When Nan Mooney was seven years old, she sat down in her grandmother May-May's living room to watch her first ever horse race. In that single afternoon, she launched what would become a turbulent romance between a woman and a sport.
My Racing Heart is part memoir, part journey into the compelling world of Thoroughbred horse racing. At its heart is Nan's relationship with her grandmother, an adventurer, racing connoisseur, and woman of courage and compassion. May-May fostered in Nan a love of Thoroughbreds and the track, ushering her into a rare corner of the world where risk taking is daily currency.
Nan thought her emotional link to the races died with May-May, only to have it roar back to life a decade later at New York's Belmont Park. This renewed relationship culminates in a grown-up appreciation for a universe where expectations are constantly defied, and in the realization of a longtime dream -- a trip to the Kentucky Derby.
Far more than just a personal tale, My Racing Heart lets readers in on the wild culture and fabulous creatures that rise up around the racetrack. Nan Mooney probes every aspect of the sport: the horses, jockeys, and trainers, the gambling and corruption, its ages-old history, and its forever offbeat society. She takes readers from the backstretch of a small-town track to the stands at Churchill Downs, from the mind of an intrepid gambler to the soul of a Thoroughbred. She explores how the sport itself, and the men and women who participate in it, flourish upon the principle that there are no sure things.
My Racing Heart will speak to every horse lover, to every sports nut, and to everyone who cherishes the thrill of possibility or has ever craved a place to run wild. This unique and exquisite memoir perfectly captures the lure, the glory, and the heartbeat of the track.

My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track

Biographies & Memoirs

Mooney, Nan

Community & Culture

Harper

When Nan Mooney was seven years old, she sat in her grandmother May-May's living room to watch her first horse race . . . And so began a turbulent romance between a woman and a sport. Part memoir, part journey into the compelling world of Thoroughbred horse racing, My Racing Heart gallops headlong into the wild culture and fabulous creatures that rise up around a racetrack. Nan Mooney looks at the horses, jockeys, and trainers; the gambling and corruption; and racing's age-old history and forever offbeat society. From the dusty backstretch at a small-town track to the stands at magnificent Churchill Downs, Nan Mooney captures the risks and the glory, the excitement and the passion, for horse lovers, sports fans, and anyone who has ever craved a place to run wild.

It Books

I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT! offers a new and compelling perspective on conflict and competition among women in the workplace. Nan Mooney explores how and why some women hurt each other on the job, and what we can do to begin cleaning up the mess. Based on real stories from real women, I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT! provides a provocative social and cultural exploration of the often troubled and painful dynamics that unfold among women on the job. The massive influx of women into the workplace in the past thirty years means a whole new category of problems has arisen. Suddenly women are working over, under and alongside other women. Their professional relationships are subject to the pressures and conflicts of organizational culture, not to mention society at large. Women on the job have grown more comfortable with ambition, competition and success, but that hasn’t negated the value they place on communication and relationships, on being liked and being nice. Striking a balance between these two selves is a delicate undertaking and many women are uncertain how to interact in a workplace where such lines are regularly being blurred. Working together, women have fostered a breathtaking degree of positive change. But there is another side to the story. If women are to continue moving forward, the time has come to examine — honestly and unequivocally — our very human impulse to compete with, hurt and even destroy one another to get what we want. In I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT! Nan Mooney provides vivid insights on the emotional toll competition can take on working women and charts a path towards more productive and fulfilling relationships for professional women everywhere.

I Can't Believe She Did That!: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work

Self-Help

Relationships

St.Martin's Press

The massive influx of women into the workplace in the past thirty years means a whole new category of problems has arisen among women at work. Suddenly, women are working over, under, and alongside other women. Women on the job have grown more comfortable with ambition, competition, and success, but that hasn't negated the value they place on communication and relationships―on being liked and being nice. 
 In this provocative social and cultural exploration of the often troubled and painful dynamics that unfold among women at work, Nan Mooney explores how and why some women hurt each other on the job, and what we can do to begin cleaning up the mess. 
I Can't Believe She Did That! provides vivid insights on the emotional toll competition can take on working women and charts a path towards more productive and fulfilling relationships for professional women everywhere.

Business & Money

Business Culture

St. Martin's: Griffin

The first book to exclusively target the struggles of the professional middle class-educated individuals who purposely choose humanistic, intellectual, or creative pursuits-Nan Mooney's (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents is a simultaneously sobering and proactive work that captures a diversity of voices. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with people all across America, (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents explores how stagnant wages, debt, and escalating costs for tuition, health care, and home ownership are jeopardizing today's educated middle class. Teachers, counselors, nonprofit employees, environmentalists, journalists, and the author speak candidly about their sense of economic-and hence emotional-security, and their plans and fears about what's to come. With up-to-date and accessible research, including a short history of the middle class, Mooney explains what it has meant historically to be middle class and how these definitions have changed so dramatically over the decades. She shows that social programs once aided the growth of this class but shifts in policies and labor practices-and increases in fixed costs, such as health care, housing, education, childcare, and household debt-are making it increasingly difficult for families to retain their middle-class status. Throughout the book, Mooney uses real people's stories and an analysis of the new economic reality to put middle-class struggles in perspective: College tuition has increased 35 percent in the past five years, and while the average college undergraduate's debt is $20,000, earnings for graduates have remained stagnant since 2000. In addition, only 18 percent of middle-class families have three months' income saved, and 90 percent of those filing for bankruptcy are middle class. Finally, raising one child through age eighteen costs a middle-income family around $237,000, while the costs of housing, health care, and education are all rising faster than inflation. Despite this difficult reality, Mooney offers concrete ideas on how individuals and society can arrest this downward spiral. Reigniting a sense of social responsibility is crucial-this ranges from improving government-backed education, health care, and childcare programs to drawing on successful models from individual states and other countries. Intimate personal accounts combined with Mooney's incisive analysis will make (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents resonate deeply for America's professional middle class.

(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Beacon Press

Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with people all across America, (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents explores how stagnant wages, debt, and escalating costs for tuition, health care, and home ownership are jeopardizing the finances and futures of today's educated middle class. Despite this sobering reality, Nan Mooney offers concrete ideas on how we can arrest this downward spiral.

History

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mooney, Nan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mooney, Nan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mooney, Nan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track

My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track

I Can't Believe She Did That!: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work

I Can't Believe She Did That!: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work

(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class

(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class