The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

4/5 rating. 274 pages.

Book #7 of 2022. Read January 26, 2022.

I completely loved this adorable book!

This book is set just after World War II. Juliet is a writer who has just had some success with a book she wrote under a pseudonym putting a humorous touch on the horrors of the war in London.

A man from Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands between England and France that was occupied during the war) named Dawsey finds a book about Charles Lamb that used to be Juliet’s. When he writes her a letter to thank her for the book, he writes a small statement about their Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that piques Juliet’s interest. As they correspond back and forth and she is introduced to even more of the members, she begins to want to visit Guernsey.

Once she does so, she falls in love with the island and her new friends even more. This book touches upon some of the horrors of the war and had me bawling a few times at the atrocities of some of the characters.

This book was just an absolute delight to read! Lighthearted enough, but even fulfilling my hopeless romantic side. If you’re looking for a fun, fantastic book to read, written all in letters, it would be hard to find a better one than this…maybe I should move to Guernsey, get me some sheep, goats, a corgi, and join the Literary Club myself.

Quotes:

“I don’t want to be married just to be married. I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with.”

“I have gone to them for years, always finding the one book I wanted – and then three more I hadn’t known I wanted.”

“That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive – all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”

“We clung to books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us.”

“But I must do this to tell you how Elizabeth lived – and how she held on hard to her kindness and her courage.”

“The poor girl is due for some Heaven; she has already been through Hell.”

“Think of it! We could have gone on longing for one another and pretending not to notice forever. This obsession with dignity can ruin your life if you let it.”

“The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot.”

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