Hello Again My Shadow Mountain Book Club Lady Friends… and all lurkers,
I’m quite late getting this review and next-book information out. My excuse is a good one, however… as it is hayfever/allergy season my only desire is to lie on the sofa with a tissue box and feel sorry for myself till June. Any commiserating sufferers out there? Life could be worse…..I could have been a resident of the Island of Guernsey during WWII .. shunned by the English and occupied by the Germans. but at least they had a book club
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was our book for the month of April…..a departure from our classic’s list, but it worked out fine! Claudia Elliason stepped out of the mother-of –the-bride- mode long enough to offer her wonderful home and yummy refreshments. We sure appreciate her! It’s not every bookclub that has the Mother of the Year for the State of Utah as a member…
This book was highly recommended by Margaret Tribe, and I’m glad she did. Sometimes I need to be forced out of my comfort zone (rut) and read different genre. She gave a thoughtful overview using her marked passages and handouts.
It was a story told through letters from journalist In England to a group of odd, loving, funny and eccentric people on the quazi-English-owned island of Guernsey, near the English Channel.
The central figure in this novel is Juliet Ashton, a World War II London columnist. In early 1946, just as England and Europe are beginning to rebuild from the War, Juliet receives a letter from a Guernsey pig farmer, Dawsey Adams. Her curiosity is piqued when she learns that the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, mentioned in Dawsey's letter, played a huge role in saving its members’ lives. Juliet begins to correspond not only with Dawsey but also with other members of the Society. Eventually, she takes up residency on the island herself in order to research and write a book about the German occupation of Guernsey and how the Islanders survived it. Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. Julie begins to correspond with Dawsey and the members of his book club, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and arranges to visit them, although a handsome American publishing tycoon wants her to stay in London. As she becomes enmeshed in the islanders’ lives, she learns she can’t escape the effects of war as she had once longed to do: “The war is now the story of our lives, and there’s no subtracting it.”
Authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows tell well the hardships of islanders who made do with wartime rations of one candle a week and cooked their vegetables in seawater for lack of salt. The authors also offer many well-chosen quotes and anecdotes about an eclectic group of poets and writers: Chaucer, Wilkie Collins, Agatha Christie, the Brontë sisters. And in the age of Dr. Phil and Twitter, it’s refreshing to meet characters like the book-club member who finds comfort in the words the Roman orator Seneca: “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.”
The one great thing this book did for me is teach me about the occupation of the island by the Germans….and not everything is easily defined as black and white or enemy and friend. There are good Germans. There are insufferable Islanders…There is a tremendous scene where the islands have to ship their children off to England for safety…I can’t imagine it.
I had to reread Wuthering Heights because of this book. There references made to that book wetted my appetite to revisit it. If you didn’t read it with us, I challenge you to pick it up and read it. You’ll enjoy.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was our book for the month of April…..a departure from our classic’s list, but it worked out fine! Claudia Elliason stepped out of the mother-of –the-bride- mode long enough to offer her wonderful home and yummy refreshments. We sure appreciate her! It’s not every bookclub that has the Mother of the Year for the State of Utah as a member…
This book was highly recommended by Margaret Tribe, and I’m glad she did. Sometimes I need to be forced out of my comfort zone (rut) and read different genre. She gave a thoughtful overview using her marked passages and handouts.
It was a story told through letters from journalist In England to a group of odd, loving, funny and eccentric people on the quazi-English-owned island of Guernsey, near the English Channel.
The central figure in this novel is Juliet Ashton, a World War II London columnist. In early 1946, just as England and Europe are beginning to rebuild from the War, Juliet receives a letter from a Guernsey pig farmer, Dawsey Adams. Her curiosity is piqued when she learns that the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, mentioned in Dawsey's letter, played a huge role in saving its members’ lives. Juliet begins to correspond not only with Dawsey but also with other members of the Society. Eventually, she takes up residency on the island herself in order to research and write a book about the German occupation of Guernsey and how the Islanders survived it. Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. Julie begins to correspond with Dawsey and the members of his book club, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and arranges to visit them, although a handsome American publishing tycoon wants her to stay in London. As she becomes enmeshed in the islanders’ lives, she learns she can’t escape the effects of war as she had once longed to do: “The war is now the story of our lives, and there’s no subtracting it.”
Authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows tell well the hardships of islanders who made do with wartime rations of one candle a week and cooked their vegetables in seawater for lack of salt. The authors also offer many well-chosen quotes and anecdotes about an eclectic group of poets and writers: Chaucer, Wilkie Collins, Agatha Christie, the Brontë sisters. And in the age of Dr. Phil and Twitter, it’s refreshing to meet characters like the book-club member who finds comfort in the words the Roman orator Seneca: “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.”
The one great thing this book did for me is teach me about the occupation of the island by the Germans….and not everything is easily defined as black and white or enemy and friend. There are good Germans. There are insufferable Islanders…There is a tremendous scene where the islands have to ship their children off to England for safety…I can’t imagine it.
I had to reread Wuthering Heights because of this book. There references made to that book wetted my appetite to revisit it. If you didn’t read it with us, I challenge you to pick it up and read it. You’ll enjoy.
2 comments:
I'm excited to hear that you liked it. I've been trying to read it for a while, but I'm on the waiting list at the library for it. The book sounds so interesting - maybe I'll just go and buy it!
I'm glad to know I have a cyber member of the Shadow Mountain Book Club, (unofficially known as The Ladies of the Night).
And Amanda, I have been worried about you and your tornados...hurry back to civilization.
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