The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From Ann to her blog readers,

Dear Friends,

I just finished reading Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows wonderful book and feel like I have new friends. The funny thing is that I have resisted this book for years because of what I considered a cutesy title. Nothing in the reviews I scanned encouraged me to pick it up.

But this fall some friends joined me in a book club and each member chooses what we will read in a particular month. A friend, who in the past has introduced me to some wonderful reads, chose this one. Well, I sighed and ordered the book from the library.

Can you imagine how astounded I was when I found out what a wonderful story was told through a series of letters about life on the island of Guernsey during and immediately after the German Occupation in World War II. I didn't even know where Guernsey was located before!

And then to find out that Mary Ann Shaffer died in February 2008, a few months before her first novel was published, made me sad. She worked as an editor, a librarian, and in bookshops. I am sure we would have been great friends just like her fictional character Julia felt that she and Elizabeth would have been friends . 

I loved the comfort this wonderful book allowed me to share during a difficult time. It's not great literature but I don't think it is trying to be something it isn't. It is perfect as it is.

I wish people still wrote letters. And I wish I knew people who could write ones like these.

Yours ever,
Ann

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HOUSES OF PHILADELPHIA (2008)

Houses of Philadelphia: Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley, 1880-1930 by James B. Garrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love interlibrary loan, where your local library can pretty much get you anything in book form you desire. Rather than a Philadelphia library, my request brought me a copy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill!

And I was worthy. I read the whole book. Of course, it was primarily photographs and floor plans of incredibly elaborate architectural extravaganzas but they were accompanied by stories and biographical data about the people who built these mansions in Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley.

Growing up nearby, I was always fascinated by the incredible homes that were so different from the row houses of the city. The sad part was the author's recounting of the fate of the individual buildings. Some are nursing homes, some were divided into condos, and some are gone. In the near future, I plan a trip to Philadelphia to visit the area and once again marvel at these beautiful edifices of yesterday.

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EW's Top Ten Fiction Reads for 2008

All right. I admit it. I have been reading Entertainment Weekly for years. It has led me to some of my favorite books beginning with Smilla's Sense of Snow and including Stephen King's accolades for Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running and Kate Atkinson's Case Histories.

So for 2009 I am making a resolution to read all 10 of the fiction books listed as the best of 2008. Make that 9 since I have already read and loved #3 on the list.

1. SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM, Uwem Akpan
2. THE BOOK OF DAHLIA, Elisa Albert
3. OLIVE KITTERIDGE, Elizabeth Strout
4. LUSH LIFE, Richard Price
5. BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON, Dash Shaw
6. THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, Margot Livesey
7. DISQUIET, Julia Leigh
8. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, David Wroblewski
9. AMERICAN WIFE, Curtis Sittenfeld
10. WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K., Irina Reyn