Monday, April 25, 2011

Book Club Report: What We Thought of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Book: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Genre: Mystery
Suey's Personal Rating: B+
For: Book Club
From: the library's book club set

Now here's a cute book with a feisty 11 year old heroine! She is one smart cookie and when she discovers a dead body in the garden of the old English manor where she lives, she sets off to figure it all out. And she doesn't do too bad a job at it either. In the process, she learns a bit of background on her dad that she didn't know before, and which I'm guessing she wonders if she really wanted to know. You know how these things go sometimes.

So we read this for book club this past month, and as book club picks go, I think it was a pretty perfect one. Everyone seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. It was easy to read and to finish. Here's some random thoughts I picked up during our discussion:


  • Pretty much everyone agreed that the protagonist was the best and most fun part of this book.
  • Most of us enjoyed the "British-ness" of the book, and found it interesting to learn that the author is not British at all.
  • We discussed whether or not the things and thoughts this 11 year old girl has are realistic for her age. We basically decided that some things were, and some things weren't.
  • Many of us aren't big on mysteries, so we thought that part we could take or leave. A few of us enjoy mysteries, so that part was just as much fun as the rest of the story.
  • We all loved the many literary references that are thrown in, which one wouldn't "get" unless one was familiar with quite a good many books.
  • We found it fun that during the course of this book we learned a lot about chemistry, magic, stamp collecting, and British history... just to name a few.
  • We didn't like the neglectful parenting that was going on here!
  • Someone pointed out the interesting names and wondered what, if anything, was behind the thought process in choosing those particular names.
Bottom line: It was enjoyed by all!

Other books we randomly discussed during the evening:
Up next month: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. le Guin.


5 comments:

  1. I'm glad you makes these lists. There's always at least one book I want to read and I know I won't remember it later, so thanks!

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  2. I'm glad you guys all liked it! The sequel is just as much fun, and I'm eager to get my hands on the recently-published 3rd one. I agree that Flavia is often way older than her age, but I mostly just ignore that in favor of the fun parts of the book. :)

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  3. Didn't we discuss, Never Let me go? Jenny suggested I read it.

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  4. Thanks for putting this report together. It's a great archive of the group's discussions. I always feel so energized after book club!

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