned about his relationship with his lover which was on the skids as well as memories of having been abused as a child. His memoir is a story written from the heart and it is a tale of resilience. Using the race track as a metaphor for life, he shares his joys and his pain.
This is some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read but that does not mean that Klein does not get down and gritty. He holds nothing back as he illuminates his life. His life is not a pretty story--it is filled with excesses--but even so it is beautifully rendered. Here is an honest recreation of a life that is compelling.
We read as Klein succumbs to alcohol and enters a depressive state over lost love, dependency and casual random sex. It is never easy to read coming-of-age stories that are filled with pain but this is a coming-of-age story not to be missed.
It is likewise a story about horses and with the equestrian background we read about a relationship between tow men that are in the midst of deterioration.
The world of horse racing is a homophobic place but Klein managed to survive it and move up along the circuit as a groom. He discovered an affinity for horses and loved them as they loved him. We get to look into the world of horses and learn things that the average person never knows. He refers to the secrets of the world of horses as "racetrack society. The world of horse racing is a gritty and unreal world but it is not just that world that Klein tells us of. He writes of how little was available to a young homosexual with very limited means.
Written in the past tense, the memoir puts a distance between reader and writer from his beginnings until 1984 with quite a shocking ending. Klein makes no evaluations or judgments--he leaves that to the reader.
It is Klein's openness that makes this book so good. He defies the usual conventions of narrative and he is a writer to be cherished. The book is unique and very special and in no way follows the styles of other coming out stories. It is harrowing tale of redemption written by a poet in prose. The chapters are short and amazing and we realize early that there is little chance of resolution to be found. It is not a tell-all memoir--rather it is a half-told life and has something for everyone. It is not a book just for gays but rather a small life story that looms large.

Being a straight nursing student who lives in small town america,I wasn't sure I would relate to this book. But the writing and the openess of the author surpasses any differences between our lives. An amazing book.

Michael defies narrative convention while achieving its goals in his long prose poem/memoir/story. His is a story of triumph: whether found covered in ash and velvet and 100 dollar bills or perhaps in the spotlight of literary praise. Either way this story helped save me. Michael is a writer I respect and emulate.

donaldahearn@hotmail.com

This book is so unique and special -- not at all your typical gay coming out story. There are horses here and the tactile world of the racetrack and Klein's lyrical and spare prose adds just the right kind of music to a poignant and harrowing redemption tale.

Oprah, for a million little reasons, you chose the wrong memoir for your book club.

In an age where honesty in memoir seems to be a rare commodity, TRACK CONDITIONS is probably one of the most honest, compelling, and underrated books in print.

A fascinating glimpse into author Michael Klein's downward spiral into alcoholism, lost love, dependency, and casual sex, this lyrical memoir is not an easy read-never easy to read about another person's coming-of-age psychic pain. But this memoir is a must-read.

A real-life thoroughbred horse story, from a former groom's point of view, this memoir focuses on the deteriorating relationship between two young men in the midst of their own personal crises.

In 1979, Klein, a confirmed New Yorker, desperately followed his lover Richard Coatney into the homophobic underworld of thoroughbred racing, beginning his career as a horse walker at River Downs in Cincinnati and working his way up to groomer at Belmont, Churchill Downs, and Pimlico.

Among all the empty booze bottles and one-night stands, Klein discovered an aesthetic affinity for horses, in particular one special--and well-known--thoroughbred, precipitating the author's final downfall and then leading toward his eventual salvation--and this memoir.

Klein leads the reader into a world rarely ventured into by the average horse track bettor: vivid descriptions of lame horses being cruelly euthanized and the casual doping of horses for monetary gain. At the beginning of chapter three, the author summarizes, from his perspective, the visible and invisible aspects of "racetrack society":

"There are people you see all the time: the barn help, the trainers, the exercise crew, the men and women who deliver hay and straw and feed. And there are those you see only rarely, if at all: the jockeys, the parimutuel clerks, the owners, the starting-gate crew. Two worlds: the training world and the racing world."

Ironically, from the reader's perspective, the visibility/invisibility paradigm is directly the opposite from the author's.

