The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

By: Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Category: Fiction
Stars: *****

"January 1946: Writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name."

A few days ago, my mom and I were at Costco looking at the books (she wanted to purchase the 5th George RR Martin book), when she gasped, reached across me and grabbed this book from the pile. "You have to read this book!" She exclaimed, waving it in my face.  It was a decent price, and since I'm a fan of anything to do with WWII, I decided, oh, why not?

It sat on my bookshelf for a few days until I finished another book and decided to give it a try.  At first, I wasn't sure-the book isn't written like regular books, it's a whole book of letters.  26 pages in, I found myself in love with the story.  I couldn't put it down.  As a writer and a reader, this book spoke to me in a way I haven't felt in a long time. 

It is a little predictable-I could tell exactly what was going to happen just a few pages in, but that didn't detract from how wonderfully this book is written.  In fact, it's so good that I actually cried.  Yup, I cried, and I can't remember doing that for any book...maybe Little Women the first time I read it. 

The characters are beautifully written and come alive in the pages-you want to know them, to talk to them.  I've always wanted to go back to England, see the places I missed the first time around, but now I want to go visit this island (situated in the English Channel), see the places that were brought to life in the pages.

A few of my favorite lines:

"I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers-booksellers really are a special breed.  No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one-the margin of profit is too small.  So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it-along with first dibs on the new books."

"Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."