The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there's some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true."

That quote is from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's also how I feel about the book. I read it at a time when I hadn't found a really good book in a while.

If you're not going to read the rest of the post, then just read this part - you should definitely read this book.

It's written entirely in the form of correspondence - and it's just an incredibly sweet story. It's about the island called Guernsey in the English Channel and how they were essentially cut off from the rest of the world when they were occupied by the Germans. In order to avoid getting in trouble for being out after curfew one night, neighbors create the literary society...and that relatively random event causes their lives to be intertwined from that point forward.

One member of the literary society, Dawsey, comes across a book at a used book store that he enjoys - so he writes to the original owner of the book and asks her if she knows where he can get more of that author's work. The woman who he writes to is an author and after they correspond for a while, she wants to do a piece on Guernsey's "literary society" - so she goes to visit, and never wants to leave. It was only supposed to be a temporary visit, but even as she leaves behind a sophisticated life in London for the less cosmopolitan life in Guernsey, she finds a different kind of happiness.

The story is just really sweet. And the basic premise is that books can bring people together and make them happy. How could I not love it?