And Klein offers insights into worlds which are largely invisible to most of us: in addition to the gritty side of thoroughbred racing, he also reveals the limited options available to an impoverished young homosexual, also a poet and rebel, of the late seventies and early eighties.

First published in 1997, the memoir's main narrative covers the author's racetrack life, from its inauspicious beginning to its shocking 1984 denouement, with some interspersed flashbacks to his abusive and incestuous childhood and Manhattan life with Richard.

While revealing vivid and harsh details about his life, the author maintains a psychic distance from the reader through his dispassionate use of the past tense; moreover, he does not editorialize from the perspective of the forty-something memoirist.

He simply unfolds his story, leaving judgments, analyses, and evaluations up to his readers.

The distance works well; the author never whines or asks his audience to feel sorry for him. He simply presents "in-your-face" statements and facts, like them or hate them.

It doesn't matter what the reader thinks; in the end, Klein, with a metaphorical kick from his equine friend, triumphs.

There is beauty and poignancy in Klein's spare prose, yet glimmers of humor add some comic relief, for example, when he describes some of the other grooms and other track people and recounts some his late mother's family stories.

I recommend this book for both gays and straights--anyone who appreciates a well-written life-story, no matter how down and gritty.

I own the 1997 hardcover edition, and it is worth every one of the twenty-two dollars that I paid for it.

This book is excellent, I can't tell you how many times I've referred back to it. Contains tips for training horse and rider in all three phases, and common problems that most riders will certainly face sometime in their career. Lots of great photographs to show you the right (and sometimes not so right) way to do things. Advice on conditioning (which I've found to be very helpful) and gymnastics at the back of the book. If you event, get this book.

I have had the incredible opporunity to work with this man in person. He is THE most informative, patient, helpful trainer I have ever worked with. Both of his books, "Training the Three-Day Event Horse and Rider" and "Gymnastics", are must-reads for any equestrian. I can only hope he writes more!!

I am just a beginner, but this book inspired me to try hard to event. I loved the gymnastics in the back!

In 1984 I began riding in Jimmy's clinics and have accumulated numerous hours riding, watching and listening. During this time I took copious notes on his comments; measurements of his gymnastics; watched other riders and listened to Jimmy's critiques. "Training-the-Three-Day Event Horse" IS Jimmy Wofford. His concise, straitforward teaching comes through in his book just as though you are there listening to him. If I could only have one book, it would be this one. I recommend it to my students, I give it as gifts and I wouldn't leave home without it.

I was SO happy to finally read a book involving cross country with so much emphasis on good basics and snaffle bits. I am so sick of hearing trainers advocating bigger bits to control your horse. Mr. Wofford advocates better TRAINING to control your horse - what a concept. This book covers quite a range of topics; from choosing an event horse, dressage, how the horse sees jumps vs. how we see jumps, cross country, jumping, conditioning, cross country position and more. I think this is a great book!

I have been slowly reading and researching the automobiles this book mentions for the past month. The book is filled with references to never before publicized engine programs.

For example, did you know that Ford made a V12 out of their now legendary 4.6L V8? The car is used in an Austin Martin, Ford is the parent company.
Little details like this will keep popping up as you read this book. You'll never believe which V6 Ford engine was used to make the other V12 detailed in this book.

The book was printed on high quality paper, giving the images of these rare engines an almost artistic quality on the pages inside. The photo of a BMW V12 engine pulling on a dyno with it's turbos giving off a red glow is spectacular!

Ludvigen's book on the V-12 is a well researched but compulsively readable account of the extraordinary and powerful engines with the lavish specification of having twelve cylinders. While giving details of design and development, the author also evokes the mixture of power, refinement and mechanical sophistication offered by these exotic engines from Ferrari, Aston-Martin, Mercedes and BMW while not neglecting the glorious history of the American Packard and Cadillac applications of of the V 12. It is like reading a book describing food where every bite is of gourmet quality, a city where all the streets are clean and beautiful or a dinner where all the guests are witty and candlelight glows off the bare shoulders of lovely, sophisticated women.

