Non-Fiction

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Reserve It! 
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows 
2008-07-29 - The Dial Press
9780385340991 
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This is a lovely little book.  One of those books you could read fast, but you deliberately take it slow to savor the writing, dwell a bit more with the characters, and imagine the story a little longer in your mind.

The story takes place in England in 1946, just after WWII.  Young Juliet Ashton, along with the rest of Europe, is trying to find her way back to a normal life after the devastation of war.  She is a writer and has written a book on Charles Lamb.   She receives a letter from one, Dawsey Adams who lives on Guernsey, a channel off mainland England.  Dawsey has enjoyed her book on Lamb and has questions for Juliet.  Off we go, through a series of letters, into the heart of the story which is how a group of friends dealt with the German occupation of their island for five long years.  Five years of being cut off from the outside world, barely enough to eat (hence the creation of the potato peel pie via a member of the Society who would not attend unless there were refreshments).  Five years of young children being swept away in big ships to live on the mainland without contact with parents.  Five years of fear and curfews.  And yet they maintained, they met and talked of books, and friendships deepened and brought comfort and meaning to their splintered lives.

You have it all in this book.  History, humor, romance, heroes and a view of humanity at its best under extraordinarily hard times.  Read this book; it will do you good.