Book Picks: Try a Little Potato Peel Pie

Is it just me, or is this winter longer than normal? Ice, bitter cold, and snowstorms have caused me to turn into a hermit the last few months. While I have accomplished a few--very few--projects around the house, I find it hard to get motivated to shovel the snow off my car and the driveway to go anywhere, and find myself becoming more and more lethargic. Dreaming of spring and gardening is a great diversion, but you can pore over seed catalogs only so long. Instead, on a cold winter's day, the perfect escape is to pour myself a hot cup of coffee or tea, settle into the comfy armchair with a blanket, and lose myself in a good book.

You might think being a former English teacher that I would read only the classics or critically acclaimed new novels. Far from it! I spent so many years reading and re-reading books that I had to read for class, that when I read for relaxation I prefer something that doesn't make me think too much. Oh, I will go back and read some of the great books I never read one of these days, but for now I prefer a lighter fare of mysteries and legal/forensic thrillers.

Two of my favorite mystery authors are Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George. Ironically, they are both American writers, yet the settings of most of their novels are in the UK, complete with authentic British touches, including characters who wear "jumpers" and sometimes eat "beans on toast." (I now know what a jumper is, but I'm still curious if beans on toast really is what it sounds like.)

Lying on my book table, waiting to be read next, is George's latest novel, Careless in Red. I'm eager to read this one, since her last two novels can only be described as depressing. With No One as Witness ended with the shocking and completely unexpected murder of one of the secondary characters. Her next novel, What Came Before He Shot Her, was a complete departure for George, as she focused on a new character, the young boy responsible for the murder in the previous book. His life story read something like a Hardy novel, as he was a victim of fate, abuse, and a poor environment in the worst neighborhoods of London. The novel was a well-written character study, as all George's novels are, but it was depressing. I'm looking forward to Careless In Red, reading about Supt. Lynley and his assistant Sgt. Barbara Havers solving their latest mystery and hoping their lives have returned to a semblancy of normalcy.

While I love mysteries and tend to read every book written by a favorite author, I have tried in the last two years to expand my reading and get out of my comfort zone, so to speak, every so often. From nonfiction like Obama's Dreams from My Father or Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes to modern fiction like Jane Smiley's One Thousand Acres, I am often pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy some of these different genre.

One of my more unusual choices that I finished reading two weeks ago was Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.

In case you have been living under a rock or have no interactions with teenagers, I'll tell you that this book and the three that follow it have developed a cult following, especially among teenage girls, that rivals J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. My thirteen-year-old granddaughter has read all four of the books, and earlier this summer was counting the days until the final one came out in August, then counting again until the movie "Twilight" was released in December. She owns all of the books, has read each one multiple times, and wears a t-shirt emblazoned with Edward's photo. Thousands--probably millions--of teens and young women are just as devoted. I decided to read the book just to find out what all the "fuss" was about. I knew some of the main characters were vampires, but I was surprised that the novel was a fairly innocuous love story between a human and a vampire. My granddaughter was disappointed when I told her my reaction--"It was okay"--but she was somewhat appeased when I explained that if I were a teenager once again I would probably love it. It's fast reading, but I wouldn't recommend it to adults unless you want to find out what your teenage daughter is reading.

However, a book I would recommend is the novel I just finished, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. When I saw the title in a list of recommended books, I was intrigued and checked it out of the library.

The novel is set in London in 1946, and Europe is still recovering from World War II. The protagonist, Juliet Ashton, is a 33-year-old author enjoying her first success as a writer, traveling around England on a book tour and trying to think of a subject for her next book.

One day Juliet receives a letter from Dawsey Adams who lives on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. He has found a copy of the essays of Charles Lamb that once belonged to her and asks her help in locating more writings by Lamb, since books are scarce on Guernsey. Juliet does more than just write a perfunctory reply: she sends a copy of another book of Lamb's essays and a book of Lamb's letters. She also shares some trivia about Lamb's life and encourages Dawsey in his reading:

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive--all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment."

Juliet is also curious about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to which Dawsey mentions he belongs and asks about its meaning. Thus begins a correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey and eventually other residents of Guernsey.

As she exchanges letters with other members of the Literary Society, Juliet learns that the Literary Society was formed spontaneously one night as an alibi for a group of residents who were out after curfew. The Germans had taken over the island and enforced strict rules and rations on the residents; breaking the curfew could have resulted in a severe punishment. To keep up the ruse, the residents continued to meet and actually began reading books in case their Nazi captors checked in on them. The "potato peel pie" was added to the name later when Will Thisbee insisted on refreshments at the meetings and concocted a potato and beet pie--food was scarce--with potato peels as the crust. Eventually, Juliet realizes there is a story here and decides to visit Guernsey to meet her correspondents in person. At first her intention is to write about the Society for a series of newspaper articles, but after she arrives on the island, she is drawn into the lives of these people and realizes their story is worthy of a book, not a brief news story.

The novel is written as a series of letters, which I usually don't enjoy. The letters are included chronologically, so that letters from several different characters appear before a reply to any of them can be made. This could lead to some confusion, but it doesn't; rather, it makes the storyline more realistic as well as hooking the reader into wanting to continue to read. I quickly found myself changing my mind about the letter format; the letters were entertaining and full of detail that revealed the traits and thoughts of each character, making it easy to empathize with them. The characters are neither two-dimensional nor stereotypes. Not all the Nazis are evil, and not all the natives are honorable.

And it is the characters who make this story. Juliet is a bright, compassionate young woman who writes with humor and feeling. In the very first letter to her editor she describes her problems with coming up with a new idea for a book:

"English Foibles seemed so promising at first. After all, one should be able to write reams about the Society to Protest the Glorification of the English Bunny. I unearthed a photograph of the Vermin Exterminators' Trade union, marching down an Oxford street with placards screaming 'Down with Beatrix Potter!' But what is there to write about after a caption? Nothing, that's what."

There is humor, too, in the reading choices made by some of the other colorful characters. Limited to books available, a pig farmer chooses the essays of Charles Lamb; a rather eccentric herbalist decides to read Pride and Prejudice; and two laborers nearly break up an old friendship over the writings of Marcus Aurelius and Thomas Carlyle.

Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor and a librarian before writing this, her first novel, and her love of reading and books is one of the themes in the novel. But the novel is about much more than reading, and it is not always humorous. Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis for much of WWII, and the residents suffered deprivation and witnessed acts of inhumanity that have deeply affected them. All of them have lost at least one person dear to them. For some, the wounds will never heal completely. But they are survivors, and while they recall some of their horrific memories for Juliet, they also remember poignant stories of kindness and heroics. A Nazi doctor secretly brings medicine for a sick Guernsey child. A resident takes in a nearly dead Todt, one of the prisoners of war that the Nazis use as slaves until they collapse from starvation. And then there is Elizabeth McKenna, whose story develops over the course of the book. A determined woman of unbelievable courage, she does what is right regardless of the danger to her. This novel is a story of the strength of the human spirit and the bonds that connect people.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was one of those serendipitous finds for me--a novel I had never heard of before, but am so glad I found. It was a delightful read, and I highly recommend you check it out to while a few of these gloomy winter evenings. In fact, I'd like to find another surprise like this, so I would welcome any reading recommendations that you might have, too.