The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Across the English Channel there are small islands that like to be a place all to themselves. The Channel Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, Herm, Sark and Alderney. During the big war the Germans misunderstood that Great Britain would not defend them and so the inhabitants had to fend for themselves.

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

created a story of the letters of the inhabitants of Guernsey and an author who corresponded after the war. The book reads like you have discovered a box of letters from the past, as the writers share stories and books across the channel.

I loved the book discussions, but somehow I still do not have a hankering for English food, except the crumpets with rhubarb preserves and tea without milk.

This is week eight and there are still so many books to read, carry on!

Twelve Across

Love comes in many forms, flowers, bears, and cake. Barbara Delinsky uses crossword puzzles to move the improbable plot along in Twelve Across.

Can anyone tell me what twelve across is. . .

A melon is served for pudding. It must be very English, they call all desserts pudding even when it is a cake.

Twelve Across is a short innocent read all neatly drawn to a conclusion, next week something more challenging. Carry on, week seven, what are you reading?

First Break all the Rules

In England if you can't play by the rules, you could be hung, drawn and quartered.

The book for this week was FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. Yes, it is non-fiction, but being in management means you have to be serious some of the time. Marcus and Curt studied the practices of really great managers and came up with steps to make each employee the best they can be.

"People don't change that much.

Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.

Try to draw out what was left in.

That is hard enough."

A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

This is a picture of a moon shadow. It was there honest when I sighted the camera and then poof it was gone.

Cassie has the same problem with the white beaked woodpecker and her mother has seen Bigfoot we just can't prove it. In A Version of the Truth what is in plain sight can sometimes be missing. Connect the dots, what does an almost extinct bird, a wish cracking parrot, a college professor and the University of Michigan have in common; a young widow who stretches the truth to support herself and wonders what will be come of her, since the nuns raised her to believe there is no such thing as a white lie.

Week five, how is your reading challenge going? Cookies on the seventh. Book discussion is meeting February 10th to discuss On Chesil Beach, you still have time to pickup a copy @ the library.