|  | Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
List Price: $14.00
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Seller: tacoma_goodwill
Rating:  1019 reviews
Sales Rank: 49
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Thus.
Pages: 290
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0385341008
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780385341004
ASIN: 0385341008
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: An acceptable and readable copy; all pages are intact, and the spine and cover are also intact. May have significant usage wear, age discoloration, stains, soil, exposure to moisture, tape, stickers, cover creases, cocked spine, bent boards, missing or damaged dust jacket, bumped corners, bent pages, previous owner label or name, remainder mark, inscription, notes, underlining and/or highlighting. Text only; no CDs, InfoTrac, Access Codes, Activation Keys, or other inclusions, unless otherwise noted. Shipping confirmation and tracking provided. 100% of your purchase helps Goodwill create jobs and change lives.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 981-985 of 1019
 "Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books." August 4, 2008
D. P. Schroeder (Amidst the Carolinas)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think this quote (the review title) from early on in the book may just become my motto! There's not a whole lot to add to the other excellent reviews here, but I'll just add a few things important to me as a reader.
I haven't read an epistolary novel since Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World's Classics), and let me assure you, this is much more enjoyable, though Richardson should be given his due. The most important theme that the authors deal with is, I believe, the universality of positive gain from reading, and one doesn't have to be a college student or professor to learn from the Classics or other Literature or even to understand them. Even if one is a pig farmer -- who may not notice each nuance of Latin rhetoric in a given translation -- one can still learn from, and enjoy, Seneca or Aurelius, to take two examples from the book.
And speaking of farming, this is one touch the authors have that I most admire -- the ability to make you fall in love with "simple" folk by making you realize through their interactions (letters or speech) that "simple" is a complete misnomer. These oft-overlooked people, whom some might call "local yokels," are absolutely delightful folk, and their stories, widely varied by their own personalities and temperaments, even on this small island, deserve to be heard, and they deserve to be loved and laughed/cried with.
When this reader picks up a work of historical fiction, he doesn't want poor historical research to distract from what might otherwise be good storytelling, and this work does not disappoint. The Nazi occupiers of the Channel Islands truly did intend and initially adopted a different occupation strategy here than they did elsewhere: they truly were trying to appear beneficent, even issuing currency to their soldiers to PAY the denizens for their food, products, and services. Thus, the authors' portrayal of the Germans disembarking from their sea journey and running wild on a shopping spree downtown is not AT ALL a stretch of the imagination or reality. I'm sure it happened in some form.
Of course, as the Germans began to fare worse in the War, their approach to interacting with the islanders changed much for the worse, and the authors VERY accurately reflect this fact too. Point being, if one is looking to nitpick historical fact, one isn't likely to find much to nitpick in this novel, and that's a real treat in reading about what has become an obscure part of Nazi occupation in the last World War. Kudos to the authors here too.
The only nitpicks I'd have with this really touching, charming book would be with two characters who are cookie-cutter-stock -- you can't miss them. And, in a sense, I guess, that is a good thing: there are only TWO "stock" characters used in the book, they are far from being the most important ones, and all the others are remarkably original and well developed.
The words _delightful_ and _charming_ have been so overused in reviews of this book, but allow me to overuse them again myself. Delightful characters. Charming story. Love it. Best book I've read in quite a while.
A TALE FILLED WITH COURAGE AND HUMOR August 3, 2008
Gail Cooke (TX, USA)
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
Audio books are getting better and better. For this listener that is largely due to increasing narrations by ensemble casts, giving a breadth and richness to readings that cannot be achieved by even the most accomplished single voices. Such is certainly true of this warm, humorous story that is related in a series of letters.
It is the winter of 1946 in London when our story opens. Author Juliet Ashton is pondering, no searching for ideas for her next book. She's surprised to receive a letter from the island of Guernsey, which was once under German occupation. The epistle is from a man she does not know, Dawsey Adams, who now has a book by Charles Lamb that once belonged to Juliet. Dawsey wants to know where he might find more books by Lamb.
Juliet's curiosity is aroused by this man who shares her affinity for Lamb, and in future correspondence he tells her that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a group formed for mutual protection during the German occupation.
Eventually, Juliet receives letters from other members of the Society, a disparate yet fascinating group, each with a story to tell. In due time she decides she must meet her new friends.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a wonderful tale, peopled with unforgettable characters and filled with courage, love, humor, all of which reminds us of the invincibility of the human spirit.