A truly excellent work for those enchanted by the fine detail of technology. A myriad of fine drawings and half tones backed up by colour plates of the V12's birth and development through the century. Karl's fluid and emminently readable style maintains interest with pithy anecdotes like Henry Ford's reason for sticking with 4 cylinders rather than 6: "A car should have no more cylinders than a cow has teats". From 1.5 litres to 27 litres the V12 story is always absorbing.

Finally, a book that lives up to it's advertising. Every page is interesting in this voluminous 600 page masterwork. No long boring company histories and endless pictures of people here. Ludvigsen stays on subject with clear modern pictures and expert analysis from makers and users of such engines. There is not one weak point in the whole thing, I feel I got much more than I paid for with this great book.

The author is British plain and simple, and it show with whimsical sayings like 'monkey motion' and the like. Outstanding historical documentation, but the author overwhelms with minutiae like bore and stroke for every engine, and which cylinder bank is staggered forward.
Also the author completely disregards the 180 degree V-12s (not boxing, boxing has 180 Vee angle with a 180 degree split crank journal) and spends too much time on VV12s (three banks of four cylinders).
There are some errors in the coverage of modern engines, notably VW VR6 and W12 information. and the author fails to explain the inherrent balance of an inline six, and how any vee angle V12 is balanced, but not necessarily even firing.
A good value, and the color photos are icing on the cake.

I usually like the running books with a 12 or 16 week schedule pre written for you so was wondering if Salazar's book would be well suited for me, in that I would have to write my running schedule myself. After reading his book, I found his advice easy to follow and the rule's of thumb's that he recommends are very helpful when you feel like deviating from your schedule since you now know the range to work within. Rick

I'm a novice runner wanting to take it to the next level and needed some advise and inspiration. I found that I was doing several things wrong and I have made major improvements in my running since buying the book. I now have a plan of action for continued improvement, and this book can take me there and beyond.

This book is quick and simple to read and covers all the basics, plus more. It's been extremely helpful.

This is my favorite running book by far. Alberto Salazar is obviously trying to convey the best information he can to the reader and he does a great job. The book is weak in the area of training schedules but strong on virtually everything else. Most of the book has been useful to me on a daily basis. The only real complaint I have is that the author, like many of the older elite runners , does not personally do as much stretching as he recommends for the reader, does not use a heart rate monitor, etc. But he, as a coach, recommends it to other runners while not having a whole lot of personal experience and it shows. I use both so sometimes I read between the lines. He also does not understand cycling and its effect on the runner. A not uncommon malady among runners.

An excellent and complete review of this book was written by the Zimmermans. I would, however, like to add that from the perspective of a better than middle of the pack masters runner, that this book contains everything you need to be a successful road runner. Most of the information is not new but it is an excellent SINGLE SOURCE for anyone who wants to find a way to improve his or her running. Although co-written by an elite runner, I was pleased to read about training in a manner to which I could relate. The pace charts, age graded and other tables are excellent. Thanks to both Alberto and Richard for writing a running book that made me feel they were talking directly to me. BRAVO!

Since Alberto Salazar was a former world-class runner
himself, before retiring from competitive running, this
book is definitely worth checking out. It also helped that
elite runners like Bill Rodgers and Mary Decker Slaney also
had positive comments regarding this book.
This book is useful because it takes you from preparing
race, the race itself, and the post-race routines. It also
discusses injuries, and how to deal with them, and other
associated topics, like the psychological aspect of running,
and basics like weight training, crosstraining and nutrition.
If you're a beginner or even a veteran runner, you will
find useful advice, because there was a few things I picked
up in this book that I don't recall seeing in other running
books, and viceversa. If I had a complaint, is that it only
had a sample training schedule for someone training for their
first marathon, not including his own elite schedule when he
was running 120 miles or more weekly. This schedule was not
of any use to me, because my weekly training mileage already
exceeds the highest weekly mileage suggested in the book.
However, despite this, it is well worth the investment,
if you plan to enter a road race at some point in the future.
The topics are logically organized in a chronological fashion
that makes the book easy and simple to read. FYI, if you want
a sneak peek, here's a look at the Table of Contents, and you
can decide if this book is for you or you can take a pass and
look for another book that will fit your goals more suitably.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction From the 100 Yard Dash to 1
the Ultramarathon

