Book Review

As a book club, we rated The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

5 out of 5

Our best rating yet! If you haven't read it yet, we highly encourage you!

Casting a Late Vote

So I finally got my copy of The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (note to self: if I ever write a book... do NOT make the title more than three words... no matter how cute it sounds long) and I finished it in about 2 days. I came right to the blog to cast my vote (you know... the rate it on the sidebar that we do for all the books...) and was bummed to find the poll had been closed! I wanted to cast my 5!

What a wonderful book! There's so much I want to say about it but here are the highlights:

I want to move to an island.

I'm so glad I didn't live during WW2.

My favorite funny scene was when Isola stormed in on Juliet after reading Jane Austen and demanding "What else have you been keeping from me?!?"

There are so many loveable characters but I think my favorite was Elizabeth... followed closely by Isola and Dawsey... and Juliet.

Yay for books! Books really can change people!!! They can change the world!!!

Loved the letter/telegraph format. So romantic, so different, so cool.

Basically loved it all... the writing... the characters... the moral points... wonderful. So sweet and so entertaining.

It's probably too late to start a discussion for this book as it's almost time to start 3 cups of tea discussion... which by the by... I volunteer never to choose the book again... I like 3cups okay and I think the story is a fantastic one and very important but I seriously wish someone else had done the actual writing of the story... did anyone else have a hard time getting into it? I am almost done but I just can't seem to make myself finish! As it is my pick though I promise to do it.

In the mean time... if you didn't read The Gurnsey book: DO! It's stupendous! I vote this as our best pick thus far! Nice choice Miss Bott!

Bluestockings

First of all, I have to say that I loved the witty and charming letters in this book. Nobody writes like this anymore! Now you can take a picture with your cell phone, and email it to someone, but I love the description of the Island and everything else. What a lost art! I must admit that my emails got a little bit more flowery as I have been reading this book. The letters in this book reminded me about the first Mitford book, by Jan Karon, where Father Tim talks his mentor in the church handwriting letters even though he didn't really have the time to, because he was so impressed by the scripture that said that Paul wrote the letters "by his own hand".

I have a serious discussion to post about later, but I was amused at the reference to Bluestockings in both this book and in Wives and Daughters. (Bluestocking is a derogatory term for female intellectuals) In GLAPPPS (lol...great acronym), her fiance breaks up with her calling her a bluestocking because she freaks out when he tries to pack up her books and put them in the basement, and in W&D, Molly is distraught when Mrs. Gibson calls her a bluestocking for reading a Natural History book from Roger. So I'm just throwing this out there... are looks the most important thing for women still, or have we come a long way in allowing women to be intellectuals? Are things the same, or have they really changed?

All in all, loved loved loved this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys witty and intelligent, tongue-in-cheek writing.