WOW,  what a great meeting!  Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel  Pie Society proved to be a HUGE hit.  It was a little book packed with big characters, history, a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and finding human connections in the most surprising ways.  Guernsey is a book written with the belief that love of art — be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music — enables people to transcend any barrier man  has devised.  Ironically, this book is about how an accidental book club helps a community survive, grow  and enrich their lives.   We learned about Guernsey Island, fell in love with the characters we met, peeked into their lives, shared their heartwarming and their heart-wrenching stories, and we reaffirmed the old adage,  unless you have walked in my shoes...

Betty shared with us a duplicate of the box of goodies the Islanders received from the Red Cross (after five years of occupation) to bring home how desperate they were for the basics in life that we are fortunate enough to take for granted and wondered how we would have survived without salt, pepper, flour, fuel (heat), fruits, vegetables, soap and CHOCOLATE!  It did give us pause and made us appreciation even more what we have.

If you didn’t have time to read this book; it was unanimous – keep it on your To Read List.  It is also a book to re-read some day.

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