Former actress Elfrida Phipps, 62, flees London for a cottage in the small English village of Dibton where she is befriended by the Blundell family.

Retired college professor and organist Oscar Blundell turns to Elfrida when an auto accident claims the lives of his wife, Gloria, and 12-year-old daughter, Francesca.  Grief-stricken Oscar leans on Elfrida who convinces him to return to his grandmother’s estate in Scotland where he retains half-ownership in the Estate House.  Since he has nowhere else to go and Gloria’s sons have put The Grange up for sale, Oscar agrees.

When her affair with a married man turns sour, Elfrida’s second cousin, Carrie Sutton, leaves Austria and returns to London.  There she finds her niece, Lucy, refusing to accompany her mother and male friend to Florida for two weeks. Grandmother, Dodie, also has plans to spend the holidays in Bournemouth with friends leaving the 14-year-old bereft of friends or family for winter break.

Called back to London by his company chairman to revive a defunct Scottish textile mill, Sam Howard, shows up at the Estate House during a blinding snow storm.  While trying to enter the building with a key from Oscar’s cousin and co-owner, Sam discovers an ailing Carrie who invites him to come in out of the cold.

In two short weeks, these five people from three generations begin to put their lives back together and find something to celebrate.

While most readers reacted favorable to this novel of hope and renewal, some reviewers found fault with Pilcher’s unrealistic time frame for Oscar’s grief process.  Gloria and Francesca have been dead for two months and Oscar and Elfrida are definitely a couple in every sense of the word.

Others found the players stereotypical:  the grieving widower, the neglected child, the broken-hearted  lover, the cold-blooded socialite and pleaded for multi-layered character development.

Most readers will find the plot predictable, but don’t let that keep you from enjoying the rich descriptions of domestic detail, exquisite depiction of Scotland in winter and that sure-to-please happy ending.

Discussion Questions follow:

1. Elfrida made many friends in the small village of Dibton, but the Blundells became her favorites.  Discuss what attracted Elfrida to each one in turn:  Oscar, Gloria, Francesca.

2.  Both Oscar and Elfrida have spent much of their professional lives in London, yet find Dibton a comfortable place to live.  What makes Elfrida comfortable? Oscar?  How did the tragic auto accident affect their comfort level?

3. Sam retains fond memories of Radley Hall, his boyhood home, and Oscar remembers Corrydale, his grandmother’s estate.  What memories do you carry with you of your childhood home or hometown?  Good or bad?

4. Taking into account Elfrida’s admission that, “She liked Oscar immensely; perhaps too much,” how would you characterize her relationship with Oscar before and after the tragic accident?

5. Elfrida declared that she had to set limitations and reservations so she would not be absorbed by or be beholden to the Blundells.  Discuss the above reference and explain what she is so afraid of.

6. Compare and contrast the two young girls (Lucy & Francesca) especially in  their reaction to the merging of the pagan festival surrounding Winter Solstice with the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth.

7. Why do you think Pilcher chose Winter Solstice as her book title?

8. How accurate is the author’s portrayal of the grief  process?  Some reviewers found it unrealistic that Oscar asked Elfrida to marry him just two months after the death of his wife and daughter.  Do you agree?

9. What part does fate play in Winter Solstice?  Did you find the plot believable?  Did Pilcher’s use of fate lend to or detract from the novel’s believability?

10. Discuss Pilcher’s use of setting to propel the action of the novel.  One reviewer felt that the setting assumed the position of an additional character in the book.  Agree/Disagree?

What other Rosamunde Pilcher novels have you read and enjoyed?

” Programs, here! You can’t tell the players without a program!”

Just like the avid baseball fan, readers of Back When We Were Grown Ups would  appreciate a program or even a score card to keep track of the sheer number of characters strolling in and out of Anne Tyler’s 15th book.

First off, the jovial Joe Davitch married Tina and begat three daughters:

1. Bridget (Biddy)
2. Patricia (Patch)
3. Elinor (NoNo)

As the novel opens, we meet Rebecca (Beck) Davitch, 53, a dimpled grandmotherly type whose loose style of dress resembles that of a bag lady.

