Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Upcoming Reviews

This old thing? I just whipped it up on my serger.
Monday, April 4th. An Independent Woman. Curtains into dresses! Three sisters get married. Julia writes the text for greeting cards.


He was just looking for a basic three bedroom semi-detached
in a nice little village.  A quiet place to raise his little baby
bikers. The family silver was just a little too tempting.
Thursday, April 7th. A Summer Idyll. Or What About Basil? Phoebe gets beaten up by a biker,  Mrs. Thirsk gets the flu just in time for Phoebe's first dinner party.
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12 comments:

  1. JemmaMarch 31, 2011 at 3:19 AM

    So, my library has every single betty neels book ever published. The repair department has done a good job of keeping the covers intact, going so far as to even cover some of the pages!

    So..I am going to go through every single book.

    Here are some questions.

    Should I read as published? The library has them alphabetically(strange I know). Does it really matter? Books like 'the final touch' seem to be series...are they really?

    What are your top five favourite Neels books?

    Thank you.
    Oh...this site is perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  2. MagdalenMarch 31, 2011 at 4:17 AM

    I'll admit -- I'm dying to know the logic behind the order in which The Founding Bettys picked books. Or, if there wasn't a specific logic, what system did you use?

    Betty Jemma -- I was always a read-in-order girl. Among other things, it helps with the books where a previous couple shows up. But in my case, that meant I've read the first 20 many, many time, the next 40 a few times, and some of the last 30 I owned but hadn't read. (Shocking, I know.)

    But The Uncrushable Jersey Dress has poked at me to reread them all by May, and I'm trying hard, although I suspect it's not going to happen quite on time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Betty DebbieMarch 31, 2011 at 7:26 AM

    Logic? What is this logic you speak of?

    Betty Keira and I started this humble little blog as a way to express our love and admiration for The Great Betty, and more importantly, to have fun. Part of that fun (for us) was the 'horse trading' we've done each month or so in choosing which books to review.

    If this had been more of a commercial site, we might have gone about it differently - and read all the books in chronological order - that would make total(logical) sense. However, since we are anything BUT professional, we've chosen the books in a somewhat (okay, very) random order - in large part so as to keep it fun for us.

    So here's the score: Fun 1, Logic 0.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Betty DebbieMarch 31, 2011 at 7:30 AM

    I forgot to add a link to a much more reliable chronological list of Betty Neels...

    This list is much better than ours...which is anything but definitive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. KeiraMarch 31, 2011 at 7:53 AM

    Well, there was a LITTLE (a very little) logic behind our choices. We didn't want to do it chronologically because The Great Betty definitely had more spotty eras than others and we didn't want to be stuck with all the late ones at the end (which are, generally speaking, not better than her Golden Age (late 70s-early 80s)) thereby exhausting our enthusiasm.

    Also, some months we chose themes: Titles with 'Never' in them, books about weddings, books about Christmas, etc...

    And I wouldn't worry too much about reading books with cross-over characters: The Venerable Neels lightly touches on those people usually, not builds a whole plot around them...

    Also, I love your library. Love them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. KeiraMarch 31, 2011 at 8:03 AM

    Also, we decided most of the order on an ill-fated plane trip to Denver sometime last year. Betty Debbie had her lists of books and we started our horse trading ('I'll give you The Little Dragon but I get Caroline's Waterloo along with Grasp a Nettle and two players to be named later...'). It was a really bumpy flight and Betty Debbie was gripping the seats and gritting out 'Stinkin' Airbus...stinkin' Airbus...stinkin' Airbus' and Betty Keira was pistachio green and breathing deeply.

    ReplyDelete
  7. KeiraMarch 31, 2011 at 8:11 AM

    My top five favorite Neels changes all the time but I really like:

    An Ordinary Girl
    Polly
    Caroline's Waterloo
    A Girl Named Rose
    The Promise of Happiness

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  8. KeiraMarch 31, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    and...The Little Dragon and Making Sure of Sarah and Never Say Goodbye...

    This is hard!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Betty DebbieMarch 31, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    I'm with Betty Keira - my favorites change from time to time...

    I'm not going to limit myself to five...how about ten? In no particular order:

    Caroline's Waterloo (a consistent favorite)
    Cassandra By Chance (the first half is brilliant)
    Saturday's Child (she makes him grovel at the end)
    Dearest Love ('I should like a plunger, sir')
    Henrietta's Own Castle (perhaps an acquired taste?)
    The Secret Pool (the only tear-jerker (for me) in the canon)
    An Old-Fashioned Girl (snowed in!)
    Discovering Daisy (she not only falls into a canal, she also gets mugged!)
    A Gentle Awakening (dumping a pitcher of lemonade on the harpy's head = priceless)
    Dearest Mary Jane (she runs a tea room)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Betty JoDeeMarch 31, 2011 at 11:49 AM

    Dear Betty Jemma,
    Beware of The Nasty Marriage.
    Sincerely,
    Betty JoDee

    p.s. The noise you hear is Betty Keira--ignore it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. KeiraMarch 31, 2011 at 12:41 PM

    I couldn't hear you...I'm too busy stuffing my mouth with popcorn.

    ReplyDelete
  12. MagdalenMarch 31, 2011 at 7:37 PM

    I guess I stand alone in adoring Fate is Remarkable above all others. But, I also love Cassandra by Chance, Damsel in Green, and Henrietta's Own Castle. (That list will increase when I've finished The Big Re-Read!)

    ReplyDelete

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