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Post by susanb on Jul 9, 2013 15:16:38 GMT 1
I liked Tan and Tarmac, but I appear to be in the minority...if I manage (ho ho) to finish my reading list early, I may read it again just to see if I like it the second time around!
Happy note on the reading list, my copy of Behind the Barricade arrived last night (wild cheers!) so I won't need to swap anything off my list!
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tamzin
Pony Clubber
Posts: 110
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Post by tamzin on Jul 9, 2013 16:39:22 GMT 1
I like the majority of Gillian Baxter's books (especially the Shelta trilogy) but I didn't like Tan & Tarmac. I found it deadly boring.
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Post by Claire on Jul 9, 2013 18:18:20 GMT 1
I'm with you Tamzin, T & T is the only Gillian Baxter book I have been unable to finish, it was dull and I found it rambling too. I've tried 3 times to finish it maybe I'll do it for next years Summer Challenge - now it would be a real challenge to read that one! Crikey its been a scorcher today in the high 20s can't remember the last time it was so hot up here in the chilly north. Looked like half the town was playing hookey from work and school to either sunbathe by the river or actually get in it! Got distracted from the challenge as have started re-reading The Green Mile by Stephen King (another weight issue as I grabbed the first small pb I could find to take off with me to read) its certainly a lot more gripping than Applegate Garej - no probs about the bold. its just a bit easier for me to pick out people's ratings amongst all the posts. Have you voted on the Joe & the Hidden Horseshoe review thread - it all helps rate the book for potential readers. I am looking forward to reading book 2 - just waiting on my review copy coming from the publishers. Hope it comes while the good weather is still here as its a nice light one to take off on a walk!
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Post by susanb on Jul 9, 2013 19:26:21 GMT 1
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Post by Claire on Jul 10, 2013 12:56:01 GMT 1
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2013 13:07:38 GMT 1
I've just finished Punchbowl Harvest by Monica Edwards. It's a favourite read for me If anyone is interested and wants to see a few photos of the Punchbowl area I've posted them in the members only board.
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tamzin
Pony Clubber
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Post by tamzin on Jul 10, 2013 13:50:47 GMT 1
Just finished Horsepower by Patsey Gray - I'd like a smiley face please . It's a definite big, smiley face; I loved it. Perhaps the US forum members could help me with a question? The heroine is called Honey, which seems to be a popular term of endearment, but I wondered if it was an abbreviation for something else, or her actual given name. With names like Apple and Peaches the name Honey seems quite tame, but as the book was published in the 60's I couldn't help feeling it was an abbreviation as everyone always calls her Honey.
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Post by susanb on Jul 10, 2013 14:08:37 GMT 1
tamzin, glad you liked it, it's probably my favorite of Gray's books. Re Honey....no it's not an abbreviation for anything, but it's also not a name I've ever come across outside of a book (and not many there either!). I've always assumed it was a nickname that stuck, but if she has a "real" name, it's never mentioned in the book (just mentioning that for everyone reading the thread, obviously you already knew!).
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Post by kunuma on Jul 10, 2013 15:00:47 GMT 1
Please Claire may I change my new book to theThe Soul Travellers by Joy Stevenson - no idea what it is about mind!! I really need a "Well I know it is good literature but I didn't like it" Smiley, and a "good book, shame about the awful heroine" smiley!!
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Post by garej on Jul 10, 2013 15:35:21 GMT 1
Garej - no probs about the bold. its just a bit easier for me to pick out people's ratings amongst all the posts. Have you voted on the Joe & the Hidden Horseshoe review thread - it all helps rate the book for potential readers. I am looking forward to reading book 2 - just waiting on my review copy coming from the publishers. Hope it comes while the good weather is still here as its a nice light one to take off on a walk! I haven't voted on the poll because it doesn't show up on the proboards app - I will do it at the weekend when I will be on my laptop. I am currently reading Murder Strikes Pink by JPT which I am enjoying very much. Though I am stuck to where the pink comes from - I thought it come from the pink coats used in hunting. But the book is set against a showjumping background. Though I must say I prefer Gin and Murder because the characters are more likeable. I am not sure what book to tackle next though
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Post by susanb on Jul 10, 2013 16:04:28 GMT 1
Bad news there...Murder Strikes Pink is the one I've got in my tbr pile Oh well, at least I'll know that if I enjoy it at all, I'll like Gin and Murder even more! I know what you mean about all the characters being unpleasant, it's can be hard to get into a book when that's the case.