Widowed at 25, this proprietress of a 19th century Baltimore row house/party rental, inherited a ready-made family when Tina abandoned Joe and their three children for a career as a New York night club singer.

The eldest Davitch daughter, a  part-time nutritionist who dreams of being a gourmet chef, habitually refuses to taste her own concoctions for the Open Arms clientele. With her fiance’ dead of an asthma attack, the newly pregnant Biddy, 20, moved in with his gay brother.

Together, she and Troy have parented Dixon, the black-haired, brown-eyed heart throb who waits tables and aspires to attend John Hopkins.

The middle daughter, a gym teacher with a sharp freckled face and chopped black hair, looks and acts 14.  She and husband, Jeep, the big-footed runner have produced three children of their own.

1. Danny, a natural athlete
2. Emmy, the long-legged pixie
3. Meredith, an exact replica of Patch

When the youngest, tiniest and prettiest stepdaughter marries corporate lawyer, Barry Sanborn, she becomes the mother of Peter, 12, whom Tyler describes as a puny runt of a boy.

Before Joe’s untimely death at 38 in a freak car accident, he and Rebecca produced a fourth daughter, Minerva aka Min Foo.

Her children include:

1. Joey, 8, the product of her union with Drake, a 60-year-old college professor who has since moved to a Greek Island.
2. Lateesha, 4, the offspring of her African-American husband, LaVon, an aspiring musician who teaches fourth grade.
3. Baby Abdul, the son of her present husband, cardiologist Hakim Abdulazim.

Is your head spinning yet?  Then add in Poppy (Paul Davitch) Joe’s almost 100-year-old uncle of the white bushy mustache and college degree who lives with Rebecca.

Plus, there’s Zeb, Joe’s younger brother, a gangling, bespectacled pediatrician who may or may not be a love interest for Beck. After all, they call each other every night before going to bed, alone.

Feeling that life had passed her by, Beck reconnects with her college sweetheart, Will Allenby, head of the physics department of a local university.  But Rebecca’s futile attempts to rekindle their bygone romance fails and she rejects him for a second time. (How could anyone eat chili seven days a week for dinner?)

In the end, the matriarch of the Davitch family accepts her role as the go-to person, the problem solver and moves forward from that point.

Readers of Back When We Were Grownups will discover a  well-crafted character study of a large dysfunctional family.  The plot meanders along, rises to the celebration of Poppy’s 100th birthday and flat lines after that.  Nothing of great importance happens, and for that reason, some may rate Tyler’s novel as boring.

However, others describe her work as a superb chronicle of ordinary life, the tiny daily events which fill our waking hours. Beck Davitch is as familiar as our next-door neighbor or best friend.

One reviewer thought that the opening line:

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

hinted at great life-changing events that never found their way into the novel’s narrative.

A complete listing of Tyler’s novels can be found here.

Discussion Questions for Back When We Were Grownups can be found at this link.

The Pickles are members of a multi-generational group of farm wives who meet weekly to quilt, chat and ‘improve their minds’.

In her second novel, The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas has created female characters that most have met time and again.  First, there’s the timid older lady (Ella Crook) along with the overbearing and bossy woman (Septima Judd).  Next, comes the inexperienced, newly married, young girl (Queenie Bean and Rita Ritter) and lastly, the average woman who just tries to get along with everyone else (Ada June Zinn and Sabra Ritter).

(Since some bookclubbers found it difficult to differentiate between these characters and the rest of the Persian Pickle Club, too, a list appears below.)

• Sabra: the jolly matriarch of the Ritter family. She happily accepts her role as: farmer’s wife and mother of grown children, Tom and Agnes T.

• Agnes: knobby figure, no lips and little slit eyes, characterize the unmarried daughter of Sabra and Howard. Setting her career plans aside, this 25-year-old reluctantly works the family farm in her brother’s absence.

