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Several years ago, I worked at an art gallery here in Anchorage. Though I loved the art, I wasn’t much good at selling it. More often than not, I just chatted up the customers, who were from all over the world.
One night, four elderly people wandered in. They told me they were from a tiny island off the coast of southern England called “Guernsey”. I’d never heard of it, so they proudly explained it was the only part of British soil that had been occupied by the Nazis during World War II. The isla ...more
One night, four elderly people wandered in. They told me they were from a tiny island off the coast of southern England called “Guernsey”. I’d never heard of it, so they proudly explained it was the only part of British soil that had been occupied by the Nazis during World War II. The isla ...more

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows' The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a novel in letters between writer Juliet Ashton, her friends Sidney and Sophia, and her new friends from the Guernsey Channel Islands.
Ashton is in the midst of a book tour for a collection of her WWII articles under the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff. However, she is floundering on the topic for her next book, which is opportune for Ashton who begins to write articles for the Times about the practical, moral, an ...more
Ashton is in the midst of a book tour for a collection of her WWII articles under the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff. However, she is floundering on the topic for her next book, which is opportune for Ashton who begins to write articles for the Times about the practical, moral, an ...more

This another book that I received after subscribing to the online newsletter, Shelf Awareness. It's designed for booksellers but I know of at least one othter librarian who who has subscribed and clicked through to receive free advance review copies. This one caught my eye right away because I thought the title was clever. And when I saw that it's a series of letters, I really sat down and focused on this tale of a 30something writer who begins corresponding with the residents of Guernsey, one o
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First of all I have to thank book bloggers for talking about this book. I never would have picked up this book on its own. The title threw me off, but after hearing about it, I was intrigued. I am so grateful because I absolutely LOVED this book. The style was very different. No chapters, just letters or telegrams back and forth between the characters in the book. So, it made it a quick and easy read. You could read a few letters and come back later if you needed to. But that would have been dif
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This is a wonderful book to listen to as it is a full cast audio (although Dawsey sounded, to my mind, quite a bit older than he really was). I recently had a chance to read this for a reading map project I did for my readers advisory class and it is just as lovely to read. The dialogue is witty and the characters are well developed. Each letter is introduced with both who is writing it and who they are writing to, making it very easy to keep track of characters. My only issue is that while the
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I have read some pretty tough books lately and needed a book that was interesting and whitty... and this book was perfect. The book format was a nice touch and I learned about a place that I didn't even know existed, nor that it was occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. Now, I am not saying that my american-based education lacked info on the lands between England and Europe... but it must have been pretty boring stuff because I sure as heck-fire don't remember learning about it. This was a go
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I really enjoyed this book. It's a quick and easy read with a warmth that belies the subject matter, the occupation of the island of Guernsey for 5 years of WW 2.
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I was a bit disappointed by this book. I found the letters entertaining and the characters were surprisingly well developed but I read books for an interesting story line. I felt this book failed to meet that requirement of a great book.
Juliet leaves everything behind to visit Guernsey under the guise of writing a book about the people she meets there. The book i really about "finding herself" and falling in love. Yawn!! ...more
Juliet leaves everything behind to visit Guernsey under the guise of writing a book about the people she meets there. The book i really about "finding herself" and falling in love. Yawn!! ...more

I would give this 3.5 - 4 stars. It was an enjoyable read. And I always love reading any books having to do with WWII - I always learn so much and there are so many aspects and facets to the war that you never even learned or knew about. I liked how the book was written in "correspondence" - an interesting idea. I also liked how the division between the good guys and bad guys wasn't very black and white. War was/is more complicated than that.
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This is the first time since I've been logging my books on Goodreads that I've read or in this case, listened to a book I've read a book I've already read but this is one that I absolutely loved when I read it as an ARC and when my bookclub chose it, I was really excited about listening to it and I was not disappointed. A small cast of characters reads the letters that comprise this novel and I loved their voices. And it made me emotional during the sad parts just as much as reading it did!
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Oct 12, 2009
Lisa
marked it as to-read