- Gail Cooke
 A sad, funny, complex, plain and beautiful story. And a perfect happy ending. August 3, 2008
Diane Kistner (Georgia)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
How many books have you tried to read, struggling to marshal on through the first few chapters to give the author the benefit of the doubt and more than one chance to draw you in?
With the P.S. of the very first out-of-the-blue letter to the writer Miss Juliet Aston from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey (inquiring about other works by Charles Lamb, with only Juliet's name and an old address in the book he has to go by), I was hooked:
"P.S. My friend Mrs. Maugery bought a pamphlet that once belonged to you, too. It is called 'Was There a Burning Bush? A Defense of Moses and the Ten Commandments.' She liked your margin note, 'Word of God or crowd control???' Did you ever decide which?"
And so, by page 10, I was inexorably drawn into the story of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." This collection of letters between Juliet, her publisher and friends from 1946 London, and the surprising "plain" folk (not) of Guernsey is full of color, vividly independent lively characters, diverse thoughts and feelings and perspectives, and twists and turns along paths with oh-so-subtle shadings--all revealed through the content of letters.
We come to know Juliet Ashton as much through others' letters as her own. For example, her publicist, Susan Scott, reports to the publisher Sidney on Juliet's book tour: "Do not believe the newspaper reports. Juliet was not arrested and taken away in handcuffs. She was merely reproved by one of Bradford's constables, and he could barely keep a straight face." (This is followed by Susan's version of what happened. Juliet does not mention it until Sidney writes to her about it.) All the other characters in Guernsey are revealed in similar fashion, through each other's eyes and Juliet's. It is a beautiful unfolding, and very interesting.
I couldn't put the book down, and I loved the way everything came together in the end as though it were all predestined. (This despite one person's observation that, if there is such a thing as predestination, God must be the devil--an understandable reaction to the Nazis and the horrors of World War II.) The book left me with a strong hope that we, as people of diverse hearts and minds, motivations, beliefs, and history--and despite and even perhaps because of our differences, strengths, and weaknesses--can find common cause and common ground and have a more peaceful world if we will but recognize the importance to our very survival as a species of expanding our horizons, opening our hearts, and thinking for ourselves.
Eben Ramsey of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society perhaps said it most simply and best, as he described for Juliet how the townspeople coped during the German occupation: "We clung to books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us." It is the willingness to explore that "other part to us" that will help us all to survive and grow in love, understanding, and appreciation for each other, no matter how different we are or how bad things get. For, in the final analysis, we need each other.
I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone who is worried or frightened right now. It will lift your spirits, and you will want to read it again.
A charm-filled masterpiece August 2, 2008
alpha_grrl (Olympia, WA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" unfolds through the eyes and letters of Juliet Ashton, an author who has just finished a book and is looking for a subject for the next. WWII is over and Juliet by chance learns of a group of people who read books and discussed them as a way to stay sane during the deprivation and cruelty of the German occupation of their small, rural island of Guernsey.
Juliet's humor and charm was a delight to read. Her intimate letters to her publisher and friends reveal her thoughts on writing, love and the suffering experienced by her new friends, the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Each letter Juliet receives from the Society members brings a vivid voice and perspective on their wartime experiences, in turns heartbreaking and side splitting.
I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. The writing is fresh and charming, the characters unique and deeply drawn. The epistolary format is not distracting, it makes the story and the people seem very real. I will definitely be recommending this to others!
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATP PEEL PIE SOCIETY August 2, 2008
ELIZABETH D. SLAP (MERION STATION, PA. United States)
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
THIS IS ONE TERRIFIC BOOK! I GOT IT THE OTHER DAY AND BY DINNER HAD NEARLY FINISHED IT, DID COMPLETE IT THE NEXT DAY AND LOVED EVERY WORD! IT'S A WONDERFUL TALE AND WONDERFULLY WRITTEN, I CONGRATULATE IT'S AUTHORS. THE STORY CARRIES YOU SWIFTLY ALONG IT'S MAGICAL ROUTE AND THE ENDING COMES MUCH TOO SOON! I WILL GIVE IT TO MY GRANDADUGHTER AND DAUGHTER AND DAUGHERS-IN-LAW TO READ SOON AND THEY ALL WILL ADORE IT TOO! A GREAT READ!
Showing reviews 981-985 of 1019
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