• Rita: recent addition to the Ritter clan by her marriage to Tom. This 23-year-old scrap of a girl comes straight from Denver.  Rita’s buttery curls, huge eyes, and ambition to be  journalist immediately set her apart from the other Pickles.

• Septima Judd: the unofficial leader and richest member of the club drives a yellow Packard. A formidable matron with thick glasses and a chin full of warts, Mrs. Judd is known for her loyalty and blustery manner.

• Queenie Bean: the narrator and youngest member of the Persian Pickle Club. As the talkative wife of Grover, she pictures herself as small framed (bigger than Rita’s 5 foot, 100 pounds) with a straight brown bob.

• Opaline Dux:  quiet except when blurting out odd remarks. Characterized by her sweaty hands and long white hair, Opaline has been known to talk to her chickens both inside the house and out.

• Ada June Zinn: almost  40. Her specialty dessert, bread pudding,  always receives compliments from the Pickles, her six children and husband, Buck.

• Ceres Root: The only living founding member of the group suffers from arthritic hands which makes quilting difficult.

• Ella Crook: accepting of the hardship of farming with no electricity. At 60 plus years of age, she is the best quilter of the group. Described as small and wispy, Ella’s sweet disposition and frequent blushes, make her a favorite with all of the Pickles.

• Nettie Burgett: looks older than her 50 years, with her gray hair and even grayer skin.  Her worries include a gambling husband, Tyrone; a promiscuous daughter, Velma; and a goiter always carefully covered with a scarf.

• Forest Ann Finding: a widow crowned by a halo of hair the color of maize.  Pretty and slender, she appears younger than Nettie, her sister-in-law. Could it be the man who stops by at 5 p.m. daily that keeps Forest Ann looking  so young?

Narrator Queenie Bean, holds the two-part story together.

Part 1 introduces the setting: 1930s, drought-ridden Harveyville, Kansas, and the characters (listed above) all struggling to make a living during the depression years. Funny thing though, none of the Pickles nor their immediate families seem to be going hungry or lack gasoline to power their cars.   In fact, the Beans (especially Grover) have been known to feed and house any drifters who might happen by their property.

Part 2 includes the murder mystery that some reviewers found “far-fetched and totally unnecessary”. When the bones of Ben Crook are found in the far-north field, Rita sees her chance to get off the farm and back to the big city. Eager to help her friend, Queenie happily chauffeurs the fledgling reporter around the countryside collecting information for her big ’scoop’.

Returning from an errand of mercy at the Burgett farm late one evening,  the two young women are terrorized by a roving tramp intent on ‘having a little fun’. From that point on, the youngest Pickle hooks the screen door and stays close to home leaving Rita to pursue the story of Ben Crook’s murder alone.

After having read through “some dirty old record books” and “asking questions of people who didn’t want to talk about Ben Crook”, Rita ends up with more confessions that she can handle – one from every member of the Persian Pickle Club.

Who really did kill Ben Crook?  Read the book and find out.

Information about other books by Sandra Dallas can be found at:  www.sandradallas.com.

For discussion questions go to:  www.search.barnesand noble.com/Persian-Pickle-Club/Sandra-Dallas/e/9780312147013/?itm=1 Be sure to click the tab for features.

Most of his best sellers fall into the thriller category with Arab terrorists, nuclear threats and Washington D. C. misfits. (The Camel Club, 2006)

Early in his writing career, this attorney turned author gave readers an inside look at the appeal process of the Supreme Court through the eyes of convicted murderer Rufus Harms. (The Simple Truth, 1998)

A 2001 release, Last Man Standing follows an FBI point man’s desperate search for answers after his entire Hostage Rescue Team was gunned down around him in a blind alley.  Not exactly a book club choice either!

But sandwiched between the CIA villains, Secret Service agents and serial killers is Wish You Well, a homespun tale of love across four generations  and, in particular, 1940’s life in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia.

In the opening chapter, a fatal automobile accident forces the family of  a critically acclaimed novelist to leave their New York home  and retreat to the Cardinal family cabin back in the hills.

