Also, our close-knit group welcomed two new members!
The 'magic' question this month was "Do you consider yourself a fast or slow reader?
Most of the members considered themselves to be faster readers than most, probably because they are avid readers and with practice comes speed... Our fearless leader said she read about 50 pages per hour. I have never measured how many pages I read in an hour, but now I am curious and will probably HAVE to find out!
The book under discussion this month was "The sweetness at the bottom of the pie" by Alan Bradley. I read this book back in July of 2009, so my memory of it was a bit fuzzy. My posting from last July reads:"What a unique premise for a mystery novel! The protagonist is an eleven year old female aspiring chemist. Growing up in a motherless, and very eccentric household, Flavia de Luce is memorable to say the least. Throw in a dead bird, a little poison and some rare stamps, and you've got a unique historical British mystery written by a Canadian, Alan Bradley.
The book is the first of a proposed series called the Buckshaw Chronicles and Flavia even has her own fan club!
It has placed on numerous bestseller lists and has won the Debut Dagger Award awarded by the British Crime Writer's Association!"
At bookclub I was astounded to find out that Alan Bradley had never set foot in England until AFTER he wrote this book! Also, on the merit of an excerpt from this novel, the author garnered a 6 book deal with his publisher (at the age of 69).
Most of the club members agreed that Flavia was precocious and extremely observant for her age of eleven. She had to grow up fast because of being in a motherless family with little supervision. Many wondered why Flavia was not in school as the book was set in June and there were other children attending school in the time the novel took place.
Members liked the vivid description and considered the hostage scene to be quite exciting. A majority of members want to read the second title in the series "The weed that strings the hangman’s bag".
Next months meeting welcomes reading suggestions from WhoDunit members.
The winners of the free books at this meeting were: Betty, Lynne, Nancy and Brian.
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