Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

    I suggested Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley to a friend the other day and realized that I never reviewed it! I think I've reviewed all the other books (or most of them) but I never did the first book. So here it is.... a book that was suggested to me several years, that I'm now suggesting to my friend.

                                 Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
                It's 1950 and Flavia de Luce, a up in coming chemist (as she likes to think she is), runs into a series of bizarre events. First she finds a dead bird on her door step with a stamp on its beak then later she find a dead man in the cucumber patch. She decides that the best way to solve this mystery is through a little sleuthing and a bit of chemistry. Will she find the killer or will she be forced to live a normal life? (Well normal for a 50's chemist....)

     I gave this (and will always give this) 5/5 stars. Its one of my favorites, its not just the book! It's the characters. All of them are great, each one just seems to pop. And you can relate with at least one of the characters. It might help to have a little understanding about chemistry but its not to important. Maybe as you get more into the series you might need to know chemistry but you should be fine for the first book.

    I hope you enjoyed this, it wasn't one I meant to review. I really need to get working on that list, cause I've finished Three by Kristen Simmons and started The Help. So I really need to keep on task! I also need to talk to my friend about posting more.... Well hope you enjoyed! Talk To You All Later! -Kaitlynn

Let's Go To Middle Earth!

      Hey Guys! I'm so glad you all enjoyed my friends first post. (I must admit I thought it was pretty good too.) So, I bet your all wondering what book I'm going to review now. Well I feel like taking a trip to middle earth, so I've decided to do a review on the Hobbit! I wanted to read the all the Lord of the Rings books before read this one but I can't fin my copy of them. It's somewhere around here and I'll find it some day but for now on with the Hobbit!

                        The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
    Come on a journey with one of our favorite hobbits, Bilbo Baggins. Who really rather have stayed at whole instead of going on his journey with Gandalf and the dwarves: Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and Thorin. (One to many dwarves to remember, if you ask me.) Follow them through their journey through Middle Earth to get to the Lonely Mountain. What will they find? Who will they face? When is second breakfast?

    I rate this book a 4/5 stars. It was a good book, confusing at times but good. the only thing I didn't like is every thing after Smaug leaves the Mountain and doesn't come back. I felt it got dull and went on longer than it should have. Other than that minor "issue", it was a pretty good read.

   I'll do the same thing that I've done in the past with lists, I'll link the ones I've done so you can go back and read them again. Or read them for the first time, if you haven't read them yet. (There's only one right now but later there'll be more) Well I'm off to get ready for Afternoon tea! Talk To You All Later! -Kaitlynn

1.) The Silent Stars go by by Dan Abnett
2.) Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth
3.) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
4.) A Study in Silks and A Study in Darkness by Emma Jane Holloway
5.) Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell
6.) The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
7.) The Osiris Curse: A Tweed and Nightingale Adventure by Paul Crilley
8.) The Shadowhunters Codex by Cassandra Clare
9.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Had to read for English but I'm reviewing it anyway)
10.) Three by Kristen Simmons (Haven't read but it's next on my list, I'll start it in a week or two...)

H.T. Rapinski Here to do the Camulodunum Chronicles

Hey guys! How's it going? Pretty good blog, right? Unlike my friend Kaitlynn I'd appreciate comments and critiques on my posts.  Here goes the first one.

The Camulod (Latin it's Camulodunum) Chronicles were written by a historical fiction writer by the name of Jack Whyte.  No not the lead singer of the White Stripes.  It's a great book series about the Romans in Briton during the start of the fall of the Roman Empire.  You follow the blood line down to the man who would be known as King Arthur.  In the first two books you follow Publius Varrus, a retired centurion who ventures back to his home town in order to rekindle his father's forge.  Varrus in the second book eventually forges the singing sword out of a meteorite that he found in Celt territory.  He creates a "colony" of Romans to hopefully survive the withdrawal of Legions from Briton.  This colony is made up of several Roman villas and a good friend and one time commander of Varrus' lives in one of these.  This friend is Caius Brittanicus.  The son of this man is Caius Merlyn Britannicus, middle name sound familiar?  The next four books are dedicated to following this astonishing man's life as he runs the colony. With all Roman troops having been drawn back in defense of Rome by Stilicho's orders Briton is completely open to invasion by the Picts from the north.  Merlyn, as he goes by,  deals with the problems of the colony and seals a peace pact with the nearby celts who's leader is Uther Pendragon.  This alliance goes well as the Pendragon clan is renowned for their ridiculously huge and powerful longbows.  Camulod is trained in the ways of Alexander the Great's armies in that they rely heavily on charging cavalry with infantry as support.  In the next two books the main character is passed on to Clothar the Frank who is good with the lance and earns the nickname of, you guessed it, Lancelot.  These books are the closest that we get to the time period in which King Arthur lived as Lancelot knows him personally.  I loved these books as a kid, but there is one caveat.  In about every book there is at least one sex scene.  In most books I'd skip these automatically but Jack Whyte makes it so that these scenes are, in many cases, critical to the plot.  There is a lot of fighting.  Whyte is great at describing both the individual duels and the large battles.  Likewise he cunningly twists the Arthurian tale into one that could fit neatly into history.  And what better than Roman history?

This has been H.T. Rapinsky.