The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (2008)

"Did I find solace in reading? Yes, but not at first. I'd just go and eat my pie in quietude in a corner. Then Isola got ahold of me and said I had to read a book and talk about it like the others did. She gave me a book called Past and Present  by Thomas Carlyle, and a tedious thing he was - he gave me shooting pains in my head - until I came to a bit on religion." - Will Thisbee

This book was brought to my attention from one of the girls I volunteer with on Sundays. She loved the movie (starring the darling Lily James and handsome Michael Huisman among other amazing British actors) and was about to start the book. I was in between books, basically looking for my next genre...and jumped at the opportunity to not only have a reading partner but to see a good movie after! The idea of a whole book being told by letters between all the characters sounded very appealing, too!

Needless to say, the book was hard to get through. It took myself and the girl who I was reading with a lot longer than our normal speed reading.  I honestly can't say why or pinpoint it. The story was good, I like reading up on history and during the tragic WW2. I did enjoy reading the letters and picking up on each character's unique voice...and had Lily James in my mind the whole time. Yet, I would start a couple books in between before I came back to this one and finally finish it.

However, the story on why there is two authors is actually quite sweet. When you read from both authors in the back of the book in Acknowledgments, Mary Ann Shaffer, the main writer, and her first novel is dated December 2007. She died in February 2008. Her niece, Annie Barrows, who was already an established writer in her own right, took up editing and cleaning up the final outcome. She said, " It was my good fortune to enter into this project armed with a lifetime of my aunt Mary Ann's stories and the editorial acumen of Susan Kamil...."

Finally finishing the book and rewarding myself to see the movie, (which oddly, more people knew about and enjoyed) it was worth reading just to know some back story of things they only graze on in the movie...if at all.

This is one of those rare books that its movie is actually better. (Forrest Gump and Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne are other books that I feel the film is the better choice.)

I am on the fence to say this is a great book for a Book Club. Since it was so hard for us to get through, do I save others?  There are no chapters to work with, just letter from letter. However, if it is chosen in a Book Club, you have a greater chance of all staying accountable for each other. It could actually BE the book for a Club. I would see everyone getting together and maybe each be assigned characters to read of their letters. I would have fun with it. By default it should be in a Book Club since it is about a book club, (matter of speaking.)

"Is it unseemly to get married so quickly? I don't want to wait-- I want to begin at once. All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged-- after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot. Perhaps my next book will be about a fascinating married couple and all the things they learn about one another over time. Are you impressed by the beneficial effect of engagement on my writing?" - Juliet