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Post by Claire on Dec 14, 2022 16:34:11 GMT 1
Hi all, this year's Winter/Christmas time read will be Winter Ponies by Pamela Cockerill. This is fairly easy to find and cheap in the UK at least. Amazon and Abe Books have a few copies which should arrive in time for the Chritstmas hols if not for Christmas day. Apologies for the delay in setting up the thread, this was due to being away in Spain with terrible internet connection. Discussion in around 2 weeks time. Happy Reading and Happy Holidays!
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Post by susanb on Dec 14, 2022 20:54:29 GMT 1
Hi Claire, I (ahem) already took the plunge and read it, since it was sitting there, calling me I won't give any spoilers, but I can say it was a charming, quick read and read, for the most part, like a book decades older than it's publication date of 1987 might suggest. A nice traditional story
BTW, bummer about the internet access...you don't even think about technology these days till it isn't there, or isn't working, then it's like the water stopped running
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Post by Claire on Dec 15, 2022 0:25:04 GMT 1
Haha no worries about starting early Susan. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Feel free to add your thoughts as soon as you like - just use a Spiler title if it contains any.
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Post by darkhorse on Dec 15, 2022 13:47:47 GMT 1
I ordered this a few days ago as a Christmas pressie to myself, on the off chance we did it and also it sounded quite a nice story from the blurb on Claire's website. Fingers crossed it arrives before Christmas.
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Post by Claire on Dec 22, 2022 1:26:32 GMT 1
Woo-hoo - despite the strikes my copy arrived quickly and I have started it already. Enjoying it so far!
Did yours arrive Darkhorse?
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Post by darkhorse on Dec 25, 2022 22:44:36 GMT 1
Yes Santa delivered it in time. Have been too busy to start it yet but I now have a few days off so I will get cracking.
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Post by Claire on Jan 2, 2023 18:05:12 GMT 1
'SLIGHT SPOILERS' Enjoyed this book. Good traditional feel-good pony story and an apt read for the Christmas holidays. Nice sympathetic main character too. It's an easy to read book with a little bit of humour in it also. Although it started off with the usual 'heroine uprooted to new area and has no pony to ride' scenario, in the end the plot-line was a little more original than most. When the character of the famous show jumper appears, I thought to myself hmmm our heroine is likely to perform some daring act for him like saving one of his horses and will receive her favourite pony as a reward - but it doesn't pan out that way - in fact almost the opposite! The book ends just as Christmas starts and has a pleasant feel-good ending too. A couple of very small negatives. The book is a little dated and some of the expressions and ways of talking from the late 1980s sound a bit odd nowadays. The illustrations are quite nice but perhaps not done by someone who really understands the horsy world. I did have to laugh at their depiction of a small straw bale jump. The way they depicted it with a load of bales piled up meant it would have been around 5 feet in height! I also had to smile to myself at the cover picture of my edition (which I will show below) with a young girl holding a gun. This is definitely not something you would see on the cover of a kid's book today in the ultra politically correct world we now live in! Sadly the author appears to have only written one other horsy book - a donkey story. A shame, as this is a nice little book and I'd have liked to have read more about the characters of Sheila, Laurie and Magic or indeed any other book by this author. It just edged from a rating of good to very good in my estimation.
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Post by Claire on Jan 5, 2023 13:53:50 GMT 1
Any comments you'd like to add on the book Susan?
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Post by darkhorse on Jan 10, 2023 21:26:52 GMT 1
Almost forgot to add my comments.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book which was a traditional story even though written in the late 1980s. I felt that it slowed down a bit in the middle part of the story. I did put the book to one side then for a few days but partly as it was Christmas time and there were plenty of other distractions. It picked up again later on and was a good ending. I agree on the dated words and phrases. Someone used 'wally' at some point, a word I haven't heard in years! I voted good.
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