Book Circle Book One

I’ve joined an online bookclub (how it started, thanks to Penny). Here is our reading list for the coming year:

1. February: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
2. March: Extremely loud and incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. April: In defense of food: An eater’s manifesto by Michael Pollan
4. May: The 19th wife by David Ebershoff
5. June: The zookeeper’s wife by Diane Ackerman
6. July: Letter to my daughter by Maya Angelou
7. August: PS I love you by Cecelia Ahern
8. September: Beautiful boy by David Sheeff
9. October: Dewey: The small-town library cat who touched the world by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter
10. November: The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larson
11. December: Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel García Márquez ; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
12. January 2010: The book thief by Markus Zusak

We’re meant to read the book for the month and then post what we thought of it by the end of the month. I am a little late, but I only got back from Aurora on Wednesday night and have had an annoying cough and cold ever since. (This has kept me feeling lethargic and uninspired.)

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to participate with February’s book. Despite being the one who suggested it*, I had a bit of difficulty getting hold of a copy. It’s possible that other local bookclubs are reading this book too, because there were seven holds on it at my local library. I ended up ordering a copy from the Book Depository, along with the titles for March and May (I already have April’s). March and May arrived very promptly, but no Potato Peel Pie Society; for some reason it arrived a whole week later – the day before I was due to leave.  I ended up reading it on the plane.

The verdict? I absolutely loved it! I don’t want to give anything away, so let’s just the story unfolds in a correspondence between an author and several inhabitants of the island of Guernsey. I laughed and cried reading it.  I’m not kidding, I actually cried at one point on the plane. I laughed out loud, too. Highly recommended. I even refrained from talking about it with my sister-in-law and aunt when I saw them at dinner on Friday night because I want to give them copies for their birthdays.

Reviews from others in the Book Circle:  Penny (more on the book), Kelly, Emma, Julie Maree, Mel, Suzannah, Mim.

*which only goes to show that if I stop letting my prejudices get in the way I sometimes find gems. I’d noticed this book in the shops but scoffed cos it looked girly. I decided to get over it and nominated it because the title was interesting. I shall have to get over my prejudices again in August (girly) and October (twee)…