A week ago I called Tink & out of boredom we ended up forming a book club with just the 2 of us as members so far. A week later I can't even get my lesson plans done at a decent hour because all I want to do is read our book. I'll regret it tomorrow but it's so good!
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"
As if the name alone weren't enough to hook us, Elizabeth Gilbert said "I can't recommend this book highly enough" on the front cover... & since we were debating between this or her sequel to Eat, Pray, Love we took her recommendation. I guess I'll do whatever Elizabeth Gilbert tells me to... I also do most things Oprah tells me to, but I digress.
It's fiction but set up as correspondences between a post-WWII authoress named Juliet and her friends... who I now feel are MY friends as well. She gets a letter from a man on the island of Guernsey about a book & is so intrigued by the literary society that by 1/2 way through the book she's now dear friends with a half-dozen characters on the island. It all centers around their lives during the German occupation & how the society & the relationships forged got them through (and are still getting them through).
A few pages in I was so sure I knew how the book would end & who would fall in love, but it threw in some twists & I'm less sure 200 pages in than I was at 10 pages! What I am sure of is that I love every one of these characters. I love the way they rely on eachother & have formed a family. I want to go live on Guernsey with them & have tea together, it hurts my heart just a tiny bit when I remember that they're fiction & I shouldn't expect a letter in my mailbox from my new friends.
But it's nice to read a book like this with a friend so when I'm thrown for a loop I can call Tink & yell "Did you know Sidney was....." & she can understand why I publicly cried about Elizabeth. So I'd like to extend an invitation: if anyone would like to read this book & needs someone to gush about it with, CALL ME. You could be the 3rd member of our yet-to-be-named book club. It'll be hard to come up with a name that can rival Guensey's, but I'm up for suggestions.
p.s. Not that this is criteria for all my books, but doesn't it look lovely on my end-table? It matches my apartment to perfection!