Part 1. Preparing To Race

1. On The Road To Racing 9
Why Race*Coaching What Nature Gave You*
Before You Start*Stages of Life*Medical Issues

2. Basic Principles of Running Faster 23
Muscle, Power, Fuel and Oxygen*Base Training*Speed
Training*Lab Tests and Training Theory*Callusing
The Mind*Rest*Building a Workout Schedule

3. Base Training
Hard-Easy Pattern*LSD Pacing*Warm-Up and Cooldown* 38
Hydration*Maintaining Consitency*Overtraining

4. Running Form
Upper-Body Form*Leg Motion*One Ideal Form 50

5. Speed Training 61
Eyeing The Prize*The Variety of Speed Workouts*
Picking Your Benchmark Pace*How To Run A Speed
Workout*Customizing Your Speed Workout*Training for
the Distances*Other Workouts*Putting It All Together

Part 2. Oiling The Machine

6. Stretching 85
Stretching Basics*Ten-Minute Stretching

7. Weight Training and Cross-Training 95
Lower-Body Exercises (Core Program)*Upper-Body
Exercises (Core-Program)*Pylometrics*Cross-
Training

8. Nutrition and Weight Control 112
Nutrition Basics*Fueling The Serious Athlete*
The Right Weight For You*Body Composition:
Measuring The Fat

9. Aches and Pains 126
Basics of Field Repairs*Common Hurts*Excess
Pronation and its Control*Coming Back After an
Injury Layoff*DMSO*Lesser Ailments*Other Maladies

10. The Runner's Mind 157
Paying The Price*Building The Confidence*Letting Go*
Relaxation*The Mental Race: Fighting Fatigue*Long-
Term Motivation

Part 3. The Race

11. Getting Ready 171
Choosing Your Race*Planning Your Race*Tapering*
Registration and Packet Pickup*The Night Before The
Race

12. Race Day 179
Rise and Shine*Warming Up*The Start

13. After The Gun 190
Split Times*Race Strategy 101*The Dictates of Nature*
Fine-Tuning Your Pace*Hydration*Gels

14. The Finish and Beyond 207
The Final Mile*At The Finish Line*Recovery*Setting
Your Next Goal

Part 4. The Marathon--And More

15. The Marathon 219
Marathon Training*The Big Day*The Recovery

16. Masters Running 240
Masters Physiology: Bad News/Good News*Masters
Training*Age-Graded Performance Standards

17. Advanced Challenges 255
Race Strategy 102: Racing People Rather Than The
Clock*Cross-Country and Trail Running*Relay Races*
Alternative-Format Races*Mega-Races*Triathlons*
Ultramarathons

Appendix: Pace Chart of Common 273
Workout and Racing Distances

Index 279

All in all, this book is fairly easy and fast to read. You
could probably finish the book in 4-5 hours, since there

are diagrams, charts, and other detailed information. It's
nearly 300 pages, but a person could probably polish it
off in a weekend or less if they devote a couple of hours
or so each day.

This was one of the most wonderful books I have read. I have recommended it to everyone I know. Heartwarming, poignant and oh so enriching. Loved it!! The narrater also did such a great job. I hated for it to end but it ended in such a wonderful way. I've passed on my cd but am purchasing the book to keep and re-read again.

Very good story, engaging (or horrible)characters that were wonderfully and differently described from a special dog's perspective. The audiobook reader was excellent and I stayed up way too late listening. Highly recommended. I'll remember this for a long time!

Such an engaging, involving story told by a wise, wonderful dog. Some of it has been so painful and other parts so delightful. All in all one of the best books I've heard in a long time.

