by Mary Ann Shaffer
January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.
Review: It had to be the all the hype, or the fact that everyone I met told me to read this book, but this was quite possibly the worse book I have ever read in my life. When you read a book and could care less about the characters, that is a sure sign to abort the mission as soon as possible. There was no hook, the letter format was distracting and confusing and quite frankly there was no real story line. I tried really hard to plow through and care, but didn't. I'm sure that there are readers out there that will disagree, but the reading guide description of this book is far better then the book itself. Sound familiar? Ever see the movie trailer for Where the Wild Things Are? Save yourself the rental fee and read the picture book, it is much more entertaining and would only take 10 minutes out of your life as opposed to the 101 minutes of your life lost that you can never get back watching that train wreck of a movie. Same here, do not waste your time, read the review and move on to something worth reading.
Read this instead of the book: Celebrating literature, love, and the power of the human spirit, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the story of an English author living in the shadow of World War II—and embarking on a writing project that will dramatically change her life. Unfolding in a series of letters, this enchanting novel introduces readers to the indomitable Juliet Ashton. Through Juliet’s correspondence with her publisher, best friend, and an absorbing cast of characters, readers discover that despite the personal losses she suffered in the Blitz, and author tours sometimes marked by mishaps, nothing can quell her enthusiasm for the written word. One day, she begins a different sort of correspondence, responding to a man who found her name on the flyleaf of a cherished secondhand book. He tells her that his name is Dawsey Adams, a native resident of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands recently liberated from Nazi occupation. Soon Juliet is drawn into Dawsey’s remarkable circle of friends, courageous men and women who formed the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as a cover to protect them from the Germans. With their appetite for good books, and their determination to honor the island’s haunting recent history, this is a community that opens Juliet’s heart and mind in ways she could never have imagined.
