The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows.

I read this book quite some time back - during the raya breaks. It took me only 4 days.

I looooovvvveee this book. It's funny, witty and at many points sad but without being too over bearing.

As the title suggest, it is about a book club which was formed out of neccessity and where the focus of the book was at first to understand the meaning and logic behind the club's name. Slowly the focus shifted to its members, the book they were reading (if there was any book, to begin with), their war torn surroundings and finally to certain individuals whom you cannot help but fell in like with.

On page 111, instead of reading a published book to the club members, a certain member decided to read a book which she wrote herself. She claimed that her book had caused 'more tears and sorrow than anything that Charles Dickens ever wrote'. Why? Because they were in the midst of World War 2 with the German soldiers swarming their island situated across the English Channel in the middle between UK and France. With food ration, no meat diet and surviving on potatoes for many, many cold months and not even wood to burn - this woman is reading out loud her self-wrote book on the correct way to roast a suckling pig to her nearly famished audiences!!!

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I also like the one-liner back and forth notes from one of the book's character with one of her suitor. Which to me was uncharacteristically modern for a story meant to be in 1946 but didnt spoil the flow of the story. The book has plenty of this. Short notes that made me laughed out loud ie. Benjamin's Cook Book for Girl Guides where the writer assumes reader has no idea what-so ever on cooking hence hint like 'when adding eggs, break shell first'.

Since I was in the fast forward mode of reading the book so I was still at it in the wee hours of morning. I reached to a part where a very important character died. I cried. Stopped reading. Went down to the kitchen. Made coffee. Carried 2 pieces of biscuits and the mug of coffee into my room before continuing my read.

I did make some speculation on the lead characters love interest and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was wrong. How very interesting to not be able to predict - the plot.

Amongst all I can't agree more to this line I found on page 58:

'Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books'.

I finished reading at 0320hrs in the morning.