The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This was a charming book.  I read it for the Popsugar 2017 Reading Challenge, for the category of "A book of letters."  I originally meant to read The Color Purple for this category, but couldn't quite figure out if it was mostly letters or included other items in an epistolary style, such as news articles, and I wanted something that really stuck to the category.  I do still plan to read TCP, just not for this!

Taking place just after World War II, the story that of Juliet, an author who wrote comedic articles during the war that have just been released as a book.  While she's on a book tour, she receives a letter from Dawsey, a man who lives on Guernsey in the Channel Isles, asking about a used book of hers which has come into his possession.  The article sparks a stream of correspondence between Juliet, Dawsey, and many of the other inhabitants of Guernsey, as well as Juliet's friend/editor and the friend/editor's sister, also her friend, and her touring agent.

While Juliet is charming in her own writing, the strength here is really in the setting of Guernsey.  I'd never even heard of the Channel Islands before reading this--I have an American education to thank for that--or known that this British territory had been occupied by Germany during World War II.  As Juliet decides to make Guernsey and the titular Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the focus of her next book, more and more information about the Isles during that time comes to light, as do stories about the characters directly involved in the story.  It's a war story, but one that has plenty of levity along with sobriety, and a little bit of a romance running along underneath the surface--though definitely not a significant part of the main plot.

Now, some of the letters aren't exactly the most sensible, relating information that the recipient should already know as if it is brand-new.  I actually didn't even realize this until another reviewer pointed it out--the information was new to me, after all, and its importance to the reader is clearly why it's included, but it is a bit of a hole in the actual construction of the novel.  Also, Juliet, while charming, can sometimes be so to the point that I found myself grinding my teeth at her, because even when she's angry or frustrated or not at her best, she still manages to be irritatingly perfect, if that makes sense.  Everyone loves her on sight, or on receipt of a letter, or on reading her works, and that was just...ugh.  No one is that likable! 

Still, this was a fun, short book.  For some reason I thought there were two timelines here, a post-WWII one and a modern one, but that's not the case--it's all post-WWII, which is a time that I think is somewhat underutilized, so I was glad to see it, even if it dips back into the war itself in the characters' recollections.  It's somewhat lacking in depth, but the fun characters and charming setting helped to make up for that, and I enjoyed reading it.

3.5 stars out of 5.