The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann shaffer & Annie Barrows

There have been many good reviews about this book posted elsewhere and I'm just going to add - I loved it, too.

The book is written in letters back and forth from a journalist in London and some folks on Guernsey Island. It is the end of WWII and Europe is trying to put itself back together.

This beautiful story tells of the Nazi occupation of the Guernsey Island for five years during the war. We learn of hardships suffered by both the islanders and the soldiers and yet the overall feeling of the book is one of hope, resurgence, and love.

I very seldom cry while reading or watching movies, but there was one part of the book that I couldn't hold back the tears. Don't put off reading this because it contains a little sadness. I thought the book was delightful. I strongly recommend it to all my blogger friends.

The Breaking of Eggs and a Giveaway

by Jim Powell

Meet Feliks Zhukowski, a Pole in Paris and a hangover from another age. Decades back, he chose politics over people and ideas over love. Feliks’ life’s work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc. His personal life is a series of failures. Unfortunately for him, it’s 1991, Communism has collapsed and, at 61, his travel-writing days are numbered. So he decides to sell his guide. This sets in motion a series of life-changing events: he’ll meet the brother he hasn’t seen in fifty years, learn the truth about the mother he thought abandoned him, and get a second chance with a long-lost love. But, after five decades of misunderstanding, can he start his life afresh – and finally learn that you shouldn’t cook like Stalin?

I had just finished reading Louise Penny's A Rule Against Murder and had the next in that series calling my name when I started to read The Breaking of Eggs.  At about page 45 I couldn't ignore the tug at my heart from my favorite mystery series so I set aside this book and picked up The Brutal Telling.  After that I was ready to settle in with a communist egghead named Feliks.

It was very interesting to read from the perspective of someone who had such opposing political views than I do and I wasn't so sure I would like being in his head. But I did like it, even learned a lot about myself and about Europe before and during the 2nd World War.

When I said, "I liked it" I should have said that I loved it.  Fritz is a very matter-of-fact guy and his narrative is the same.  I book darted 16 passages.  I thought this passage speaks as strongly of today's political atmosphere as it did in the 30's and 40's:

That's the trouble with times like that.  When you have a threat from one extreme, people run to the other extreme to prevent it.  It doesn't matter which extreme is the devil and which is the savior.  What matters is that the center collapses.  Everything reasonable goes straight out the window.

And this one when Feliks was contemplating the destruction of the Berlin Wall and his interaction with an important person to him.

Our wall came down through weakness.  My weakness in allowing myself to be hurt by the taunts of a fascist.  Her weakness in allowing a pinch of vulnerability to sneak beneath her defenses and make her momentarily confess the wretchedness of her life.  Two moments of weakness resulting in, what, a moment of strength?  How could strength come about in such a way?  How could that be the way you built strength?  You built strength by constructing walls, not by demolishing them.  Surely that is what you did.

And finally this one:

It was necessary to be selective about the past.  Things happened to all of us that should not happen, that we wished had not happened.  We had to put these things behind us, not to pretend they had not happened, but not to dwell on them either, and to make a new life and meet new people and get on with it.  There were fault lines in the cloths that each of us had woven, places where the warp and the weft of life had become disjointed.  If you revisited those places, there was always the danger that everything you had subsequently woven would unravel.

Let me add that this book was long listed for the The Desmond Elliott Prize for  New Fiction.

Thanks to Lindsay and Penguin for sending me this wonderful book.  Also, for providing a chance for you to win a copy for yourself.

To Win The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell:

Leave a comment with a way for me to reach you so I can let you know you won.  I know you will!

Drawing Date:  August 18 midnight 

***FTC Disclosure:  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review, no other compensation was given, all opinions are my own***

Deceptive Intentions

by M. L. Malcolm

I actually read this book about a week ago but didn't get the review written in a timely fashion.  This is the follow up to Silent Lies that I read earlier in June which has been recently released as Heart of Lies.  I don't see why they have to change the title, it only confuses us and the second title doesn't seem any better than the first.  Both fit the story perfectly, however.

