The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie | 
pickI really enjoyed this mystery. I liked the character of Flavia, she‘s unique and quirky. There‘s a sense of humour running through this story and it‘s all jolly good fun! There‘s a good sense of time and place, a great feel for the 1950s. I found the mystery itself quite gripping and the whole book a page turner. I can‘t wait to join the delightful and daring Flavia again in book two, The Weed That Strings the Hangman‘s Bag. Love the titles!
The first in the Flavia de Luce Mysteries, it‘s a book I‘m reading with my online reading group, https://thereadingloft.groups.io/g/main/topics. The theme is a children‘s or YA book. This one is a YA book, I believe.
This is a fun lighthearted book. Perfect for reading in bed before you turn in for the night.
pickSometime hard to focus on, but overall, I enjoyed this book.
pickEleven-year-old Flavia DeLuce discovers a body in her garden and hears the man‘s last word. Her father, a philatelist with a humorous and dark history, is arrested for the crime. Both her dad and the dead man have a history with an extraordinary and rare stamp. Flavia, a chemistry genius, sets out to discover the truth putting herself into mortal danger. A good story and fairly complex. Unfortunately I didn‘t grasp it all, being fairly stressed ⬇️
Awaiting library holds so I‘m listening to this audiobook.
Day 4 #WithMystery #AboutABook
I haven‘t read this entire series, but what I have read was delightful.
978044033869. Told in 1st person, past tense (thank goodness) in 1950 by 11 yo Flavia de Luce, 3rd daughter of a country gentleman. TBH, she‘s a bit bratty/ Wednesday Adams-ish (she concocts poisons to get back at her sisters). There‘s a murder at their stately home so Flavia decides to investigate
pickThis book had everything I love! Characters were fabulous, I can't wait to meet them again! Flavia is so clever and hilarious, amazing main character.
I also adored the setting, I could imagine myself there, riding a bike. It felt so alive!
This was pure pleasure to read and I am so happy that I did that. It's super rare to find a pearl like this.
#serieslove2024
*On my front porch when it‘s nice outside.
*Flavia DeLuce. Flavia is 11, and rides her bike around the town, discovering amazing crimes and clues.
*There are two. Winnie the Pooh and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
*The one I wanted to recommend is St. Martin‘s (darn it), so I‘ll say The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Amazing book.
*I hate people reading on an E-reader in a public place. I‘m nosy! I need to know what they are reading!
pickSenior book club that I‘m working this afternoon and I finished just in time. The genre is cozy mysteries. I‘m not a big mystery reader but I did enjoy this book, though I don‘t see myself reading the others in the series. I most enjoyed the protagonist, young Flavia de Luce. She reminded me of a mix between Hermione and Scout. I liked that the story tied two mysteries together around a rare stamp in the 1950‘s.
pickI liked this well enough and Flavia is a great character, if a little irritating and full of herself. I do like how confident she is. Parts of the story explaining stamps were a little boring, and there was one murder that I never understood the motive for. I‘ll definitely read more in this series. #audiowalk
Starting my #doublebookspin I bailed on my #bookspin after trying for the second time to read it! @TheAromaofBooks
"As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No ... eight days a week."
That's what Libby is for, Flavia. ?
pickNot as good on audible but still a great book.
pickI really enjoyed sections of this, and Flavia de Luce is a joy! She's a fantastic character, and the smart dialogue made me chuckle more than once. There were sections, though, that got unnecessarily wordy, and I caught myself skimming out of boredom. It wasn't the majority of the text, but enough that it kept me from loving this one. I'll likely try the next in the series eventually to see if they all have that issue. Still, a pick, though.
#JanuaryJazz
23. National Pie Day
For this prompt I decided to go with Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie. It‘s about an 11 year old amateur sleuth named Flavia de Luce. Flavia has a penchant for poisons and is extremely intelligent. As the book picks up, Flavia soon finds herself on track to solving a crime that has happened.
Set in the 1950s, this murder mystery is the first in a series.
#NationalPieDay
pickWith one very notable exception (⚠️sinophobia, yellow face), I truly enjoyed this.
Another little girl with a morbid fascination that helps solve murders, but this story centres her analytical mind: she loves chemistry, ⚗️ and the focus on finding information was refreshing after Aggie Morton's more gothic imaginings.
The author has managed to provide and richly describe such idyllic environs. Is this what they mean by cozy mystery? 🤔
"...a style of prose as stiff and inflexible as a parlor poker."
The shade!
Alas, not part of the curriculum during my MLIS program. 🤓🤫📚
Etymology and scientific discovery united, I love it! 🔬
Like others have said, this is a difficult letter to find a favourite, as there are too many to choose from. This book is among a bunch of favourite books that start with S. Other favourite S books include Smacked by Eilene Zimmerman, The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
I really like Flavia's fiestyness #letters #alphabetgame.
#SundayFunday @ozma.of.oz 🌞
1. The whole Flavia de Luce book series by Alan Bradley❤️ (first book is tagged)
2. In my bed, usually with my big sweet dog.🐶
3. ☕️ Coffee, hot or iced!
