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Post by garej on Aug 19, 2020 2:49:53 GMT 1
Started on Scratch by Sue Millard. It was one of those failed Winter Challenge books (not sure if it was a previous summer challenge fail too). Quite good so far.
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Post by Claire on Aug 20, 2020 20:52:10 GMT 1
Thanks for the heads up re. Touch the Moon, Susan. It sounds just my cup of tea! Kunuma - I now know how you feel. After being a fairly sleepy spot considering it's a tourist town, the locdown has brought in an influx of chavvy grockles causing trouble and leaving mess behind. My town has for some reason become a hotspot for all the teens from nearby towns who want to drink, take drugs and jump in the waterfall! But back to the challenge, apologies for not adding your red rosette Susan, for some reason it appears about a quarter of the size of the others when I tried to put in on the post. Flipping techno problems seem to be besetting me this year. I'll try and sort it out! Wondering what to read next...
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Post by susanb on Aug 20, 2020 21:59:45 GMT 1
Lol, no worries, Claire, I get the tech difficulties! Spent last weekend installing new wireless router and changing my service provider.....just about did me in Trying to figure out my next book too....three left, one hardcover and two ebooks. I was saving the ebooks till last, as my work was going to be going back into the office in early September, which would have meant I'd have a long train commute again, but they've pushed back the date till early January, so we'll be remote for several more months
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kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards
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Post by kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards on Aug 24, 2020 13:48:51 GMT 1
Smiley for Pony Seekers and a scratched head for Ponies in Peril , I have a feeling I have tried to read this before, being convinced I have got it, and then not finding it - I am seriously considering buying the book just to save looking for it anymore!
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Post by susanb on Aug 24, 2020 14:10:39 GMT 1
LOL, Kunuma...if you buy the book, your copy will surely turn up Anyone besides me getting distracted? I read SIX books over the weekend (first time I've done that since I was a kid) and not an equine in any of them....all theatre books, mostly summer theatre.....just missing it, I guess. Hopefully will get back on track and read my last three challenge books before the end of September
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Post by Claire on Aug 25, 2020 13:40:19 GMT 1
I ALWAYS get distracted Susan. I need to read some non-pony in between to keep a balance.
Smiley for The Great Pony Mystery, a re-read. A nice, uncomplicated old fashioned pony story. I had to smile at the differences between reading a book as a child and an adult. As a child I thought a holiday in a gypsy caravan with ponies and dogs sounded fantastic. Now, after actually holidaying in the modern equivalent (a motorhome or RV as I think our American friends call them) with just one other person, the thought of being stuck in one with four kids and two dogs is horrendous! A medal to the kid's mother is in order lol.
Kunuma - was hoping you would read Ponies in Peril as I wanted to discuss what you thought of the speed they trained the ponies. Seemed FAR too fast to me. Or maybe I'm just slow lol. I'll send you my battered old paperback copy. I'm thinking of buying the hardback edition so you probably won't need to post it back.
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Post by tintin on Aug 28, 2020 18:24:30 GMT 1
Could I have smiley faces for:-
The Pony Seekers
Hounds Will Meet
and could I have two books added with smileys?
Lost Pony of Riverdale
80 Dollar Horse
Can I add some more books?
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Post by garej on Aug 28, 2020 20:18:53 GMT 1
Glad to see you tintin.
Claire will have to verify this but I have had added books to the summer reading challenge list before. If anything it should be easier this year as Claire only has to update an post rather than a webpage.
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Post by Claire on Aug 28, 2020 22:24:24 GMT 1
Hi Tintin, great you're up and around! Yes it's fine to add extra books, everything is a bit more informal than usual this year and as Garej said it's easy to add them.
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Post by darkhorse on Aug 29, 2020 15:09:59 GMT 1
Can I have a smiley for Midnight on Lundy please?
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Post by Claire on Aug 29, 2020 15:55:52 GMT 1
Hi all, I think I have everyone's lists up to date now - can you please check to make sure nothing has been missed out. All rosettes have also been added - due to technical problems I have added different rosettes to the usual ones!
I have had to exchange one book on my list for another as the original one has disappeared, probably under a huge pile of books in my bedroom which I've had to remove from my bookshelves downstairs due to renovation! I've swapped Heartsease for Dancer in Danger by Lorna Hill, something I've been meaning to read for a while (non-pony). Good so far.