I have read a number of books on tape and this was the first on CD. It is without question the best and most entertaining book on tape or CD to which I have ever listened.In fact, I have enjoyed it so much that I have now listened to it three times since purchasing it. I have told many people about it, have loaned them my set of CDs, and encouraged others to purchase it (which they have done). As a journalist and public relations practitioner who does a lot of writing, I have a great appreciation for extraordinary writing. This is an exceptional work by Garth Stein and I knew that even before I finished the first CD. He and the narrator do such a wonderful job that you nearly feel like Enzo and Denny are your friends. Was not aware of Garth Stein previously, but will be looking to read or listen to more of his work in the future. Mike Shaw

"Garth Stein has managed to combine my two loves - racing and my dog - into a sometimes amusing, sometimes heartbreaking, literary masterpiece. >From one dog and racing lover to another, thanks for the ride."
Bob Bondurant (and Rusty)
Owner, CEO
The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving

Great inormation for adults and kids a like. We loved this book as a family and find that all of us pick it up to read and look at. Great inspiration.

This book is great, it has beautiful pictures and info. However, I did find a few things that were not to great. First of all, when describing the Alaskan Malamute, the illustration had a pure black dog... Malamutes are NEVER pure black, they can be all white but that's the only exception for all one color, the only labeled pic of malamutes are an all white and all black, no markings! They also had very vague info on them. Malamute's real name is ALASKAN MALAMUTE, no where in the book did it say ALASKAN in front of malamute, well howcome you put SIBERIAN and ALASKAN in front of the husky? And two, I got a pup this August and I'm going to start training, so I read the chapter called "How to train Sled Dogs" it had absolutely nothing about training them except for, start training as pups! Blank spot! On what do you train them? All in all though, this was a beautiful book, I just use it for the pictures now.

"Born to Pull" was a joyous surprise. I expected the usual photos and line drawing illustrations accompanying the "how to" text, but was delighted to see the exquisite watercolors of my favorite subject, sled dogs. The artist and author make an excellent team in this effort, rather like champion duel lead dogs! A must for any mushers' library, armchair or otherwise. Perfect for gifts.

"Born to Pull" was recommended to me by the owner of the kennel where our family would be going for our first mushing experience. Though aimed at upper elementary kids, the amount of information is amazing. The illustrations enhance the content beautifully; particularly stunning is a painting of a team pulling under the Northern Lights.

Most enjoyable are the stories interspersed throughout; stories from well-known mushers such as Gary Paulsen and Jamie Nelson. Stories of dogs that decided to run the wrong way at the end of a race, and of dogs who found the way home in a raging storm.

Reading this book did not guarantee that I would not wipe out on the sled, but when I did, I knew just what the snow hook was!

I found this book in the kids' section while looking for Christmas presents. Knew nothing about it, and sled dogs are not my dog-of-choice, but was immediately compelled to buy it even tho it cost more than I'd planned. Amazingly full of good information, understanding of dogs and pulling, but there was a twinkle in the eye of the author, too. Imagine the runway team surrounding the ice-fisherman and eating all his catch!

The illustrations too are extraordinary. Such obvious awareness of the inner workings of dogs is unusual. The expressions of each dog are wonderful.

Highest recommendation for sled-dog enthusiast or any dog person, young or old.

Who needs this book:
If you are beyond learning how to sail (ie. which ropes to pull and how to hoist the mainsail).
If you want (or need) to go faster.
If you want to enjoy sailing, not wrestling your boat.
You sail or crew on a beach cat!

What do you get from it:
Learn what makes your boat "go" or slow.
(Painful) Mistakes, and how to avoid them.
How to "think right" (hard to explain) in theory so you get it right on the water!

Catamaran Sailing for the Nineties. It may sound dated in this millennium, but you would definitely be missing out on some excellent info if that deterred you from buying this excellent value for money book.

Rick and Mary have a great writing style. They somehow know how to take complicated theoretical problems and conjure up images in your mind. Some books are dry and theoretical, not so with this one! Because of their graphinc writing style, you can almost see exactly what they are explaining unfold in your head. Perhaps it could be a bit too much for an absolute beginner, but after a season of sailing, they too should be craving for more speed and control!
There are also a lot of diagrams to help those that need help visualize what is going on.
All in all, I am convinced that anyone (who does not already have a cupbourd full of olympic gold medals) that reads this and tests it out on the water will be a better sailor for it.

This book has all the info i was looking for in an easy to read format.