Awakened at 5 a.m. by their great grandmother also named Louisa Mae Cardinal, Lou, aged 12 and Oz, 7,  soon learn to milk the cows, slop the hogs, feed chickens, drop hay and gather eggs before walking two miles to school every day.

A Virginia resident himself, Baldacci created adventures and hardships familiar to his maternal grandmother, Cora Rose, who spent 60 years in the higher elevations. Even the author’s mother, the youngest of ten children, spent the first 17 years of her life in the same rocky peaks.

Faulting herself for her father’s  death and  mother’s catatonic state, the blond, blue-eyed Lou can not subscribe to her grandmother’s notion that, “Some say believing a person gets better is half the battle”. But younger brother, Oz, never loses faith: talking to Amanda several times each day, brushing her hair and even sleeping in her bedroom on more than one occasion.

Every Baldacci novel must have a villain and moonshiner George Davis is one of the best. An awful man, Davis, “works his children like mules and treats his mules better’n his children,” according to long-time neighbor and adversary, Louisa Mae Cardinal.

Running a close second in evil practices are the executives of The Southern Valley Coal and Gas Company who keep mum about the discovery of natural gas in the Cardinal’s coal mine.  This secret, which pits neighbor against neighbor for a sizable check, will also result in the death of red-haired Jimmy Skinner a.k.a. Diamond – another blow to Lou’s already fragile psyche.

The setting mixes in the glowing beauty of a 100-foot waterfall with the opportune scream of a sleek black panther and a moss encrusted, haunted well to push the reader to the edge of his/her seat in  anticipation of what will happen next .

Add in a four-chapter long Southern trial reminiscent of  the one described in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and you’ve got a real page turner.  As in both cases, “The legal system had had its day the only thing absent was justice”.

(Sadly to say, Cotton Longfellow did not possess the expertise of Atticus Finch by his own admission, “I’m not a particularly good lawyer, but I get by”.

Critics found Baldacci’s earlier works written strictly for action, with little character development or setting.  That is not the case with Wish You Well, 2000, number six in his list of 19 books produced in 13 years.  Maybe it’s the author’s  strong family connection to the high Virginia hills or possibly his skill at creating suspense that draws the reader on page after page.

Whatever the reason:  Wish You Well is a well plotted, compelling, action-packed novel – a great choice for any book club discussion.  Questions can be found at www.readinggroupguides.com.

But after reading Founding Mothers, you’ll have to agree that room should be cleared in those same books for the deeds and accomplishments of their wives: Martha, Deborah and Abigail. For without their support, encouragement and resourcefulness, these great men would certainly have floundered.

As Washington wrote, “Not would I rob the fairer sex of their share in the glory of a revolution so honorable to human nature, for indeed, I think you ladies are in the number of the best patriots America can boast.”

Don’t think of Founding Mothers as a boring book of history. Instead, consider it an intimate peek into the lives of some of our greatest Americans.

Discussion questions for Founding Mothers can be found at: www.readinggroupguides.com.

The subdivision book club used the following questions for its discussion last month.

• Discuss the role of women in colonial America. Did you discover anything surprising? Unjust? Ridiculous?
• History regards Benjamin Franklin as a great inventor and statesman. Taking that into consideration, how would you rate him as a husband and father?
• Explain how the Revolutionary War made is possible for the female sex to move beyond the traditional ‘woman’s place’.
• Discuss how the pamphleteer, Mercy Otis Warren, and other female political writers of the day were able to ‘have it all’.
• What do the following statements tell us about the personal life of John and Abigail Adams?

‘You women don’t need power, you already have all the real power.’
‘Behind every great man there’s a great woman.’

