Showing posts with label Annie Barrows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annie Barrows. Show all posts

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society


Pages:  290
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle/ebook
Publisher:  Dial Press (July 2008)
Book Source:  Private Loan
Category:  Historical Fiction
Style:  Character-driven, written as letters between characters

Synopsis from GoodReads:

“ 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.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

My Take:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came through my front door, another one of my friend Ginger's recommendations.  Truth to tell, my #1 daughter-in-law, Ariane, recommended it to me first by a couple of months, but she failed to actually put the book into my hands and so it slipped by me.  When she reminded me—she was there when Ginger dropped by—I remembered, as I recalled her repeated admonition:  "Yeah.  The author got the manuscript finished, but she never published it.  Then she died, and her niece came along and got it published.  But you have to publish your book because I'm not a writer and can't do that!"