MarilynW's Reviews > The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, John Lee (Narrator), Juliet Mills (Narrator), Paul Boehmer (Narrator), Susan Duerden (Narrator), Rosalyn Landor (Narrator)
Two years ago, I watched the film, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and my memories of the film made me want to experience the audio version of the book. I enjoyed the film but feel like it was much more "fluffy" than the book, leaning more on the romantic side of the story than on the more detailed suffering that the book entails. I probably need to get my head out of WWII and the Holocaust for a while because I'm still reeling by the atrocities inflicted on the island of Guernsey, during the war. Of course, everyone suffered because of the war and in the case of the islanders, their resources were limited by the Germans taking over their island.
As this story goes, told in the form of letters in 1946, thirty two year old Juliet Ashton, the writer of the popular Izzy Bickerstaff series and book, is determined to write something different, under her own name, rather than the pseudonym that she has been using. By chance, she gets a letter from a Dawsey Adams, who had seen her name written in the front of a used book that he bought. Dawsey and Juliet start a regular correspondence. Dawsey lives on the island of Guernsey and he tells her of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, of which he is a member. Soon Juliet is writing to other members of this book club and she knows she has found the subject of her next book.
Eventually Juliet goes to stay in Guernsey and we learn of all the horrors these brave people endured during the war. Only the resourcefulness of the people allowed them to make it through the war with their humanity and dignity intact. So many stories of the brutality of the enemy but sometimes the compassion of the enemy, too. Juliet falls in love with these people and this place. Among those she comes to care for is little Kit, a four year old girl that the townsfolk have adopted as their own, after her mother was taken away for helping a sick slave. At the same time that Juliet realizes she never wants to be away from Kit, she is fending off a marriage proposal from a wealthy American publisher who won't take on for an answer. This is a beautiful story, full of silent heroes and heroines, doing what they could against impossible odds, to help each other and those who needed even more than they needed to get through the war. And it's the story of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, invented in the spur of the moment but now a real book club with the most unusual of readers and reviewers. This story is both sad, funny and endearing, with the funny and endearing winning out in the end.
Pub July 29, 2008
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, John Lee (Narrator), Juliet Mills (Narrator), Paul Boehmer (Narrator), Susan Duerden (Narrator), Rosalyn Landor (Narrator)
Two years ago, I watched the film, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and my memories of the film made me want to experience the audio version of the book. I enjoyed the film but feel like it was much more "fluffy" than the book, leaning more on the romantic side of the story than on the more detailed suffering that the book entails. I probably need to get my head out of WWII and the Holocaust for a while because I'm still reeling by the atrocities inflicted on the island of Guernsey, during the war. Of course, everyone suffered because of the war and in the case of the islanders, their resources were limited by the Germans taking over their island.
As this story goes, told in the form of letters in 1946, thirty two year old Juliet Ashton, the writer of the popular Izzy Bickerstaff series and book, is determined to write something different, under her own name, rather than the pseudonym that she has been using. By chance, she gets a letter from a Dawsey Adams, who had seen her name written in the front of a used book that he bought. Dawsey and Juliet start a regular correspondence. Dawsey lives on the island of Guernsey and he tells her of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, of which he is a member. Soon Juliet is writing to other members of this book club and she knows she has found the subject of her next book.
Eventually Juliet goes to stay in Guernsey and we learn of all the horrors these brave people endured during the war. Only the resourcefulness of the people allowed them to make it through the war with their humanity and dignity intact. So many stories of the brutality of the enemy but sometimes the compassion of the enemy, too. Juliet falls in love with these people and this place. Among those she comes to care for is little Kit, a four year old girl that the townsfolk have adopted as their own, after her mother was taken away for helping a sick slave. At the same time that Juliet realizes she never wants to be away from Kit, she is fending off a marriage proposal from a wealthy American publisher who won't take on for an answer. This is a beautiful story, full of silent heroes and heroines, doing what they could against impossible odds, to help each other and those who needed even more than they needed to get through the war. And it's the story of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, invented in the spur of the moment but now a real book club with the most unusual of readers and reviewers. This story is both sad, funny and endearing, with the funny and endearing winning out in the end.
Pub July 29, 2008
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Reading Progress
October 26, 2018
– Shelved
November 4, 2020
–
Started Reading
November 8, 2020
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 55 (55 new)
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Jayme
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rated it 3 stars
Nov 09, 2020 01:45PM
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![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Jayme. I wasn't expecting it to hurt so much (all the abuse of people and animals) from watching the movie. I think this is why I prefer books over movies, usually the movies leave so much out.
![Barbara](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1417199404p1/27456036.jpg)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Barbara...Guernsey sounds like a wonderful place!
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Dorie...did you mind the story being told by letters?
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Michael...now off to read something light :-)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Kat...I'm really good at picking things that poke holes in my heart.
![JanB](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527313486p1/260116.jpg)
![Gail C.](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1585774138p1/38503112.jpg)
![Richard (on hiatus)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1525868884p1/73431206.jpg)
Ps - we had our honeymoon on Guernsey. The underground hospital is a very sobering visitor attraction now.
![Dorie - Cats&Books :)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1550077760p1/16912659.jpg)
Thank you, Dorie...did you mind the story being told by letters?"
I'm not really a fan of epistolary writing to tell you the truth :)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Jan...having all those narrators was fabulous 😊
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Pat...it is sweet but that's the part I liked about it 😂
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Gail. As it often the case, the book has so much more than the movie, at least as I remember the movie. I think I like the book as least as much as the movie but both are good.
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Ps - we had our honeymoon on Guernsey. The underground hospital is a very soberi..."
Thank you, Richard. So you've been there. I know it's pretty but after reading the book (the movie didn't leave me feeling the real ramifications of what had happened), I'd almost feel like I was walking on a graveyard.
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Ceecee...yes, you should read this story! 💗
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, DeAnn...I think this is the only things I've seen Lily James in so far but she's been in a lot of movies.
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Dorie...did you mind the story being told by letters?"
I'm not really a fan of epistol..."
Dorie, the letter writing way of presenting the story bothered me at first but then I got used to it. I think it would be easier to follow in writing than on audio though. I had a Wiki page up on my computer so I could remember who was who, with the audio version.
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you so much, autumn berry! 💗💕💗
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
And you liked it! 🤗 🤗"
I sure did and now I know how much I like books that are in letter form. 😁💕
![Kat (Books are Comfort Food)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1617935580p1/25532045.jpg)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Kat, I had wanted to read it ever since I'd seen the movie 🥔<---potato 🤣
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Nicole, sorry it didn't work for you 🤗
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
I liked both the movie and the book...they make a nice "two for one" 😁
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Angela! Both of them were entertaining 😊
![Margitte](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1650004119p1/7481492.jpg)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Oops! 🤣 Thank you, Margitte!
![NZLisaM](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1653608903p1/79324789.jpg)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Lisa. I just finished another audiobook that uses letters and journals to tell the story. I think it's a bit less long winded and the audiobook is funny with the imitations of some of the more colorful and self important townsfolk.
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
![The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471277745l/30269104._SY75_.jpg)
![Serge](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1655507158p1/31127520.jpg)
![MarilynW](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1522535580p1/49815208.jpg)
Thank you, Serge, I've enjoyed reading about how resourceful the people who have been left at home, while others are off at war, have been throughout the years. Just one more reason to be thankful for all that we have and take for granted.