Favorite Quotes: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

A very good friend of mine gifted me this book on my 29th birthday. Don’t be put off by the long and odd title. The book is a gem and one of my all-time favorite books.

The story goes like this: It’s 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can’t think of what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey – by chance he’s acquired a book that once belonged to her – and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Juliet’s curiosity is piqued and it’s not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realises that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

Here are my favorite quotes from the book:

• On Moses and the Ten Commandments: “Word of God or crowd control?”
• “Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.”
• “Boredom is a powerful reason to befriend the enemy, and the prospect of fun is a powerful draw.”
• “Men must spout this twaddle about egos because they fear they have no souls.”
• “It’s death that goes on, dead now, dead tomorrow and dead forever.”
• “Every biography should be written within a generation of its subject’s life, while he or she is still in living memory.”
• “If there’s Predestination, then God’s the Devil.”