The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Click here for a very brief plot summary

This past Wednesday we enjoyed another delightful evening chatting about yet another amazing read!  Everyone in our group gave this book a thumbs up!  One of my favorite parts of the discussion focused on the letter writing format of the novel.  We talked about how you get to know the characters in bits and pieces through their letters.  It was a little hard for some of our readers to get used to, but once we figured it all out, we really enjoyed the format!  Reading these letters made us want to write letters!  Not emails or Facebook posts, but actual, hand-written letters.

This novel wasn't just fun to read, it was also enlightening.  We all felt that we learned something from reading this novel.  Few of us knew much (if anything) about the Channel Islands and we certainly didn't know about the German occupation of Guernsey during WWII.  We all felt we learned something about the difficulties of that war and of how deeply it affected the lives of people in England and Guernsey.  Most of us had not known anything about the Todt slaves and the abuse they faced at the hands of the Nazis - this was something that was particularly haunting for some of our readers.  One of the things that we came to feel was that everyone had been hurt by the Nazi regime.  Those who suffered in countries that were occupied, or targeted by Hitler, or even (for some Germans) forced to participate in and fight for a cause in which they did not believe (as was the case with Christian Heller).  For me the emotions felt during the reading of this novel went all the way from heart-wrenching to utter joy!

The characters in this novel really came to life for most of us and we really came to feel deeply involved in their (fictional) lives.  It was a great novel to read for a book club!  Thanks to all our readers for a great evening!  Thanks to Brady Davies from the Standard Journal for visiting our book club.  We are looking forward to your article! :)

COMING SOON (although it may be after baseball season)...recipes from the meeting, including a recipe for a delicious Potato Peel Pie! :) 

Please feel free to leave comments about further observations on the novel or thoughts you wish I would have included above!

* A note on our next book.  We are now reading Peter Pan, or as it was first titled, Peter and Wendy the author is JM Barrie.  I wanted to be sure to include both titles so you will know what you are looking for.  I know you can get a free version of this book both online or at Amazon for your Kindle (or similar).  Just make sure you search for the Peter and Wendy title to find the free version.  Happy Reading!