Wednesday, January 13, 2010

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



My rating: 5 Stars

My review:
I just LOVED this book. It totally and utterly lived up to the hype! From the moment, I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down and I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. to finish it despite the fact that I had to get up at 6 a.m.! And it was worth missing every moment of sleep!

I was worried about the format of the book - a series of letters - which I often find to be a less than perfect format. But, this one blew me away. I LOVE Juliet and every single Guernsey character was spot on! I'm amazed how much Shaffer was able to make me CARE about these people based on a series of letters. I learned a great deal about the German occupation that was new to me - the story of Guernsey's occupation was one that isn't often told but that really gave me a new perspective on life during that time in history. The writing is wonderful, the characters are so charming, the story is fantastic. It's ALL good. It is rare for me to feel so connected to each and every character in a book as I was in with this one. Wow. Shaffer did a fantastic job of telling each of their stories, in a variety of 'voices.'

Just amazing! I highly recommend this one - just a good, interesting, well-written novel! I think almost ANYONE would enjoy this book! I wish that Shaffer were alive to bring us more wonderful books like this one! This is definitely a treasure!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds great - now I am really looking forward to it. My bookclub selected it for Feb!

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