Maybe one of my goals for July should be to catch up on book reviews. I wonder what it would feel like to be current with my reviews instead of telling you about books I read back in February…

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

From the jacket: “January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’d never met, a native of Guernsey, the British island once occupied by the Nazis. He’d come across her name on the flyleaf of a secondhand volume by Charles Lamb. Perhaps she could tell him where he might find more books by this author. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, she is drawn into the world of this man and his friends, all members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a unique book club formed in a unique, spur-of-the-moment way: as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the Germans. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the Society’s charming, deeply human members, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. through their letters she learns about their island, their taste in books, and the powerful, transformative impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds there will change her forever.”

My take: Oh. my. god. This book is amazing. I laughed. I cried. I finished it and wanted immediately to begin it again.

Set in the year after the end of World War II, this epistolary novel opens as the English are attempting to rebuild their lives as well as their cities. Juliet Ashton, a writer who had an upbeat newspaper column during the war, is back to being able to write about the topics of her choosing, but she’s unable to settle on a subject that matters.

A letter arrives at her doorstep, forwarded from her previous, bombed-out flat, from a stranger on the Isle of Guernsey. He has come into possession of a book that once belonged to her and, intrigued by the subject, he’s hoping to learn more. Could she possibly point him to a shop in London that would be willing to search out additional books for him? All the bookshops on the island were destroyed by the Nazis and he’s desperate for a new book.

Through their correspondence, she comes to learn more about her pen-pal, his odd group of friends who comprised the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and life under Nazi rule. Could there be a story there for her to tell?

Annie Barrows recently stopped by Politics and Prose to do a reading, so I and a bazillion other fans turned out to hear her talk about the novel. She explained that the book had been her aunt’s, but that when her aunt became deathly ill, Annie, already a published author of children’s books, found herself being asked to flesh out and fill in the story. Mary Ann died before the book came out in English, but Annie sweetly said that she was so glad that her participation in the project had enabled readers to connect with the best storyteller in her family.

And I can believe it. The characters are so well-written that you’ll wish you could time travel to meet them before you remember that they didn’t really exist. The format of the book allows secondary and even tertiary characters to have full and well-rounded back stories and for events to be shared from different perspectives, which I found to be quite rewarding.

Read this book. I found it best book of the year material. Amazing.

Pages: 278 pages

Trish at Trish’s Reading Nook is hosting the summertime readalong, Non-Fiction Five 2009.

Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May-September. At least one non-fiction book [should be] different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help).

This was another challenge I made a stab at last year in which I failed miserably. I think it’s time to pull out some true tales and learn some new things. But I’m pages from finishing the first book I’ve chosen, so I feel confident that I’ll be able to meet this year’s goal:

1. Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach
2. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
3. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
4. The Sun in the Morning by M.M. Kaye
5. Reading the OED by Ammon Shea

Book selection may change as I find new things to interest me or as these fail to hold up to the D.C. summer heat. Of course, if you have a non-fiction suggestion you think I might like, please leave it in the comments.

I’m off by a day or two because of the long weekend. I’m not complaining, though.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. On Saturday, I spent time in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut. Rudi did the same, substituting New Hampshire for Rhode Island. With the exception of Maine, we covered all of New England. It was good to be home.

2. On 91 north of Brattleboro, the highway travels through and above your typical northeastern forestland. But Vermont’s air is so much cleaner than southern New England’s that you really notice the pine scent as it wafts through your windows. (And earlier in the morning, I could smell the sea at one point, even if I had a tough time actually finding the South Shore.)

3. If I can have a book in my possession, I’d much prefer to read rather than listen to it. (I’m not putting down those who listen to audiobooks, but my brain processes the two experiences in totally different ways, so I find it impossible to say that when I listen to a book that it’s reading.) That said, clearly one should not peruse a novel while driving. I had Plum Lucky on my iPod, so bounty hunters Stephanie and Diesel kept us company while we were stuck in late-night traffic on the Garden State. It seemed appropriate somehow, since the book is set in New Jersey.

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

From the jacket: “Noah’s dad has a little problem with anger control. He tried to stop the Coral Queen casino boat’s illegal dumping … by sinking the boat. But his bold protest fizzles: Within days, the casino is back in business, and Noah’s dad is behind bars and out of action. Now Noah is determined to succeed where his father failed. But even though pumping raw sewage into the waters of the Florida Keys is both gross and against the law, turns out it’s near impossible to catch the flusher — especially when he’s already bamboozled the prosecutors, the local press, and even the Coast Guard.”

My take: When I decided to sign up for Maggie’s Southern Reading Challenge 3, my first challenge was going to be meeting a review goal of the first book by today. So I thought I’d tuck a kids’ book into the list so I had time to pick it up at the library, read it, and get it reviewed. I’d read Hoot before, so I knew that I liked Hiaasen’s style, at least for his young adult books.