• What events prompted General Cornwallis to say that if he destroyed all of the men in America, he’d still have the women with which to contend?
• Contrast the prim and proper Martha Washington we see in portraits to the real woman as described by Cokie Roberts in Founding Mothers.
• How did the British occupation of the southern colonies alter the lives of women living there?
• How did Peggy Shippen help her husband, Benedict Arnold, advance the British cause in the colonies? After he was arrested, how did she escape detention?
• Who suffered the most during the peace process–the statesmen: Adams, Jefferson, Franklin or their wives?
• In 1809, Chief Justice John Marshall replied to Gouverneur Morris’ inquiry by saying that Virginia opinion was divided on Nancy’s (Randolph) guilt or innocence. Where do you stand on the greatest scandal in 18th century America?

Did Nancy bear an illegitimate child?
Did she murder her brother-in-law, Richard?
Was she the mistress of slave, Billy Ellis?
Was she a prostitute? A vampire?

• Martha Washington changed her title of First Lady to Chief State Prisoner. Would modern day First Ladies agree? Explain.

Were it not for such confessions, garnered from the letters of 18th century female Americans, little would be remembered about the prominent role   women played in the birth of our country.

Founding Mothers, authored by Cokie Roberts, a senior analyst for NPR News, contributes greatly to the historical picture of women.

Even though the system of coverture suspended  legal existence of the married woman, the constantly pregnant colonial matron oftentimes ran the family business or farm while nursing and tending the illnesses of her family and neighbors.

“Men handled relations with England,” Roberts quipped, “while the women handled pretty much everything else.”

While her inventor husband spent many years of their married life abroad, Deborah Franklin helped run the postal system, invested in real estate, managed the finances, cared for relatives and saved the family home from an angry mob.

Whether out of frustration or fatigue, the 60-year-old Mrs. Franklin ceased writing to her absentee husband who was finally forced to return home in December 1774 when the valiant lady died.

With the approach of the Revolutionary War, written material by women became a source of inspiration and information.  The first shots rang out at Lexington and Concord, just two weeks after the publication of Mercy Otis Warren’s pamphlet, The Group, advocating freedom from England.

Eavesdropping on British soldiers quartered in her home, Lydia Darragh recorded troop activities  and cleverly hid her coded messages behind the large buttons on the coat she messengered to her son serving under  General Washington.

In her Sentiments of an American Lady,  British born Esther Reed urged that the money saved by wearing simpler clothing and less elegantly dressed hair be donated to the Pennsylvania troops.  This collection, ‘the offering of the ladies,’  raised  $300,000 in just a few days and soon spread to  nearby states.

Criticism of Founding Mothers centers around the organization of facts presented not the researched material itself. Writing in chronological order, the author jumps back, as much as 10 years or more, each time a new character is introduced.

Paragraph length, was also another area of complaint with one paragraph being over a page long. In agreement, long paragraphs do make for slow reading.

Choosing the next month’s reading material can sometimes bring a clash of suggestions.  Thankfully,  larger library systems have begun to supply a recommended reading list.  This list includes any book with multiple copies available for circulation.

Once a title is agreed upon, a simple phone call secures enough copies of your choice for any given month including a synopsis, reviews, author’s biography and discussion questions nicely  housed in a canvas bag. However, popular titles must sometimes be reserved months in advance.

For those book clubbers  not in metropolitan areas,  it’s a trip to  the local library, bookstore or amazon.com.

For the most part, novels with clearly defined, dominant characters seem to produce a more rousing discussion.  Nonfiction titles such as Eat, Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s search  for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia; Under the Tuscan Sun, the step-by-step renovation of a Tuscan villa by Frances Mayes and Jeanette Walls‘ memoir, The Glass Castle were not big hits.

A suggested read by our local history buff, Founding Mothers was a first experience with actual events in a historical context.  But with such celebrated characters as Abigail and John Adams, Martha and George Washington, Benedict Arnold and his wife, Peggy Shippen, everyone had ideas and opinions to share.  Because the detailed narrative is jam packed with information, most  of those in attendance referred to notes taken while reading the selection.

Discussion questions for Founding Mothers will follow in the next post.

The girl, an aspiring writer, hopelessly hounds  New York bookstores and libraries until she spies an ad for London booksellers, Marks & Co., specialists in the out-of-print book.

