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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer

Discussion: November/December 2008

Discussion leader: Lisa Hickman

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November/December 2008

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What Members Thought

Nov 23, 2009 Catherine rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-liked

I listened to this unabridged audiobook on a car journey. It is set just as the 2nd world war ends and tells the story of the impact of the war on the people of Guernsey.
Well written it uses letters between people that belong to a kind of book group to describe the events of the war and their current lives.
At times disturbing in terms of the images of events around the war it does a good job of bringing the thoughts and emotions of the characters to life. Gives the positive as well as the negat ...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Alison rated it it was amazing

A new favorite!! Oh, how I loved this book.

A novel presented as a collection of letters, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, artfully pieces together the story of a small Channel Island town during the German Occupation of WWII, and the creation of what we now refer to as a book club.

It all started when Miss Juliet Dawson, an author living in London, received a letter from Mr. Dawsey Adams of Guernsey. He had in his possession an old book of A new favorite!! Oh, how I loved this book.

A novel presented as a collection of letters, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, artfully pieces together the story of a small Channel Island town during the German Occupation of WWII, and the creation of what we now refer to as a book club.

It all started when Miss Juliet Dawson, an author living in London, received a letter from Mr. Dawsey Adams of Guernsey. He had in his possession an old book of hers, which had her name and address written inside the front cover. Dawsey loved the book so much he felt compelled to write to Juliet to find out more about the author. What started out as a single request turned into a correspondence and a life of something else I can't quite explain.

Juliet writes back to Dawsey: "I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. how delightful if that were true."
Don't you just love that?

Juliet and Dawsey were quickly joined in their correspondence by other members of the Guernsey Literary Society, among many others, writing letters over the course of nine months. Somewhere I have seen the number of characters introduced in this book, and it seemed overwhelming to me at first, but rest assured there really are only 4 or 5 main characters, with the supporting characters adding their own bit of insight, humor and levity. Then there is Elizabeth, who holds the whole book together. I can't talk about Elizabeth, though, because doing so might spoil this book for someone and I wouldn't dare do that. Oh, she feels so real to me!

Sprinkled throughout the letters, in between the stories of the Occupation and the goings-on of Guernsey, are the letter-writers' love of books (or lack thereof), which both touched me and often made me laugh aloud. Too many to quote all of them, but here is one of my favorites:

"We clung to books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us."

Imagine finding a dusty old box of letters from 1946 in your grandmother's attic. This is how I felt reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. These characters were so real to me. I laughed with them, I cried with them, and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with them. I would read a letter, stick my bookmark in the page and just live with these people, dream about them. A day has not gone by where I haven't thought about this book. I have been carrying these characters around with me since I turned the last page.

In this day of e-mails, text messages, and skyping, reading this epistolary novel made me want to dig into my rarely used engraved stationary and write a nice long letter.

...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Sally rated it really liked it

Shelves: mostly-literary-fiction

A charming book with a quirky set of characters who connect with and support each other during the dire Nazi occupation of Guernsey Island, one of the British Channel Islands. It's a book lover's book, for this community of friends develops an unexpected support system in their discussions about their favorite books. Some characters have a limited reading repertoire, others discover themselves in poetry and a wide assortment of books: "We read books, talked books, argued over books, and became d ...more

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Sep 24, 2009 Helen rated it it was amazing

I wasn't suppose to rate this book until after book group meeting..darn..Will keep my comments..to myself..Little late for that..huh.. ...more

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Feb 24, 2010 Nancy Vincent rated it it was ok

Shelves: blech

What am I missing? This dreck got great reviews. All I'm seeing so far is a bunch of boring Brits yammering on about NOTHING. If this doesn't get better soon................ ...more

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Aug 19, 2009 Mimi rated it really liked it

Shelves: personal-library

Written in letter form. A delightful read that follows a writer who decides to write about the German occupation of the island of Guernsey during World War II and finds herself falling in love with the people as she researches her book.

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Nov 30, 2010 Glenn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: wwii

I too am usually not a fan of epistolary writing - but this book was a unique mix of many different genres; historical fiction, romance, wwii atrocity, comedy...

Really a fun read.

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