STUD: ADVENTURES IN BREEDING (2008)

Not the best book for prudish types, as there are stories galore of equine heaving and humping here. Conley takes readers into the pre-coital stall of Seattle Slew, a stallion who warms up to Andrea Bocelli music before going in to meet his mare. He captures the Kentucky drawl of horse people without sounding condescending or contrived: '''Hell nation,' one man said, 'I'm sharp as a bowling ball today.''' And he cleverly compares the elaborate social and economic layers of breeding to the money-conscious matchmaking found in Jane Austen novels. Employing the perfect tone of intelligent bemusement, Conley delivers a story that's less about the business than about the colorful people, and ponies, who keep it running.