Loved, loved, loved this book!


WELCOME TO The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows INTERNATIONAL BOOK RING

This ring is now underway - as of 9/8/2008

Members are as follows - member in bold currently has possession of the
book: (If you wish to join, please PM me and I will add you!)
MEMBER / LOCATION:

kiptrix- Summerville SC
sunfi- Dayton OH

carenhf- Fair Lawn NJ

kobie03- Newfoundland, Canada

inkling1- Baden-Wuttenbuerg, Germany

bookguide- Netherlands

Fifna- Netherlands

AnneO - Netherlands

prizzy - Netherlands

AngersRest- Devon UK

Kiri- Santa Rosa, CA

UPDATE 10/29/09
AnglersRest and Kiri have not responded to prizzy so she will be sending this to another Dutch BCer. I'm happy to have this book keep traveling so long as someone wants it. Kat


This is how it works:
􀂃 If you wish to be added to the list, please PM me with your details.
􀂃 Note that you must be prepared to mail internationally.
􀂃 We will kick off once we have 5 members.
􀂃 You will be sending the book to the person who appears after you in the
list, so you need to PM them to get their address!
􀂃 It's not a race, but please read and send the book on as speedily as you
can, other people are dying to read it too.
􀂃 Please journal the book once you have received it (so we all know where it
currently is) and again when you have read it (so we know what you
thought of it!)
􀂃 If you're the last person on the list (i.e. we run out of members) the book
comes back to me until there are more interested parties...


BOOK DESCRIPTION:
From Publishers Weekly
The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is on it's way to kiptrix. ENJOY!

This was just delivered. Thank you very much. I'll start it as soon as I finish my current book, which won't take very long.

I just loved this book! I was sorry to come to the end. The main character, Juliet, was a delight, and there were many interesting secondary characters. I had recently read another book about WWII, Suite Francaise, and there were similarities in the way the occupying German soldiers were described. For example, in France and on Guernsey, in the beginning they spent their money shopping; for some reason, this surprised me. I guess I just assumed that they would take, rather than purchase.

I have mailed this today to sunfi in Ohio, the next person on the list. Thanks for including me in this ring; it's one of the best I've read.

Received this one in the mail today along with two other rings, I will contact the next reader and have it on it's way within the next few weeks. Thanks to KatFinnegan for including me in this ring and kiptrix for sending it to me.

Finished this a little earlier, it was a good story. I feel that if I had a better historical understanding of WWII, I would have appreciated this book a little more. I already have carenhf address so I'm hoping to get it mailed off today.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

On it's way to carenhf, it was sent media mail so it should be there in the next couple of weeks.

I just finished the book last night. Although I rated it a 7, I did enjoy it. It was at times light reading and at times a moving tale. I enjoyed the charachter of Juliet, she was optomistic, intelligent and good hearted. The format of the letters was fun but kept the author from developing the characters.
I will ship the book on to Kobie03 this weekend.

Book arrived last week while I was on vacation. thanks so much.It's at the top of my TBR list so I'll have it moving again soon.

This is indeed a special book I loved it. , easy reading, delightful characters, it felt like I was living in Guernsey watching the story unfold and it reminded me of the damages of war and the resilence of people. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful book. I'll mail it off tomorrow to inkling1

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

mailed ti inkling1

The book arrived before Christmas, but had to
stay a while with my neighbours who took care of my mailbox;

"our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed to-day." this I had read on the war memorial on the channel islands during one holiday, popping up immediately when reading this book. Quite moving. I really liked the story and the characters, which had to be discovered by reading the descriptions in the letters.

Will be sent with tomorrow's mail to bookguide in the netherlands

Many thanks for this ring.

Yippee! I've been so looking forward to reading this book, and it arrived today in my mailbox, so I'm really happy. I put my name down on the list over six months ago, so I really cannot wait. I already have several ringbooks here, but I don't think I shall be able to wait any longer ;-) Thank you KatFinnegan for hosting the ring, and thank you Inkling1 for wrapping it so well and sending it safely to me. I don't think you'll have to wait long for another JE from me!

