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

I know, I know...the title is 10 minutes long! I put this book on my "list" long ago because I had heard so many people say how good it was. I didn't know anything about the book and it took about a year of looking for it at 1/2 Price to finally find it. And what do you know but in a round about way, this was another book having to do with WWII and those stupid Nazis! Oh, and by the way, there are two authors because the first author - Mary Ann Shaffer - died while writing it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set in 1946 - directly after WWII has ended. The main character, Juliet Ashton is an up and coming writer - looking for an idea for her first real novel. While doing this she receives a letter from a man living on the island of Guernsey. He is writing to thank Ms. Ashton for a book she had sold on Charles Lamb (she had two of the same books and sold one to a used book store). Through the letter Ms. Ashton discovers that this small island in the English Channel (between GB and France) had been the only English land to have been "occupied" by the Nazis during WWII. One of the only forms of pleasure that many of the island natives had during this time was to gather periodically and discuss any and all books they happened to have read. Ms. Ashton is fascinated by the story and wants to hear more. As a result, several of the members of the "Society" begin writing her and she starts to piece together the inhabitants heroic lives during such a trying time.

I loved this book! It was more than a book about survivors of the German atrocities during WWII. It was a love story and a coming-of-age story and also a story of survival and so funny! I constantly laughed out loud while reading this novel. The novel reads so quickly too because it is written in the form of letters, sent back and forth between Juliet Ashton, her publishers, friends in England and then those made on Guernsey. If you can get your hands on this book, read it! You'll love it too!