Guernsey Literary

I just read a gorgeous book – the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  Thanks for the recommendation, Libby.  It was beautifully thought provoking, historically interesting - set in post WWII London and Guernsey Island - and, well, romantic.  Not in a girl-meets-boy way (although a girl meets a boy), but in a "I want my life to be on that little island, with those lovely people" kind of way.  Finishing this book has left me feeling a bit sad, I can never read it for the first time again.

Its’ narrative was through many written letters and reminded me of the conversations that occur through letters in real life.  I have consequently been drafting letters to people and reading replies from them in my head.  It made me think of the times that letters have been especially important to me – my dad spent a year in Zimbabwe, and each time I have moved from Auckland - to Dhaka, Baltimore and Bloomington.  Pre-email, I was a letter writer with penpals in America, Germany and Australia (as well as a few friends around NZ).   

Nothing can substitute that physicality of receiving, holding, opening and reading a letter.  I promised myself (and a few potential recipients) that I would go back to writing physical letters upon moving to Bloomington but so far have not lived up to that promise.  There’s always today.