Hi folks,

First of all I'll have to confess that I haven't read the whole book yet, but it's a must-own book for beach-cat sailors. This book is the closest you can come to the beac-cat sailors bible.

The book has covered such a great amount fo material in an easy and explaining way, with humour as a common agent. The don't's and musts of catamaran sailing is marked with fat types so you'll easy remember wath to do or what you must never do xD .

For crew the text is often sumed up so it's easy to scum the text.

I'll say, at the end, the book is worth every penny for experienced sailors as for newbeeies. Have fun :)

I got this book a week after I entered my first race. I had raced monohulls before but this was my first cat race. Lots of amazing tips for any level. Read this before your next race and you will be sure to pick off a few more compettitors..... I learned a lot and can use the tactics and techniques every time I go sailing wether I am racing or not. I would strongly recomend this book.

Rick White is the master of communicating how to sail a catamaran. This book mirrors his seminars and videos. I think the video series might even be an even better starting point for most catamaran sailors because much of book is about how-to activities that should be visualized and practiced.

Jockey Kelly Hughes and trainer Dexter Cranfield have their licenses suspended by the Oxford stewards for supposedly throwing a race. Hughes believes that they were framed and he sets out to clear their names and get the licenses restored. Who would want to ruin their careers? As the truth is revealed we hear a story of sexual deviation, blackmail, fixed evidence and attempted murder.

I have the listened to the BBC dramatization of Enquiry at least a dozen times and the unabridged version several additional times and it never fails to entertain me. It was the first of the Dick Francis stories I listened to or read and it is brilliant from several points of view. The development of all the characters is done so well, especially Kelly Hughes and his helper Roberta and minor characters such as the sleazy detective and the horse trainers and owners. You meet so many memorable characters as Kelly seeks to clear his name and Dexter Cranfield's as well. Kelly Hughes was the kind of hero several stories could have been done about and I wish there were more. While not all the Francis stories were written quite as well as this story, I listen to this one several times a year. I strongly recommend this book/audio to all fans of Dick Francis and the hourse racing business.

"Yesterday I lost my licence."

That's how the book begins ... and indeed Kelly Hughes, a leading jump jockey , has been indefinitely suspended from racing after being found guilty of deliberately losing a race.

He knows that someone has rigged evidence against him, and rather than sit back and wait for the ban to be lifted , he sets out to find his secret enemy.

Hughes isn't a detective, and just as he doesn't really know how to carry out an investigation, the reader can't guess at how the plot will develop. My favourite highlight is when Hughes is driving home after a dance. At first it seems to be just a 'filler' scene, but it turns into something more dramatic - and the writing here is particularly well-crafted.

The two main characters are Hughes himself , a widower, and Roberta, the snooty daughter of his employer. Near the start of the book Roberta asks him:

" "That picture .. that's your wife isn't it?"
I nodded.
"I remember her". She said. "She was always so sweet to me. She seemed to know what I was feeling. I was really awfully sorry when she was killed"
I looked at her in surprise. The people Rosalind had been sweetest to had invariably been unhappy. She had had a knack of sensing it, and giving succour without being asked. "

Unfortunately Roberta has been brought up by her father to regard jockeys as an inferior social class, and it takes a long time for the two of them to kindle any real friendship, let alone romance.

Francis is particularly good in this book with the minor characters - such as the aristocratic Bobbie, who clearly is very fond of Roberta but can't help hinting that Hughes is a better match for her, or Derek the diffident mechanic who kept most of his brains in his fingertips.

The plot doesn't flag, the tale builds to a satisfactory climax and I only wish Hughes had appeared in another of Francis' books.

This was the first Dick Francis book I have read and I must say that I am impressed! I bought it because I had nothing to read one rainy afternoon and because I am interested in horseracing. I read it in one day. The characters were real and the plot was interesting. If you look at the copy I have you will see all kinds of scribbles in it where I have marked quotes and phrases that I liked. For example, Kelly describes how he feels after his accident as "Not so much as banging the head against a brick wall as being actively attacked by a cliff". Yep, I know that feeling...Francis just said it better than I could have. Just one warning...don't pick up this book unless you can afford to spend the whole afternoon reading it.

