I am an incredibly avid reader. I love reading so much, that you’d be hard pressed to find me anywhere, anytime, without a book on my person. And now that I no longer have to worry about reading text books or doing school work, I actually have time to read for fun these days. So far this summer I’ve read a handful of good books: When You Are Engulfed In Flames (David Sedaris), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami), and I reread the wonderful Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (JK Rowling). And even though I do enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings about books I read with others, I’m not planning on blogging them whenever I finish a book I like.
But I would like to do just that in regards to the book I just finished: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
My sister lent this book to me after reading it for her book club. I’ve got to admit that I’m sometimes skeptical of book club books… but this one was a gem. The book is comprised of fictional letters, mostly written to and from the main character Juliet, an English author who is tired of writing her signature “Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War” stories and wants to move on (WWII has just ended). A Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands) farmer serendipitously finds her name in a used book and writes to Juliet. This turns into many of Guernsey’s inhabitants writing to Juliet about their experiences during the German Occupation on the Channel Islands during the war, and ultimately so much more.
It’s a quick read, and I found myself slowing my reading down as I got further into the book because I so desperately didn’t want it to end. It’s almost painfully touching, and delightfully written all the way through. But what I loved most about this book were the characters. It’s amazing how Shaffer and Barrows bring the characters to life in such an affecting way and in so few pages, relatively speaking (admittedly some more than others). You’ll have to read it to understand, but I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to know any character in any book more than Isola Pribby. My heart honestly ached with love when I read “Isola’s” letters.
I think a big reason I wanted to write about this, though, is that it’s not that I think this is the best book I’ve read at all-frankly, not by a long shot. But it was absolutely one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read, and I felt love for it while reading it. I found that interesting.
So, read this book! I think women are more likely to be drawn in by it than men are, but I’m sure there are plenty of men out there who would appreciate it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Posted by Brianna on August 24, 2009 at 11:07 am
I SO love that you so loved this book too! You said it perfectly, it’s not so much that it’s the “best” book ever but it is such an enjoyable read. One of my most enjoyable reads ever — I read it almost painfully slow just because I didn’t want to leave the characters!
Posted by The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society « The Book Club Diet on October 1, 2009 at 2:30 pm
[...] The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society Jump to Comments First diet (see diet blog Martha’s Vineyard Detox), new book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Personally, I LOVED this book. Loved it so much that I quite literally forced myself to read it, almost painfully slowly just so it wouldn’t end. The whole written in letter form thing had me feeling as though I had unearthed some private history all save in personal letters, I could see the But I can’t come close to the eloquent review, of which I whole heartily agree with, that my sister gave this book (after I passed it on to her!) on her blog. http://megbarankin.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society/ [...]