Review of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This was at times fun/lighthearted, poignant and moving. Really (really) liked it :)
Random House Reader's Circle Random House reader's circle
Paperback, 290 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2009 by Dial Press.
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.
This was at times fun/lighthearted, poignant and moving. Really (really) liked it :)
**My third reading of this book, and I love Guernsey just as much as I did three years ago. And the audiobook is just perfect!
Just like Juliet, I have fallen in love with Guernsey. I want to pack my bags and live there and join their literary society. I am enchanted.
Journey back in time through a series of correspondence between author Juliet Ashby and the people of Guernsey Island following the occupation of World War II. But beware--you might find you leave a piece of your heart behind. Funny, sweet, dramatic, and curious, I was so absorbed. I just loved this book. I loved everyone in the literary society, especially Dawsey. And I loved the ending, and felt it was the perfect ending to a beautiful book.
What to say? It's an award winner and I have several friends who have rated this book with a five star rating. So I guess I was expecting to love it and I just didn't. It took me way too many days to finish this book and maybe that's an issue in and of itself. If I read it in one sitting maybe it wouldn't have felt so disjointed to me. Anyway, I do love that the book features a "book club" of sorts that loves reading!
This was delightful. At first, it masqueraded as a light, humorous tale, but then it became a lot more than that. And I learned something; I was not aware that the Channel Islands were occupied during WWII. This was yet another war experience I'd never heard before, and the characters were very likeable.
I now have another destination for my bucket list, too. This is a short novel that packed quite a punch!
It's a sweet book. It starts out as a treatise on how the love of literature can spring up in the unlikeliest places, for the unlikeliest reasons. Then it becomes a series of harrowing vignettes on life in occupied Europe during WWII. And finally a simple love story, in which everyone involved is absolutely blind to the existence of the two star-crossed lovers.
Since I visited the Channel Islands for the first time as a little girl (my dad needed to work at Guernsey) I do have a soft spot for these islands.
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