Book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Grade: B -
Recommended To: Book Clubs
This book was chosen for our January Book Club selection and it was great for that purpose. It was an incredibly fast read and I ended up finishing it in one day! I love books like that. You start it in the morning and bam, by the end of the day, everything is resolved. This book was written as a series of letters and took place immediately after WWII in England.
The main character is an author and is searching for her next book idea when she gets a letter from a man who is a member of a small book society that was created as an excuse for breaking curfew in German occupied Guernsey. She starts corresponding with the members of the society and eventually moves there and gets to know them all very well.
The letter-style of this book is intriguing but sometimes it is hard to follow. It also made the story lack a bit of detail and narrative that would have been present in a book that was just written, without letters. I also thought it was a bit of a stretch occasionally when the letters contained a lot of detail that wouldn't necessarily be contained in a letter.
I really really liked that this book was about books. If you haven't noticed, the new quote in the "blog description" area is from this book. There were some deliciously juicy quotes about books and how fabulous books are. The society itself was also pretty interesting and I thought the book was well written from a historical standpoint.
I gave this book a B- because at points it was simply boring. The story just didn't have enough to keep me going and at times I questioned why I was still reading it. Ack! That's the worst criticism I can give a book. I think this is a great read for book clubs, women, and letter writers. It is definitely worth a shot especially because it went so quickly.
Happy Reading!!
No comments:
Post a Comment