A Book to Read

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers." - line from a conversation in the book.

Run, don't walk, well, drive quickly to the nearest Barnes and Noble or Books a Million and Read this book which my sister recommended to me.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

She practically said, "You're a fool if you don't read this book". We were meeting her in Books a Million in Montgomery - on my way down to Evergreen when I was going to ride with her and Sarah was going on to Auburn. I grabbed it immediately, without hesitation, and I bought it.

After I read a book, and I don't want it to be over, I want more - well, I start reading anything else on the extra pages - like the acknowledgements, - anything - this one offered quite a bit. Besides acknowledgements it had an afterword. I love books that have an afterword - then it takes the reader a bit deeper into the heart of the author and what all was going on, surrounding the story as it developed. Also, this book had a map in the front. I love it when there are maps - so if the writer is talking about places, then I keep flipping to the map to get a better picture of everything. I want to be there.

Mary Ann Shaffer is the main author and her niece, Annie Barrows, did some finishing up for her - I won't give all of that away - but I have to include in this post the first paragraph of Annie Barrows' "afterword".

"I grew up in a family of storytellers. In my family there is no such thing as a yes-or-no question, a simple answer, or a bald fact. You can't even ask someone to pass the butter without incurring a story, and major holidays always end with the women gathered around the table, weeping with laughter, while our husbands sit in the next room holding their heads."

Annie Barrows

That paragraph reminds me of my Mother and her sisters and all those gatherings and all of us laughing so hard, with our overactive tear ducts - weeping with laughter. I have to include this picture which is one of a million we have. I need to just gather all the pictures of this sort and put them together in a book.

There is a subsequent picture to this one - and it must have been taken right after whatever story is being told - because in it most of the women are dying with laughter and falling over on one another. It's so revealing of the banter that is going on.

Come to think of it, now we do that in this Rhodes household when all or most of the girls are gathered - and if Steve is in the room he really cranks us all up, and Scott is laughing as hard as any of us.