The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

-

Giddy with Guernsey

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows immediately shot up to my list of favorites. Newspaper columnist, Juliet Ashton, receives a letter from a stranger on Guernsey Island in the English Channel in 1946.  Dawsey Adams finds Juliet’s name on the inside of a book and writes her asking if she could send him the name and address of the bookshop in London were the book came from. He explains how the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came into being because of the “roast pig” in the book and therefore he feels a kinship to the author.  This, of course, piques Juliet’s (and my) interest in the unusually titled club. Juliet begins a regular correspondence with Dawsey and other members of the society where she learns about their lives and the recent German occupation during WWII. Written with warmth and humor in a series of letters we discover pig farmers, phrenologists, and survivors of the German occupation. This is a fun book that I seemed to smile my way through. I was interested in each of the islander’s backgrounds.  It also made me want to know more about the history of this island that I had never heard of.  My book club gave it an emphatic thumbs-up.  Even with the sad subject matter of the atrocities of war and the hardships everyone endured, it was not a depressing book. It was light-hearted with a couple of rough spots—in my opinion “a must read.” So, get in the mood with a “Long Island iced tea,” potato skins, and sweet potato pie as our book club hostess did.  Then sit back and enjoy! 
He could talk an angel out of Heaven….
 (about Dawsey) Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (New York: The Dial Press, 2008), 202.
Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.
(Isolda) Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (New York: The Dial Press, 2008), 53.
Your questions regarding that gentleman are very delicate, very subtle, very much like being smacked in the head with a mallet. 
(Juliet to Sophie) Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (New York: The Dial Press, 2008), 85.

Happy reading,
Annette


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

-
Image
  You Go, Girl! Pure love—that’s what I felt about this book!  It’s smart, witty, and emboldening! I don’t know how many countless times I cheered or chuckled.   A female chemist struggles to rise above the chauvinistic male domination of the 1960s and live life on her terms despite ingrained oppression of women.  Hooray for this feminist heroine who points out that just because women’s bodies are smaller than men's doesn’t mean their brains are!   I fell in love with brilliant Elizabeth and her support system:  her impressively  smart daughter Mad; her straightforward neighbor Harriet; her kind-hearted producer Walter, the irreverent Reverend Wakely; and her obstetrician/rower Dr. Mason. Oh, and let’s not forget Six-Thirty, her beloved dog!   I would definitely be one of Elizabeth’s devoted fans of her show,  Supper at Six !  If my kids were still at home, I’d mimic Elizabeth and tell them, “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.” (Even though I’m not the
Read more

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

-
Image
Italy: Just What the Doctor Ordered   This book is a sweet ray of sunshine (with a few stabs to the heart)! A group of grief-stricken people find solace in Italy and each other.   After a husband leaves his self-help radio talk show wife, she invites four random listeners to join her on what would have been her 25 th  wedding anniversary trip to Italy.  On this healing retreat, they each face their own grief in an old-world charming hotel where the innkeeper is stuck in the past and faces his own challenges.    I loved everything about this book:  the setting, the side trips to Florence and Venice, the delicious homemade food the hotel owner whips up, and the friendships formed through bonds of sorrow.   Charming and uplifting!    Pub date: June 6, 2023 If you like books set in Italy you may want to check out: One Italian Summer  by Rebecca Serle The Seamstress of Sardinia  by Bianca Pitzorno Beautiful Ruins  by Jess Walter Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions  by Mario Giordano A Room
Read more

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

-
Image
  Guilt and Consequences. Oooh this book knocked me off my feet!  I have read a lot of good books, but this one was one of the best I’ve read in a long time!   It’s about guilt, conscience, our role in society and as humans.  It was such a well-crafted slow burn, I had a difficult time putting it down.     In this riveting narrative, we are pulled from one page to the next edging toward a 91-year-old woman’s secret from WWII.  At the same time a drama plays out in current-day London, with both culminating to a jaw-dropping moment.   So good!!    Here are a couple lines to give you a taste of the book.   “I told myself that none of it had been my fault, that I had been just a child, but there was a small part of my brain that asked me, if I was entirely innocent, then why was I living under an assumed name?”   –pg 29   Gretel thought the sparkle had left her eyes—her best feature. “Now they were the color of barbed wire, of rusty ovens, of smoke and ash.”  –pg 98   “My wife belongs to m
Read more