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Post by tintin on Aug 29, 2020 17:38:03 GMT 1
Audible has been a god send, very different to reading though.
80 Dollar horse was very heart warming, but also very, very informative and interesting about the old show scene in the USA. The warm and gentle tones of the narrator suited the story. I listened to it in intensive care and it played a big role in getting me through. Lost Pony of River Dale is a lovely traditional pony story and also a nice family story.
Hounds Will meet is a delightful book, very much of its time - fox hunting in the age of Poirot. It has lovely illustrations, particularly side saddle ones. There is a slight air of melancholy to it, as there is to Silver Snaffles (and many inter war horse books), over both books hangs unspokenly the shadow of the Great War
Silver Snaffles is a favourite, but until recently I had n't noticed the underlying theme is very similar to the TV series Ashes to Ashes - it is a heaven for those whose lives turned out not as they should have -in the book for horses, on the TV for Police Officers - where they work out their issues. In both cases explanation is produced by the device of having someone projected from our world into theirs
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Post by garej on Aug 29, 2020 21:56:06 GMT 1
Claire I should have a blue rosette in addition to the yellow as I have read 5 books. Otherwise it's good.
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kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards
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Post by kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards on Aug 30, 2020 13:15:40 GMT 1
Thanks Claire, I'm sure I've hunted for this one before, I think I may have muddled it up with another one like Save the Ponies, I will read it as soon as it comes! Currently watching the good version (1974) of 'Swallows and Amazons' and remembering the good old days!
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Post by Claire on Aug 30, 2020 22:47:48 GMT 1
Sorry Garej, have added your extra rosette.
Interesting take on Silver Snaffles Tintin, although I haven't seen Ashes to Ashes. I agree that, although on the surface it seems just a charming little pony fantasy, it has a lot of hidden depths.
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Post by garej on Sept 9, 2020 14:02:41 GMT 1
Has everyone given up on this? There's a lack of updates. I must admit that I haven't read any more of Scratch in the past week.
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Post by Claire on Sept 10, 2020 23:17:20 GMT 1
Was wondering how everyone is getting on myself. I realise circumstances are not easy this year, not only due to Covid, but personal circumstances for quite a few of our lives this year too. Im currently reading Dancer on Holiday which is good so far. Set in Sicily, somewhere I have always wanted to visit, so that is interesting. I'm just hoping that we dont get some hideously sexist display of male ego, which, sadly, Lorna Hill can be prone to.
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Post by susanb on Sept 11, 2020 15:16:01 GMT 1
Still here, still haven't tackled my remaining three....here's what I've read instead of what I should have been reading: Summer Star/Jane Rossiter First Time I Saw Paris/Mabel Esther Allan (as Anne Pilgrim) Conch Shell/Mabel Esther Allan Bluegate Girl/Mabel Esther Allan Clues to Connemara/Mabel Esther Allan White Water/Vivian Breck Summer Surprise/Helen Reynolds Straw Hat Theatre/Micky Klar Marks Curtain Call for Connie/Betty Baxter Anderson On Stage Miss Douglas/Lisa Howard Star for Ginny/Phyllis Whitney Silver Inkwell/Phyllis Whitney Agatha On-Stage/Abigail Ann Hamblen Footlights for Mary/Jack Bechdolt Enchanted Caravan/Dorothy Gilman Butters Carnival Gypsy/Dorothy Gilman Butters My World's the Stage/Amelia Elizabeth Walden In Search of Ophelia/Amelia Elizabeth Walden Sunnycove/Amelia Elizabeth Walden Gateway by Amelia Elizabeth Walden
Marsha On-Stage/Amelia Elizabeth Walden and I'm in the middle of Shadow Over the Alps/Mabel Esther Allan I'm afraid I've rather strayed from the path
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Post by darkhorse on Sept 13, 2020 19:02:36 GMT 1
I haven't been able to get on the internet for a good while due to connection problems. I have managed to complete the challenge this year! I have finishewd all 3 books in the Hooks Hollow series and really enjoyed them all.
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Post by haffyfan on Sept 13, 2020 21:36:35 GMT 1
No i haven't read anything on my list this year, couldn't face it after losing Murph.
