"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" ~ C. S. Lewis

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

In short, I love this book. In long, I absolutely love this book. :)
At the bookstore where I work people have been asking for this book regularly. It comes out in paperback next week and I decided it was time to read it.
I regret waiting so long. I have completely fallen in love with it.
I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob :) (sorry, had to throw in a little Veggie Tales there)

The book is completely made up of letters (and words and sentences!) No, I mean correspondance letters and it is woven together masterfully. The voices of the characters are so distinct and real and fresh. I wanted to be best friends with Juliet, to walk around the island with Dawsey, to chat with Amelia, to play dead bride with Kit. In short, I felt like I knew these people. I shared their hopes and dreams and fears and sorrows.

The details of island life were reminiscent of one of my favorite authors -L. M. Montgomery. It's always been a dream of mine to go visit P.E. Island and now I have to add Guernsey to my list of places I want to go. That's how much I enjoyed this book. I finished it today and want to start it over again.

I think I will leave off with one of my favorite quotes from the book - It's on page 11 and all rights belong to Shaffer and Barrows, but this was too beautiful for me not to share -

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment."

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