Thinking her prayers answered, Helene Hanff drafts the first of twenty years  of letters (1949-1969) to 84 Charing Cross Road.

Hanff’s letter and a list of “her most pressing problems,” that must cost no more than $5.00,  fall into the hands of Frank Doel, chief buyer for Marks & Co.

What began as  an ordinary business transaction grew,  over time,  into a  deep and caring friendship between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel–a friendship which spilled over onto the other bookstore employees and Doel’s wife and two daughters, as well.

Occasionally, every day life intruded on Doel’s “private correspondence” and soon Christmas packages, birthday gifts and food parcels to compensate for post WWII shortages, were being sent back and forth across the Atlantic.

Beside gratitude for the tinned ham and fresh eggs, other topics for discussion included:  how to make a Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

A small book of 104 pages, 84 Charing Cross Road, has found  additional  life as a 1982 Broadway play followed by a 1987 movie starring Anne Bancroft as Hanff and Anthony Hopkins as Doel.   Nora, Doel’s wife,  was played by Judi Dench.

Through the dramatized book of correspondence, one can see, first hand, Helene’s struggle as she progresses from writing unproduced plays to early TV dramas, on to magazines and finally to the books that made her reputation.

On the other side of the Atlantic, life after WWII is pictured as  dull and drab while London  struggles to reinvent itself.  Dinner conversation at the Doel home centers around the tastiness of the evening meal.  Marks & Co. is portrayed as an extremely cramped and  dusty bookshop with overflowing shelves extending upward to the ceiling.

For literary purists, the letters become the actual dialogue spoken by the principal characters.  Addressing the camera, square on, Hopkins and Bancroft simulate a direct conversation with their counterpart 3,000 miles away.

Even though the movie was produced by Brooksfilms, don’t expect any of the zany antics typical of a Mel Brooks movie such as ‘Blazing Saddles‘ or ‘Young Frankenstein‘.

The rights to 84 Charing Cross Road, Brooks’ birthday gift to Bancroft, resulted in a quiet, simple story depicting the  step-by-step development of a strong friendship between two decent, honorable people.

Suggestions that the two were engaged in a love affair are ludicrous since the planned and eagerly anticipated meeting of Hanff and Doel never took place.  In a letter to Helene 21 days after Frank’s death, Nora admitted that she had always been envious of Helene’s writing ability and her    relationship with Frank.

After reading the book and a recent viewing of the film, some members of our church book club expressed deep regret at the outcome.  The lesson learned:  Carpe Diem-Seize the Day!!

A complete listing of the books Helene Hanff purchased from Marks & Co. can be found here.

***The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street chronicles Hanff’s 1971 trip to London.

In our three-year tenure, one lady from the subdivision book club has never failed to hold up her end of the discussion. After openly admitting that reading time has been limited that month and she hasn’t finished the book, once again, she plunges full steam into the conversation.

Even after three book clubs and six years or more of participation, one can never predict the twists, turns and outcome of a book club discussion. On occasion an exchange of ideas can get noisy. A reader, who detests weak women characters, can drown out  opposing views  by speaking in a  loud voice. This same lady has been known to repeatedly strike the table when emphasizing her point of view.

Needless to say, most book club moderators find it helpful (myself included) to circulate discussion questions prior to the monthly meeting. Questions in hand, give the leader a means to direct or steer the discussion: “Has everyone commented on question #3? Can we move ahead to #4?”

With the ever-growing popularity of book clubs, publishing houses have begun to include suggested discussion questions in the back of some novels. Several web sites furnish questions also.

Both Reading Group Guides and Litlovers offer questions for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Additional questions are listed below which more closely examine the characters and their motivations. Use any or all of these questions, if they  meet the needs of your group. If you need help composing questions specifically for your group, please be sure to contact me.

1. Given Juliet’s track record with men, did she make the right choice in the end? What characteristics would Juliet deem necessary in a potential life partner?