I've read Midnight Sun and Ready Player One instead.
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Post by garej on Sept 14, 2020 12:28:40 GMT 1
I am sorry for your loss haffyfan.
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Post by Claire on Sept 14, 2020 21:12:00 GMT 1
Haffy, so sorry you're going through such a sad time. I think you do right in reading other types of book at the moment. Wow Susan, you have read a lot!!! I must say I am a bit distracted by reading other things this year too. I know I won't finish the challenge, though hoping to get a red rosette at least! Maybe we can have another winter challenge and finish off those we couldn't manage this summer. Well done darkhorse in completing the challenge!
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Post by susanb on Sept 14, 2020 22:11:42 GMT 1
At the beginning of all this (the pandemic, not the challenge), all I did was binge watch old tv shows. Over the last 6 weeks or so, I've done nothing but read....multiple books a day on the weekends. And I seem to be collecting pens. Don't ask me why, it just came on me all of a sudden.
Anyway, I have completely lost my taste for even contemplating The Phantom Filly, would it be ok to swap it out for Canyon of No Sunset by Annette Turngren for my pre-1950 book? I am going to try to get in at least one more book from the challenge before month's end, but I love the idea of the Winter mini challenge to scoop up whatever we miss. It was working on the challenge books that got me reading again, and that has been really wonderful!!
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kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards
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Post by kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards on Sept 15, 2020 16:01:53 GMT 1
Quick dash on here to say thank you Claire for the book and I'll read it tonight, just checked and I forgot to do Moorland Mousie too, so will do that tomorrow.
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kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards
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Post by kunuma doesn'tlovepooboards on Sept 16, 2020 13:56:40 GMT 1
OK SMILEY for Ponies in Peril, some cringing remarks and moments in it, but on the whole a good read.
Think Moorland Mousie has bloodsports in it so probably explains why it has been relegated to the impossible to get at box of books! My memory of it is that I loved the drawings but not fond of book.
Haffy I'm so sorry to hear you have lost Murph.
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Post by susanb on Sept 21, 2020 20:12:30 GMT 1
Hi Claire, Hope you're ok with my swap (Canyon of No Sunset for Phantom Filly), because I read it over the weekend - smiley please, if ok!
A mystery with horses, young adult to adult. Turngren did mysteries, mostly, and one other that included horses: "Mystery of the Water Witch", part of the American Girl Book series, which also includes the American Book of Horse Stories that I recommended (and Tintin read) for the challenge last year.
Haffy, I just read back over recent posts in the thread, I'm so sorry about Murph. It's devastating to lose a beloved companion at any time, and right now, just so much harder.
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Post by Claire on Sept 22, 2020 22:13:39 GMT 1
Hi all, sorry cant add any rosettes, etc at the momemt as am away for a few days and only mobile phobe access to the forum. If ayone requires a few extra days to finish off let me know, though I would like to wrap the challenge up fairly early into October so we can start on the Halloween read. As discussed earlier, we could perhaps finish off any stray books from the challenge on a winter reading challenge.
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Post by Claire on Sept 27, 2020 16:06:17 GMT 1
Well I'm back from travels so have updated everyone's rosettes and trophies. As a few of us are behind I've decided to add a few more days to the challenge deadline and it is now 10th October 2020. No extensions after that please, as I would like to get the Halloween 'supernatural' read organised soon. Also don't forget, please can you add your 'star reads' by that date too. It doesn't matter if you haven't read all the books on your list - you can still nominate a star read.
I've read Land of Ponies so I've at least managed to get a blue rosette. I don't think I'll manage a red and certainly not a trophy this year! I'll tackle Paradise Pony next as it's a very short one. Anyway would recommend Land of Ponies and in fact all the books in that series (glad you enjoyed them too Darkhorse), even though I'm not usually a huge fan of 1940s pony books. So a smiley for this.
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Post by susanb on Sept 29, 2020 18:06:58 GMT 1
Hi Claire, what book are we doing for Halloween? Need to get on ordering soon, if it isn't one I already have.
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Post by Claire on Sept 29, 2020 21:28:08 GMT 1
Susan, I'm thinking on the Halloween read. I've had a few ideas but on checking the availability of them, it's proving hard to find something which is easy to find and not too expensive for everyone.
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