What a wonderful book! I just realised that I read almost the whole book with a smile on my face, except for the parts describing the more unpleasant effects of wartime occupation and prison camps. It reminded me of a Sunday afternoon BBC comedy drama series such as Ballykissangel or Monarch of the Glen, and the plot had shades of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' (Dawsey = Gabriel Oak, Juliet = Bathsheba) and, of course, 'Pride and Prejudice' (Dawsey = Mr. Darcy, Juliet = Elizabeth Bennett). Its main theme is friendship, and the characters form a closeknit community which you can't help feeling you'd like to join. It was a light and enjoyable read, and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys the novels of Maeve Binchy or Edna O'Brian.

There were a couple of things which jarred with me, a native of the British Isles. In particular, a number of Americanisms which slipped through the editor's net at Bloomsbury (shame on them!): Fall instead of Autumn; food was secreted in a "purse" in the US sense of bag (to us a purse is a small wallet money is kept in - no room for food!); and the phrase "write someone", which in British English is "write to someone". These were minor irritations, though, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was particularly amused to see the references to Charles Lamb's 'Essays of Elia', which are, as far as I know, not at all well-known. I had the good fortune that my parents had a lovely old Everyman copy in the bedroom which we used as a library and study. So I often used to procrastinate on my homework by reading an essay or two! When my mother moved into a small flat, I was able to rescue the book, so now it has been added to my Mount TBR as a result of reading 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society'.

As far as the history is concerned, I didn't learn anything new as such, having watched a BBC drama about the occupation of Jersey when I was a teenager (I can't remember the name). I hadn't realised, however, that there was such a complete news blackout, and I am not sure how accurate this is. Other wartime accounts give the impression that there were always a few clandestine radio sets wherever there was occupation, and that news from the BBC always leaked out, and was passed around secretly. So the idea that the Channel Islanders didn't know what a doodlebug was seems a little far-fetched.

Anyway, it seems churlish to quibble about these minor inconsistencies, when the book was so delightful. I will definitely be recommending it to my expat club.
P.S. It would have been interesting to have a recipe for the pie!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

To be sent to Fifna (at last!), together with another ringbook about England which I have just finished reading (Coventry by Helen Humphreys). This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before Jan. 2009. My reading goal is 46 books.
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2009. My goal is 25000. This book has 274 pages.

EDIT: I hope to give this to Fifna at the opening meeting of OBCZ Griffioen in Amstelveen (the venue for the Convention 2010) on April 25th. If this does not work out, I shall post it on Monday.

My apologies for keeping this book so long. I didn't see Fifna in Amstelveen in April, and it's been sitting on a pile waiting to be sent since then. She contacted me yesterday to remind me, and I've just asked if she would rather I sent it to her or waited to give it to her in person on June 28th in Castricum.

Got it at the meeting in Castricum today, thanks bookguide.

Enjoyed this book very much! The characters are delightful and the story is good. I had the same problem as bookguide with the Americanisms and the American spelling. If there had been a narrator, it wouldn't have been a problem, but as these are letters supposed to have been written by Brits, it doesn't make sense. But apart from that it was a very enjoyable read indeed. Thank you for sharing, KatFinnegan! Will put it in the post to AnnevO tomorrow.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending it on to AnnevO.

The book arrived in Rotterdam safely, thanks! I'll start reading it as soon as I finish my current book.

I love this book. The story feels very sincere. I liked the fact that it's a story told mainly in letters. The German occupation of the Channel Islands isn't a topic I knew things about, so I also learned a lot.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book is on its way to the next reader; I just dropped it of at the post office.

received today ! first finish another and then this one soon!

thanks for sending AnnevO and KatFinnegan for this ring!

edit: 10-10-09
I regret I finished this lovely book, beautiful story about an unknown part of my knowledge about the history on WWII.

I will PM the next on the list for further ringing.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The book is now on its way to dutch-book.

have fun with this lovely book! Thanks KatFinnegan

I got this book today in the mail. I love it already! It looks wonderful, I like the cover, the typewriting. I think that feeling has sometihng to do with how well-read this book looks and also with those wonderful journal entries. But the book gives me a certain feeling, a positive feeling. I think this one will be very well read and highly appreciated.

I finished the book already and loved it. It feels to me like a feelgood book, however a feelgood book in a difficult and hard time. When I think of Dawsey I have to think of Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice. I'll try to PM Anglersrest again, give him/her another shot.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Anglersrest