The primary reason I continue to seek out and read Dick Francis is that he continually creates heroes that are efficacious and rational. He avoids the common pitfalls of most modern writers, and instead invents characters who pass the ultimate test: "Would I like to meet and know this person?" If you can answer "yes" to that question then there is great potential for enjoyment in the fiction centered around that character. If you answer "no" to that question, why even bother reading further?

Dick Francis' characters almost always recieve an unreserved "YES!" Read "Enquiry," it's not the best from Francis but it's still furlongs beyond the rest.

Bought this for my boyfriend... He loved it. Good for guys/girls that are really into the history of drag racing. Great pictures and lots of information

I love this book. It takes me back to a time when you could weld some tubes together, drop in an engine , pour in some nitromethane, and run it out. These are the stories of legendary men and women of our time that made history on the asphalt strips of California. There will never be a time again of such pure simplicity of art expressed in men and machines.

The title "Fuel and Guts" says it all. It's all about guys strapped into frame rails, feet against clutch cans, flames from headers, smoking tires and chutes blossoming at top end as told by the heroes themselves.

I got this book for my husband for xmas. He reads it almost nightly and is always reading me exerpts from the true stories of drag racing's legends. The pictures are awesome too.THANKS FOR A GREAT BOOK. HE LOVES IT!!!

This was one of the first projects I worked on when I joined the Motorbooks staff. A rather cranky guy named Tom Madigan called me on my first morning, looking for some photographs he had sent with a book proposal about a year earlier. I told him I hadn't been a Motorbooks employee back then, but I'd be happy to see if I could locate the missing pix. When I found them, I immediately took them to my new boss, explained the situation, made him look at the photos, and asked if they weren't some of the coolest old drag racing pictures he'd ever seen. Then, I called Tom back and told him I'd found the photos and could send them back right away, but I'd prefer to keep them because I wanted to do a book with him. Thus began a long, sometimes tedious, but ultimately insanely rewarding journey.

Those of you who have read the first edition (the second edition is being printed as I write this) might have noticed that Kent Fuller's name is mispelled pretty much throughout the book as "Ken Fuller." That was my doing. Before you start thinking I'm an idiot, turn to page 181 in the book and look at the cowl of Roland Leong's "Hawaiian" dragster. What does it say? That's right, it says "Ken." I saw this just before we sent the proofs to the printer. Now, I know that Kent Fuller's name is Kent Fuller, but there it was, right on Roland's car: Ken. I panicked. I thought I must have been wrong all these years. I looked in Dr. Bob Post's seminal book on Top Fuel racing, High Performance, and it reaffirmed what I had thought I knew to be true. Why, though, would Roland have painted the wrong spelling on his car? I called Tom, but he was out of his office. So I made an executive decision. The wrong one, it turned out. Okay, now that you know the whole story, you can go ahead and tell me I'm an idiot. (As an aside to this story, I saw Roland at a book signing Autobooks/Aerobooks in Los Angeles had for Fuel & Guts. I immediately informed him of the trouble he'd caused me. To this day, he maintains that he really thought it was Ken, not Kent. No, Roland wouldn't do anything like mispell somebody's name to get a rise out of the guy, would he? Not Roland! Who, by the way, is one of the nicest people I've ever met. Which either says something about him or the rest of the folk I've encountered in my life.)

So, the basic point I'm making here is that Fuel & Guts is an oral history. There are occasional mistakes, people misremember things (I mean, most of the people in the book are approaching their 200th birthday, for crying out loud), people have axes to grind or they just want to poke fun at their peers -- it's everything a good oral history should be, and it'll give you a really good idea of what it was like to create a brand new form of motorsport. If you couldn't be there yourself, reading these stories is the next best thing. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of making this book, from working with Tom Madigan to meeting a few of the drag-racing heroes of my youth. It was a labor of love, and, judging from all the nice reviews, it sure has paid off. Thanks to all of you for making it possible. Now quit reading this stuff and buy the book. You'll like it.

This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of drag racing. Great stories, pictures and technical information. Brings you back to when drag racing was raw and gutsy. Makes you want to get out on the track (again?). Good for the novice and the old timers!