Deceptive Intentions will be released sometime in the future as Heart of Deception.  I'm glad I already had access to both books (my daughter owns them) because when I finished the first I would have gone berserk if I had to wait for the second.  As it was I went straight from one to the other.

Silent Lies left me hanging and yearning to learn what would become of Leo and his daughter Maddy.  I have read reviews of Heart of Lies and people seem content to wait for the 2nd book, but I certainly was not.  I felt like they needed to be read back to back as one large story.

Loved Malcolm's writing and her splendid storytelling.  I was totally enthralled with these books and highly recommend them.  Actually, I've had a very good reading month and have totally enjoyed each book I've read.

WIN The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann shaffer & Annie Barrows

There have been many good reviews about this book posted elsewhere on the blog and I'm just going to add - I loved it, too! This is one of my favorite books that I've read this year.

The book is written in letters back and forth from a journalist in London and some folks on Guernsey Island. It is the end of WWII and Europe is trying to put itself back together. I had a little bit of trouble keeping track of people for the first few letters but soon the characters became real to me, like good friends and I had no trouble at all.

Speaking of the characters - they are charming. I loved reading their letters. It was interesting to me just how much of their personality was revealed in a few simple letters. And how much we learned of the time period and the hardships suffered. I appreciated learning about the Nazi occupation of Guernsey Island, something I knew nothing about before reading this book.

It might seem like an oppressive book due to the subject matter and yet the overall feeling of the book is one of hope, resurgence, and love. I very seldom cry while reading or watching movies, but there was one part of the book that I couldn't hold back the tears. Don't put off reading this because it contains a little sadness. I thought the book was delightful. I strongly recommend it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (paperback) by Marie Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Dial Press Trade Paperback (May 2009; Originally published 2008); 304 pages; ISBN 9780385341004
Book Source: Review copy provided for free by Random House in conjunction with TLC Book Tours

Win a copy! This review is part of TLC Book Tours, and Random House has kindly offered to giveaway up to (5) copies of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to my readers. 5 COPIES! (1 copy for every 10 comments) Tell your friends about this one. Let's see if we can get 100 entries so I can give away 5 books. ***Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada only.***

All you need to do TO WIN is leave a comment telling me the title of one book you would like to own and reread. I know, I know - how easy is that?! But there it is. That's all I'm asking. That and PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS in unspammable code such as; booklogged AT gmail DOT com.

I will draw the lucky winners (lets's hope there's 5!) on August 26.

Other bloggers who are offering drawings for The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society:
Maw Books - I couldn't find a date for when the giveaway ends.
A Novel Menagerie - drawing will be Aug 20.
Brimful Curiosities - drawing Aug 24.
As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves - drawing Aug 20.
Books and Movies - drawing will be Aug 28.
Books on the Brain - drawing Aug 28.

Skeletons at the Feast

by Chris Bohjalian

I loved this book. It provided me with perspective. Previously when I thought of WWII, I thought of the horrible atrocities pronounced on the Jews by Hitler and the German people. I will always think of the wrongs done to the Jews, but my view has been expanded to include all people wronged by the evil actions of a relative few.

Skeletons at the Feast tells the story of a prosperous farming family who are forced to leave their home and make their way to the Allied lines to find safety from the invading Russian army at the end of the war. They have heard rumors of the ill treatment of the Jews by their beloved Fuhrer but find them hard to believe. They haven't witnessed the mass evacuations because of their removed location on the farm. My heart ached for their suffering. The mother especially revered Hitler and can't understand why the Russians were invading their country with such contempt and killing the Germans in such vile ways. She asked, "What have we done to make them hates us this much?" As the realization of the truth sinks in she is filled with shame.

The powerful stories of two other main characters are simultaneously told along with that of the Emmerich family. The first is Uri, a young Jewish man who escaped from a boxcar and has been posing as a German soldier for 3 years. The second is Cecile who is forced to march west with the rest of the women in her concentration camp as the Germans try to hide their atrocities from the eyes of the world. The woman are forced to work in a factory for awhile, but as the Russian forces draw closer they are marched further west.