The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This book caught me by surprise. I love WWII history and I thought the format of the book - written as a series of letters - would be interesting. I wasn't prepared to totally fall in love with Guernsey and all the quirky people who live there.

This book was so good I never wanted it to end. It is about the occupation of the German army during WWII on the Island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is written from the perspective of a female author, Juliet Ashton, in the form of letters to and from Juliet to various people including her editor, her best friend and eventually to the people of the Literary Society on Guernsey.

The society is mainly composed of Isola, Amelia, Eben, Dawnsey, Booker and Elizabeth. This book was so filled with facts about the occupation and how people lived during those times I found it fascinating. I can’t recommend it enough.

If you like history from that time period, read this book. You'll love it!

Alexander McCall Smith

For the past couple of years, I have been reading the books of Alexander McCall Smith. Somehow I stumbled onto the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency at a book store. I have no idea why this appealed to me as I would not ususally find a women's detective agency in Africa a subject matter of interest. But for whatever reason, I bought the book. From there, I discovered the vast collection of this gentleman which includes not only the Mme. Ramotswe series, but also the Isabel Dalhousie series, the 44 Scotland Street Series and the Portuguese Irregular Verbs Series as well as other assorted works. As Mr. McCall himself says, he is a serial novelist!

It's hard for me to say which series I like the best. Although I fell in love with Mme. Ramotswe and Africa, I loved the books set in Scotland even more. At 44 Scotland Street, I love Bertie the most. He keeps me in stitches. The image of a little boy (5 when the series began) playing the tenor saxaphone, speaking Italian and doing yoga is so over the top that it appeals to my off sense of humor. When he began seeing the psycotherapist and quickly decided the man was "mad" I thought it was a stroke of genius.

That's how Alexander McCall Smith writes. His stories are generally a bit of a stretch but that's where the fun lies. I like to dive into a book that's a world away from my own and get lost in the ridiculous for a little while.

Thank you, Mr. McCall Smith!!

Happy New Year

Welcome to my blog / book club / book review! This is something I've wanted to do for a while so why not start the new year with a new blog? I love books. Mostly I read actual paper and ink books, sometimes I listen to audio books but I havne't yet been able to make the switch to ebooks. There's something about actually holding a real, honest to goodness book in your hands. The way that it feels, the smell of the paper, turning the pages - that's part of the charm for me. I know at some point in the future I'll probably have to cross over but for now, I'll stick with the tried and true.