The Fox in the Cupboard, A Summary

I think most people enjoyed reading The Fox in the Cupboard by Jane Shilling although there were complaints.
People didn't like the way it jumped around.  Most people would find the story of a woman falling into a pursuit, like riding and then hunting, and the subsequent learning experience, pretty boring.  If the book had followed a chronological path, lots of people would not have persevered.
People didn't like some of the irrelevant detail.  Yes, well, that's a difficult line to establish.  What is exactly relevant and what isn't?  This author did not give us any insight into her job, her friends, how she spent her free time outside of riding, what she cooks, etc.  Although some people want to read exclusively about horses and hunting, many people need to see something else.  I didn't feel like this was padding but several readers definitely did.
Various things were left hanging.  This is true.  Lots of time was spent on house searches and no conclusion was supplied.  For me, this was momentarily annoying but then I breezed along to the next thing.
We all agreed that the author had perfectly captured certain aspects of the sport:  the challenges of learning to ride as an adult; the struggle to ride (and turn out) "well enough" to foxhunt; the internal struggle of rooting for the hounds or rooting for the foxes.
The author handles the anti-hunting aspects in England at the time very well.  She also provides some history of the hunt club she rides with and discusses its territory issues within a broader context.  These were some excellent discussion points for issues that foxhunting is dealing with everywhere.  That led into a discussion about why it's so difficult to "grow" our sport.
The author is a writer -- a reporter by trade -- so her writing is great.  It was accessible but dealt with some complex issues with a light touch.  I would describe it as a thoughtful book.  One person remarked that it was a thought-provoking book.  It certainly led to a more serious discussion of hunting than we usually have.  By no means was it a how-to book.
Because the author is a writer, she is also a reader.  She does not come at the sport as an athlete trying out a new sport.  This is a bookish person struggling to cope with the required athleticism.  Her reaction to this new sport is predictable:  if you want to learn about something, you read about it.  She doesn't give us a reading list or write overtly about her campaign to read everything but she mentions enough books to see what's happening.  And that's a fun thing for a reading group.  Reading is a very referential experience and the foxhunting canon is pretty well-established.  It's great fun to read a reference to Somerville & Ross and think, "All the folks in the reading group will also be reading this page and think back to The Irish RM and know exactly what Shilling is talking/writing about."  That's cool!