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Post by tintin on Jul 10, 2013 17:59:06 GMT 1
Happy Smiley face for Flying Horseman and and Horses at Home/Friends must Part
I really enjoyed the Flying Horseman, a fun,clever and subtle story that is traditional, but different - thank you Claire for the recommendation. Started No Ponies for Miss Pobjoy - which is looking good. It is a little book so is great to take out with you and snatch a few pages here and there (short chapters too). At the opposite extreme reding Katerfelto on the PC at home - it is rather a large book, full of 18th Century gentlemen who roister and quaff (I think one of them is roistering and quaffing a bit too much and is about to find himself in the Merchant Navy not entirely voluntarily...)
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Post by tintin on Jul 10, 2013 18:00:01 GMT 1
Oh dear I pressed all the right buttons, but nothing happened... :-(
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Post by Claire on Jul 10, 2013 18:48:23 GMT 1
Oh dear I pressed all the right buttons, but nothing happened... :-( Lol I'm sure you're not the first to say that tintin! ;D I love No Ponies for Miss P, in fact I really like Ursula Moray Williams and she is best when she is in humourous mode. Bogwoppit is another great funny book of hers (not pony). And Nine Lives of Island Mackenzie by her is a great cat story. Sounds like you are having a good experience with your books so far - in fact I am sure we have a lot more smiley smilies all round than last year (unless everyone is saving the worst for last)
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Post by garej on Jul 10, 2013 18:54:33 GMT 1
Bad news there...Murder Strikes Pink is the one I've got in my tbr pile Oh well, at least I'll know that if I enjoy it at all, I'll like Gin and Murder even more! I know what you mean about all the characters being unpleasant, it's can be hard to get into a book when that's the case. The victim is a right cow. The others less so, but I have found so far no likeable characters. There's one character which we don't see much of, so I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be a murderer. It makes me want to read They Died In The Spring which from the sounds of the blurb non horsey hence why I didn't pick. All 3 of JPT's adult murder mystery books features the same detective though. It doesn't matter which order you read them however. I haven't read enough murder mystery to know if they're good examples of the genre. I have put all the books I have selected for the reading challenge in one pile. Oh and the good news is that I found a bookmark that I thought I had lost: it was lurking inside The Railway Children. Just got to pick which to read next. So far I have been picking which ones I thought I would enjoy the most: so far none of the others are grabbing me. Like I said in a previous post I am leaving The Railway Children until last because I have twice failed to finish it.
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Post by Claire on Jul 10, 2013 18:57:57 GMT 1
Please Claire may I change my new book to theThe Soul Travellers by Joy Stevenson Tut tut kunuma didn't you read the memo saying there would be no changes this year? Well as we have just started and if you can give me a valid reason for changing (and a note from your doctor saying it will be detrimental to your health if you don't change it ;D ) then I might consider it. I do have a copy of Too Many Ponies you can borrow tho (I assume thats the one you are wanting to swap)
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 11, 2013 0:36:39 GMT 1
SMILEY for Racing into Trouble by Maggie Dana. A little too much teen drama and not enough horse content for me, but still a light, fast, short read.
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Post by trixiepony on Jul 11, 2013 0:45:18 GMT 1
I decided Togo away from the pony books and read somthing different think its working has eny one else on here read eny Isobelle Carmody books I like her Obernewtyn books got the librey to get in the Sending that's the last one she wrote and there's a new one out soon I hope the last off that series.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 11, 2013 2:02:20 GMT 1
brumby The penny just dropped for me and I realized I have read The Greyhound. Marvelous book and if it is a new read for you I will not spoil the ending, but it has a twist. I read it 10 or so years ago, not as a child, but I did read when very young a quite similar book. In this one, a boy from a less well to do family who cannot keep a dog, like the family in The Greyhound, finds a stray terrier-type dog and endeavors to keep him in an abandoned car, visiting him a couple of times a day to feed, water, and walk him. I need to try to dig that one up. The dog had the silly name of Pooper I think, and the story was similarly bittersweet as The Greyhound. PS: I found the book pretty easily -- it is Dog! by Prudence Andrew from 1973, in case anyone is interested, just for giggles.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2013 7:17:26 GMT 1
I enjoyed that one too tintin
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Post by Claire on Jul 11, 2013 10:58:47 GMT 1
Glad you are getting back into the swing of things Trixiepony. I haven't read any of Isabelle Carmody's books. I'll have to look them up.
Quite a few of the books on people's lists have reviews and polls on here already so I think I will add links to the reviews when I next update the web page, just in case people want to read them, vote on them or make more detailed comments.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 11, 2013 15:21:09 GMT 1
Ok, I'm on Riding for the Stars and the main character, Kate, needs to get less gullible/outright STUPID or I'm going to have to give up on the books. How witless do you have to be to keep putting yourself and your horses in the hands of your arch nemesis? You wouldn't catch me letting Angela (the bratty one) near a guppy, much less holding my mount while I go out of sight, allowing her to mess with my tack, etc. Kate and/or Holly do this kind of stuff repeatedly.
