The Guernsey Tourism Board Called …

They said to thank all the booksellers of America for the up-tick in tourists lately. But truly they have all the buzz about ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ to thank. For while the gushing praise is a bit much, it’s all because this is a pretty delightful little novel causing all those bookanistas to swoon.

And make no mistake, with the end-cap displays and towering piles of Guernsey-ness littering the local Barnes & Noble, I reallyREALLY wanted to ignore it. Next think you know, the weekend’s ruined, I’m glued to the couch and having finished the last page promptly leaned over and planted one on Mr. Book Wormette with all the good spirit and satisfaction a book can generate.

Why all the to-do? ‘Guernsey’ looked like a a no-brainer for Book Wormette’s mom: Too-witty and too-independent for her own good, Juliet is a journalist in post-World War II England who trades excruciatingly charming letters with friends. When one of her used books finds its way to Guernsey she winds up in a whirlwind epistolary courtship with … an entire island’s hyper-literate citizens. 

Comparisons to ’84, Charing Cross Road’ are obvious but it shares some of the same quirky loveliness as ‘Ella Minnow Pea’ and ‘I Capture the Castle.’ In fact, if those two books had a baby, it might read very much like this one. I couldn’t be more pleased — while we don’t write letters anymore, they’re lovely to read. And If I’m going to have a book shoved down my throat, I’m always glad for it to be a book about pie.