Like Hoot, Flush takes place in Florida and focuses on the story of a middle school boy who finds out about an impending environmental disaster and must decide what he’s going to do.

The book opens at the town jail, where Noah has stopped in to visit his dad on Father’s Day. Paine is a mild-mannered waterman who, as his family routinely points out, tends to get a little carried away when he sees a wrong that needs righting. In this instance, he has sunk a local casino boat, purportedly because its owner, Dusty Muleman, is pumping the boat’s toilets into the bay. Noah’s mom has tried to bail him out, but Paine refuses to let her. He’s happy to stay locked up, claiming his being in jail brings attention to the situation, but the kids overhear Donna on the phone talking divorce and start to worry their father may have gone too far this time.

In the days that follow, Noah and his younger sister, Abbey, see what they can do to learn more about the charges their father has lobbed at Muleman. They scout around the marina, dodging Muleman’s bullying son during the day and his thuggish security at night. At Paine’s suggestion, Noah consults an ex-mate from the Coral Queen, Lice Peeking, a soused bum living in a trailer with Muleman’s bosomy ex-girlfriend, Shelly, who both agree Muleman’s no good.

But when the kids nearly get grabbed, Lice disappears, Paine gives up his fight, and Shelly, Abbey, and Noah witness the effect the sewage has on the local wildlife, it’s time to up the ante. Can Noah and Abbey set up Muleman, dodge the scarred old man living in the woods (who seems to know an awful lot about them), and still be back home in bed before their folks get home?

Ultimately, this is a story about interconnectedness and vigilance. One thing touches another, which touches another. Noah’s family might get frustrated with one another, but, ultimately, they’re there for each other, looking out for one another, watching everyone’s backs. They are separate but a whole. And the environment is the same way. One person can — for good or for evil — affect the wildlife and the people who use the water. And even seemingly benign carelessness can lead to long-term problems. The environment is not something apart from us.

Hiaasen works a bit hard sometimes to drill these points in, sometimes creating a rather awkward back story to make it all work. But he has created some great characters — Noah, a real boy who’s inherited his father’s passion for protecting those who can’t speak up for themselves; Abbey, his analytical sister with a flair for drama; and no-nonsense Shelly, whose big heart is ultimately much more noticeable than the tattoo on her arm — who carry the story through in the end.

Pages: 263

Another step toward clearing the backlog of unreviewed books. I read this back in January:

Late Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

From the jacket: “Perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall, the Red Lobster hasn’t been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift. With only four shopping days left until Christmas, Manny must convince his near-mutinous staff to hunker down and serve the final onslaught of hungry retirees, lunatics, and holiday office parties. All the while, he’s wondering how to handle the waitress he’s still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend at home, and where to find the present that will make everything better.”

My take: I first read about this book from Maggie more than a year ago. Learning that it was set a few towns over from where I used to live in Connecticut, just up Route 9, immediately earned it a place on my To Be Read list. So when I finally remembered to request it from the library, I was hoping for a nostalgic look at my home state through the eyes of a peer — even if that peer was the pot-smoking manager of a chain restaurant.

What I got, though, was a novella so depressing that I still can’t believe I actually finished it. It is, I would assume, an accurate portrayal of blue-collar workers being downsized at the holidays, many without prospects of attaining new employment quickly. The main characters (including Manny, who cheated on his girlfriend with one of the waitresses, who agonized over which of his employees he could take with him to the Olive Garden in the next town when the corporate office let him “save” five employees, and who is particularly kind and gentle to his old high school basketball coach and to a developmentally disabled employee) were well-crafted and well-rounded (as were several of the secondaries), but, although likable, I’m not sure I’d actually want to know them in real life. The fact that this tale is set in a familiar locale and that I could actually envision this happening there did not serve to make the story seem less bleak.

Well-written, but a true downer. Avoid if you want to be able to hold out hope for a better future for the characters you read about.

Pages: 146 pages

Since it’s June, I thought it high time I join some book-themed challenges. Unfortunately, the one I need most, which is to review all the books you’ve read to date this year, seems not to be offered anywhere. In the meantime, I’ll just add some new books to the pile.

Last year, I signed up for Maggie’s summer reading challenge and failed miserably — I neglected to read any of the three books I’d planned on. This year I plan to succeed in my goal of reading three Southern books before August 15 for the Southern Reading Challenge Three.

(Maggie’s challenge does have some possibility of getting me to review the books in a timely fashion, as she has deadlines for posting each review.)

My intention will be to read:

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
• Flush by Carl Hiaasen

But I admit I may substitute based on library availability and sustained interest levels once I start.

If you have any Southern-themed suggestions, I’m open to them.