Monday, July 31, 2017

Our Final Four

Well, well, well. When I had finished totting up the votes this morning, my pencil trailed down the list, putting stars next to the winners from each bracket. In my shock, I am channelling an RDD's grandmama. I am setting eyes on a silver metallic trouser suit draping the fashionably thin form of my youngest grandson's date--and my eyebrows are high and surprised.
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It wasn't that the old lady was hopelessly out of step (never that). It was that glitter seemed to get everywhere, even though the Vogue model limited herself to eating one celery stick and complaining loudly about girls in chiffon. Wim and Nel would be furious when they had to scrub off her seat.

Highlighted in soft pink (the color worn by that the plain little British nurse that my oldest grandson, the Professor Baron, can't keep his eyes off of) are the winners:

A) The Barfing on His Brogues Bracket:
Dearest Love vs.
Caroline's Waterloo 

B) The Handful of A Levels Bracket:
A Gentle Awakening vs.
Tabitha By Moonlight

C) The Hocked Locket Bracket:
Henrietta's Own Castle vs.
Dearest Mary Jane

D) The Imperiled Poppets Bracket:
Cassandra By Chance vs.
The Promise of Happiness

Look that over and tell me there haven't been a couple of upsets. My own personal tragedy is the loss of Caroline's Waterloo which always makes it into my top two or three. Caro is such a wonderful heroine and I love the set-up enormously. 

None of the votes were lop-sided--each coming down to a couple of votes either way. For that last bracket, I was holding my breath the whole time.

I'd like to do something a little different going into The Final Four.  The last books are sure to have passionate partisans and I'm going to hop on the Facebook page and solicit some Betties for whom individual books are the most favorite to write up a paragraph or two about them. When I've got those all turned in, we'll resume our voting and I'm not going to ask for trouble by mixing it up. The Barfing on His Brogues Bracket will go up against The Handful of A Levels Bracket and so on.
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Betty Franscisca considered the tin oven and began to write out her impassioned thoughts.
"Baking bread is a chancy business in any circumstance but the plucky Henrietta..."
 

12 comments:

  1. Betty Barbara here--bidding a tearful farewell to Tabitha. It's been fun. However, Florina was a worthy opponent, so I'm not too sad. The rest of my choices won through, so I'm celebrating a bit. I refuse to think about the next round of decisions right now.

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  2. Very sad about Dearest Mary Jane.

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  3. I'm lamenting Cassandra, the last of my top 10 to leave the field... Caro comes close and she's gone too. I'm glad to wave goodbye to the oil-stained shorts. I'm afraid I can't volunteer to champion any of the books as I just don't care enough about any of them to be passionate. When do we get the wild cards back?

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    1. Cassandra by Chance is my top rated book of all of the ones I've rated ( about 95 of them). Sad to see it go too.

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  4. Only one of my top favourites left. Tiele & Becky
    I feel another cry fest coming on...

    Pass me an RDD with a beautifully laundered handkerchief please!

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  5. I am very sad about Tabitha but the rest of my choices are still in.

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  6. I reread Cassandra by Chance to remind myself what it was like. Have to admit that I don't think it ages well. I love the bits with the kids, Ogre's Relish and Jan, but the hero is just too much of a jerk. He is cruel over and over to Cassandra and being blind is not a good enough reason.

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    1. I did the same thing. Loved it at first reading, but it didn't thrill me the second time at all.

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  7. Sad to see Dearest Mary Jane and Cassandra by Chance go.

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