1) Flavia de Luce
2) Pemberley from Pride & Prejudice
3) Reading outside in the sunshine with my favourite Starbucks summer drink
#sundayfunday
bailedI liked the narrator but I just couldn't get into this story. But I don't read many mysteries so I'm sure it's not the books fault. It was given to me by an aunt who meant well.
so-soI listened to the audiobook and by the end I was annoyed by the MC - I think it was partly due to the narrator- she made Flavier come off as pompous and pretentious, like she believed she was not only smarter than everyone else but also better. The narrator would do this little laugh thing every time Flavier said something. I was disappointed by the end especially since this was on some best book list. #pantone @Clwojick
pickFlavia is an extremely clever 11 year old girl who lives with her father and two sisters at Buckshaw. One day a dead body turns up in their cucumber patch and she has to take matters into her own hands and investigate.
I do love cheeky young female MCs; this was a fun mystery.
I wouldn‘t say I‘m in a slump per se.. but it sure does seem to be taking me a long time to be reading anything these days! I‘m listening to the Flavia DeLuce book (and loving it) and eye-reading the other 2 (which includes my #LMPBC read).. it‘s highly likely I‘ll be starting the new year with these 3!
Wishing you all safe and wonderful new year‘s eves… as calm or as crazy as you like! 🎆🎆🎆
so-soThis was cute enough that I'll probably try another one in the series, but it wasn't quite as clever as I'd expected.
I didn‘t enjoy this as much as other book club members did - I found Flavia to be a bit much! - but it does mention #pie at least in passing.
#gratefulharvest
pickI‘m not a mystery reader, but this cozy drew me in with its main character, the 11 year old chemist and poison enthusiast Flavia de Luce, as unique as she is lovable, and its setting, the sprawling country manor house of Buckshaw in the tidy little village of Bishop's Lacey. TW: a brief, historically accurate but unnecessary instance of racist anti-Asian caricature.
#Two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView 💙
Thank you @DarkMina for the invite🖤🖤🖤
1. Flavia deLuce from the tagged book, it's unique and kind of fancy.
2. I like protective, maternal or caring characters!
Celebrating one of my favorite Canadian authors who created one of my favorite characters on this #CanadaDay #JulyJourneys
Precocious Flavia de Luce at 11 years old loves chemistry more than anything, and enjoys using it in her revenge plots against her two older sisters. When her dad gets arrested for a crime Flavia decides the only one who can prove his innocence is her.
The narrator is great, she uses this delightfully naughty but proud voice when thinking about things she knows she shouldn‘t but can‘t help herself.
Fun cozy mystery.
#Maycharacters
@Eggs and @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 💜
#Murders
Made me think of my favorite book series The Flavia deLuce Mysteries. My girl Flavia always found her way into murders. So sad the series is over.
pickSometimes you need a spunky 11 year old junior detective and a distilled version of a story to get back your reading mojo. Just popping back on to say I am still reading, still planning and still counting down to 💒!! #recentlyread #nospoilers #detective #mystery #bookhaul #awesomefind
so-soContinuing on with Flavia‘s journey of solving the murder, she begins to try and connect the dots. The first thing on her agenda is to visit the library in Bishop‘s Lacey in an attempt to find some newspapers explaining the events of her father‘s past. While there, she learns that her father‘s headmaster mysteriously died in an incident due to the very stamp found on the snipe‘s beak. She also learns that the headmaster was the librarian‘s uncle.
🤞🏻🤞🏻I broke my reading slump with the current gem recently rescued in a mini #bookhaul. #quotescreator #currentlyreading #missingLitsy #hellospring 🥰🙏🏻🐱😻
bailedI am about 100 pages from the end and I am mostly annoyed and uninterested. So I am reading the end and moving on. The author lays the clues out point by point and it takes are main character who is supposed to be incredibly intelligent way too long to piece things together. All of the characters are very surface level, while we are learning a lot about the dad's back story it isn't really about him so I feel no connection to anyone here.
so-so
The sweetness at the bottom of the pie follows Flavia, an 11-year girl with pigtails, braces, and an uttermost hatred for her two sisters. However, we soon find out that she is a brilliant chemist with a passion for everything poisonous. At the beginning of the novel, Flavia “stumbles” upon a most interesting problem; a dead redhead man in the garden. Flavia then begins to try and solve the murder, in which her father is the prime suspect.
pickAn impulse re-read. I‘ve read the whole series and felt like starting back at the beginning. This made a grreat comfort read. Apparently some of the things that irritated me on first read (mentioned in my LibraryThing review) did not bother me at all this time through.
#ShutdownReadathon round 2 book 5
panFlavia reminded me of a young Sherlock Holmes. And her love of chemistry was intriguing. But the scene-setting was borderline historical fiction at times. The history of buildings and characters filled the pages with unnecessary information. This drew away from the feeling of a mystery and dragged the story out. #mytsery #fiction
Full review https://www.behindthepages.org/post/sweetness-at-the-bottom-of-the-pie-by-alan-b...
Ohhhh my @thegirlwiththelibrarybag thank you!!!! That chocolate looks divine (why did I have so much Christmas fettuccini??!) And I'm excited to own a physical Flavia! I love this series and own the audio, so it's lovely to have the first book (and now know which covers to continue buying!!) #christmaseve #Jólabókaflóðswap @MaleficentBookDragon #JolabokaflodSwap ##Jolabokaflod
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I was tempted so many times, but glad I waited!!
