[uujudy]

What a joy!
I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and found myself reading slower and slower so the book wouldn't end. This is my "Book of the Year," and it's not even December yet.

The story takes place in 1946, right after World War II, and consists of a series of letters between a writer (Juliet) from London and the citizens of Guernsey, a Channel Island between the UK and France.

Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during the war, and all communication between the Islanders and the rest of the world was forbidden. After the war Juliet receives a letter from an Islander who "came across her name on a secondhand volume by Charles Lamb. Perhaps she could tell him where he might find more books by this author." As the story evolves, other Islanders write to Juliet with their experiences of Nazi occupation, pig farming, literature . . . and the recipe for potato peel pie.

One quote from the book is: "I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers." That was certainly the case for me with this book!

Judy
Tony's Third Period English Class