

Loading... The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society (original 2008; edition 2009)by Mary Ann; Barrows Shaffer, Annie
Work detailsThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (2008)
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Read for book group. I loved that it was told through letters and other correspondence. I also liked how open the main character was to experiencing life through the words of the people of Guernsey, and then going there herself to experience it first-hand. ( ![]() Catchy title. One of my oldest TBR books. Thankfully, 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge has a prompt about a book club. I find it touching, inspiring and humorous. Hope the movie won't disappoint. The sign of a good book-you stay up into the wee small hours to finish it. Exactly what I did with this last night. It may not be great literature but it made me feel good. What more can you ask? But by no means is it all light and frothy. Every now and then as characters look back to events of WW 2 something horrific the inhabitants of Guernsey had to endure during the German occupation is revealed. One of my fabulous (and now unfortunately prior) coworked insisted that I watch the film of this book (she had me at WWII historical book club) and since it very much lived up to her stellar review I had to read the book as well. I can't really say whether the book or the film was better in this specific situation (a rarity, I know), but I did feel like the book had a bit more room to expand on the story. Once I settled into the unfamiliar pattern of reading a story told almost entirely through letters (and one small piece of diary entries) the cast of characters began to emerge splendidly. The actors portraying them in the film were lovely, but we get much more into some of their quirks and we get to explore the protagonist, Juliet's, writing style first hand. The film does simplify somewhat to emphasize the growing romance between Juliet and Dawsey, but we get much more back story to her prior relationship with Mark (ugh, glad she dumped him) as well as with Sydney and his sister. The other weakness of the film, having slightly less to do with discussing how the people of Guernsey dealt with the German occupation, was definitely rectified in the novel, as there are more characters who share their stories with Juliet and we get to hear first hand about her research as well. The book deals much more with the concentration camps that some of the characters spend time in as well (having been left out of the fiilm, excepting Elizabeth), which defintiely provides the book with some much-needed grounding to balance what could be viewed as a simple story about a swept-away writer. What charmed me most about both the book and the movie, though, was the fact that once I started reading it we seemed to stumble upon more people who had previously read the book! Like the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society our little group organically grew as we started chatting about our favourite parts of the story. Now maybe we should go and form an impromptu book club as well! A heartwarming, enjoyable book about rebuilding after WWII
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," written by the late Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, children's author Annie Barrows, stays within modest bounds, but is successful in ways many novels are not. This book won't change your life, but it will probably enchant you. And sometimes that's precisely what makes fiction worthwhile. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society commemorates beautiful spirits who pass through our midst and hunker undercover through brutal times. Shaffer's Guernsey characters step from the past radiant with eccentricity and kindly humour, a comic version of the state of grace. They are innocents who have seen and suffered, without allowing evil to penetrate the rind of decency that guards their humanity. You could be skeptical about the novel's improbabilities and its sanitized portrait of book clubs (doesn't anyone read trashy thrillers?), but you'd be missing the point. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them. Has the adaptationIs abridged in
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. No library descriptions found.
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