A Book Review, 3 Years Late

I stayed up late last night finishing a book I've been utterly engrossed in since opening it a few days ago. I've had to force myself not to take 3 hour lunch breaks, nor to generally ignore work altogether and just read all through the day this week.

I don't know why it took me 3 years to finally read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I've known I've wanted to read ever since it came out and people started gobbling it up at book clubs. I just didn't end up reading it. But it caught my eye the other day, so I quickly requested it from my library, and it was delivered to me a day later (with 3 other books I had requested...it had been a slowish day at work.) Even with it in my possession, it took a little bit of time until I had time and attention for it, but I finally cracked it open last week, and then gave my mind and heart to it thoroughly this week.

It's got everything I want: a strong female antagonist; British history; literary commentary; WWII backdrop (post-WWII backdrop, really); lines quoted from poetry and literature; British accents; a cute love story; wit and humor; and other stuff that completely enamored me.

Basically, I liked the book a lot a lot a lot. It reminded me a lot of letters I might write to people...if I was better at writing letters. I will become a better pen pal! Everyone send me your address, and we'll discuss books and love lives and daily life!! it'll be so fun! I need to go buy some classy stationery...

 It also reminded me of how I might've thrived in 1946-1950 England - if I was a woman of fortune and means with little responsibility beyond writing. I think I would have excelled at such a time. I think I was British in another life.

I also think I was surrounded by literary people in another life. I love when characters discuss books and authors, and the person they're talking to just gets what they're saying. I think the decades before television sound so dreamy - talking about literature just seemed so commonplace. Their knowledge of literature was our knowledge of television shows (of which I'm highly knowledgeable - maybe our great grand-children will be impressed with our depth of understanding about this type of entertainment one day?). At any rate, I think I would've been friends with this main character in the book, for many reasons, but one reason being her interest in and love for reading good things.

It was wonderful to read this book particularly because my inner narrator has a slight British accent, so my reading matched with the voice of the book's narrator. It took me a bit longer to read because I found that some parts of it begged me to read aloud - give sound to that British voice of mine.

And so I did - I love reading aloud. Weird? Who cares!

I also really like giggling. And between favorite passages of this book and chatting with my roommate about college memories we had, I giggled a lot last night.

And so a quiet evening that started with a throbbing headache ended rather enjoyably: with giggles, giddy smiling while reading aloud, and a white chocolate mint shake. Can't ask for much more than that on an overly hot Summer evening.

On a related note: I've once again gone through a bit of a reading spree in a short amount of time. I think it's time I get back into the real world for a few days before jumping into another fictitious world - I'm like Alice jumping down the rabbit hole when I open books sometimes; the written world is my new reality, and my real life melts away with the turn of a page...

Oh don't worry - I snap back to my life pretty quickly. The practiced narrator in my mind just makes my life a little more interesting to me...and more British. Which is never a bad thing.