It's getting old that they have no foresight at all to protect themselves and their interests from Angela's rather simple ruses -- smearing a whiteboard with a chore list, blaming them for anything and everything mostly just by SAYING they are to blame, wearing a wig and pretending she's dyed her hair (they FALL for this?), etc. They can't foresee ANY of her tricks (they are obvious from a mile away)? Getting a teensy bit hard to root for such witless wonders. [rolleyes]
Ok, gripe over!
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Post by susanb on Jul 11, 2013 18:04:58 GMT 1
LOL....I haven't made it that far in the series, rally, but I do admit that after three books they do start to read a bit like the Susan books by Jane Shaw, only with horses. The "plot device" of everyone believing the baddie, over and over again, through a series of books, when it's been demonstrated multiple times that he/she is a liar and a cheat, wears thin pretty quickly.
edited to say, this would be one of the reasons I never got into Leave it to Beaver. Any adult who couldn't see through Eddie Haskell in a New York minute should have been institutionalized.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 11, 2013 18:17:08 GMT 1
^lol Susan!
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tamzin
Pony Clubber
Posts: 110
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Post by tamzin on Jul 11, 2013 18:43:06 GMT 1
Afraid to Ride, P. Leitch - smiley please (just makes that grade)! Four down and looking at the half way stage (on the 5th). Started to read CWA's and so far it sounds quite similar to the PL version. I wonder if she used his idea as his title was published first. I'm intrigued to see how they differ.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2013 18:51:36 GMT 1
Think I'll do Tan and Tarmac next. I'm dying to read this
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tamzin
Pony Clubber
Posts: 110
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Post by tamzin on Jul 11, 2013 18:55:15 GMT 1
Ok, I'm on Riding for the Stars and the main character, Kate, needs to get less gullible/outright STUPID or I'm going to have to give up on the books. [rolleyes] Ok, gripe over! Is this the Timber Ridge series by Maggie Dana? I groaned my way through the first one in that series and then (as you can probably guess) it went off to the charity shop.
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Post by susanb on Jul 11, 2013 19:21:35 GMT 1
tamzin, that's the one. I liked the first really, it was just that the same pattern kept occurring through the second and third that just got a bit much, as rally said.
Re Afraid to Ride by Leitch/Anderson. I've read both, but can't honestly remember the Leitch version, except that it did make the permanent collection.
Anderson's books are generally more for the illustrations than the prose, at least for me. He had a tendency to have one of his characters (usually the riding expert) drift off into a story about another horse/rider/situation/whatever that wasn't really connected to the book, but used to illustrate (no pun intended) a point he's making to his pupil. It would have worked ok in a longer book, but his books aren't long, and the divergence takes you out of the main story to the point of distraction. Still, many of his books (including this one) have a great deal of charm despite the flaws, and they certainly made the permanent collection too!
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Post by susanb on Jul 11, 2013 19:24:03 GMT 1
Almost at the end of Kit Ehrman's Dead Man's Touch, hoping to finish tonight, as the library notified me that the hold I have on Dandi Daley McCall Silence of Murder is available.
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Post by rallycairn on Jul 11, 2013 22:07:32 GMT 1
tamzin, susan already answered, but yes, that's the series. I did think the first one had good horsey content, but yes, Angela pulls a (fairly lame) fast one over on our heroines -- repeatedly. And I just finished the third book! So I'm like you and susan on the teen drama part of it -- enough already. Give us some more horsey content!
I know this is a re-working of an earlier series; I wonder if the heroines in the original were a few years younger? That might explain why everyone gets so taken in by a little finger-pointing and "SHE did it!" over and over. And then the heroines stubbornly refuse to offer their side of things because "they have no proof." Okay, but would that really keep you from at least mentioning your suspicions, admitting they are suspicions, but based on both circumstances and a person's repeated past behaviors??
Still, I probably will keep reading. They are fast reads and pretty much in line I think with other modern series I've read recently, like The Pony Club Rivals series. Or Janet Rising's Pony Whisperer books, although I do think Rising's books are just a touch more nuanced, though they also feature a recurring rivalry between our heroine and another girl.
Characters come and go fast in the Maggie Dana books, though. It seemed like Jennifer, introduced in Book 2, was going to be a major character, and she is set to be a major player in a future book when the girls go off to her gran's riding school -- but it was a little strange how fast she came in, then was "dropped" except for a few mentions, and these other characters came in for Book 3 for the film being made at the stables. But I think that's pretty typical of contemporary books -- fast, action-oriented, keep things moving/whirlwind pace.
So, in sum, a somewhat qualified
SMILEY for RIDING FOR THE STARS by MAGGIE DANA. Almost a neutral but hey, it's summer, and fast reads can be good!
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