2. Describe London’s living conditions in 1946. How did these dilapidated surroundings affect the inhabitants? Juliet? How and why did the book tour raise her spirits?

3. A typical meeting of the ‘Guernsey Literary Society’ would find each member talking about a different book. But once two participants had read the same book, they would argue its merits. How does this format compare with your book club meetings? Do you all read the same book? Different books in the same genre? Do you argue?

4. Eben Ramsey, a fisherman, remembers fondly the following line from Shakespeare, “The bright day is done and we are for the night.” Is this quote a metaphor for the five years of Nazi occupation on the island of Guernsey? Explain.

5. What was Adelaide Addison’s motive in writing the two letters to Juliet? Could she have been jealous of the group’s camaraderie? Would Adelaide have joined the reading group if asked? Why or Why Not?

6. Even though the character, Elizabeth McKenna, never appears in the novel, she is an integral figure. What purpose does her character serve? Is she more important to the story than any of the other literary society participants? More important than Juliet? Why?

7. While renting and living in Elizabeth’s cottage, Juliet senses the other woman’s presence so much that she comments, “It’s odd, I suppose, to mourn so for someone you never met.” Is this possible? Was Juliet unconsciously trying to fill the void left by Elizabeth’s imprisonment and death? Consciously?

8. Which, if any, of the books mentioned in the novel have you read? Give a short synopsis of that book to your friends.

(’Wuthering Heights, The Pickwick Papers, Jane Eyre, Letters to Seneca, David Copperfield, The Secret Garden, Essays of Elia, Pride and Prejudice, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, The Canterbury Tales’)

9. “Good will isn’t enough, is it?” Dawsey Adams asked himself during Remy’s visit to the island. What were his and Amelia’s intentions in visiting the 24-year-old girl and later bringing her to the island? Who was glad that the visit was a short one? Who was sad?

10. What measures did the Guernsey residents adopt to survive during the war years of 1940-1945? Would you have had the stamina to withstand such deprivation?

11. Choose one of the members of the literary society with which to discuss a book. Who would you choose? Which book? Why?

12. Characterize the relationship between Juliet, Sophie and Sidney. Do they really care for one another? Who receives the most benefits from their friendship? How do you know?

13. A book can be a friend, a companion, a source of entertainment. What place does the book occupy in the lives of the Guernsey Islanders? Your life?

Next: Another book of letters, ‘84 Charing Cross Road.’

Yet, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book comprised solely of personal and business letters interspersed with telegrams, has become a must read for book clubbers across the country.

It’s January 1946 and the great city that was London is climbing over the rubble left by the Luftwaffe and beginning to rebuild.  Enter 32-year-old Juliet Ashton, a light-hearted journalist, searching for her next project.  In one of those unexplained coincidences found only in novels, a Guernsey Islander, Dawsey Adams, has found Juliet’s name and former address on the flyleaf of an old book.

Dawsey’s simple request for a London bookshop’s name and address begins a five-month exchange of letters resulting in a new project and new life for Juliet.  Along the way, the reader meets the other quirky members of the Literary Society:  Isola, the practicing witch; the rag and bone man Will Thisbee; the footman, John Booker, pretending to be a Lord; the jumped up London servant, Elizabeth McKenna,  and  Dawsey Adams, a stuttering swine herder, along with the only two ‘respectable’ individuals Amelia Maugery and Eben Ramsey. (These characterizations are  courtesy of (Miss) Adelaide Addison in her letter to Juliet dated 1st March 1946.)

Each member, along with sundry other Islanders, has a story to tell-their version of five years under the tyrannical thumb of the German soldiers on an island sized 7 miles long and 5 miles wide.  We, the readers, share in Juliet’s joy of meeting the Islanders for the first time along with the poignant memories of bidding the Guernsey children goodbye as they sail to safety in the country sides of England.

It is an interesting yet  fanciful glimpse into the bygone world where receiving a long-awaited letter was reason for rejoicing.  Don’t miss the experience!!

Watch for reading guide questions soon!