[Maisie Dobbs] Jacqueline Winspear

Finally catching up on my January reads! I'm closer to finishing Only Yesterday and half-way through The Girls at Kingfisher Club. Also, my Goodreads challenge isn't telling me I'm behind anymore. That was kind of annoying.

Maisie Dobbs (#1)

Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery

Author: Jacqueline Winspear 

Content: Description of battle wounds, etc, in the trenches of WW1. A girl sneaks out of school to attend parties. "The Retreat" is slightly disturbing. Probably would be a mild PG13 if it were a movie.

Memory: Billy Beale being adorable. Simon Lynch and Maisie Dobbs saving lives in the middle of a war. "Assume nothing, Maisie."

Rating: 4 Stars.

Overall: 

     This book was a lot of fun. It took some getting into (I picked it up three or four times before sitting down and telling myself I was finishing it no matter what), but I really did like it. 

     Normally I'm not a fan of a few of the author's techniques--namely, the huge break from the current plot to give backstory--but I felt like it was done well. I think the story would've lost something if you didn't know Maisie's past.

     That being said, I adored the WW1 setting. I really don't read enough hisfic set during that era--I mean, my favorite season of Downton Abbey is season 2 for goodness' sake! I need to read more of this stuff!

     Maisie as a nurse was interesting. It brought out a side of her we hadn't got to see before. Although I will say, it was not fun meeting characters, falling in love with characters, and finding out BAD THINGS happen to them afterword. D:
     Also, the plot. I did not see the ending coming. At all. My idea for what the retreat was was way off. (That seems to be the case with me lately. D: Darn it. I'm not secretly Sherlock Holmes as I thought.)

     There were some things that were not-so-good, but they were small. Mostly character problems (which I'll discuss below). 

Mariesa screenshotted me finishing Maisie Dobbs. I may or may not have been squeaking angrily.
(This is what I get for videochatting while reading).

Characters:

     Ooooh boy. Here we go. I really did like this book.

My relationship with Simon Lynch,

But. 

     There were maybe three characters I really cared for the entire story. 

     I mean, I liked everyone okay (except Maisie's dad....he annoyed me), but they were just...there. I loved Maisie, even if she was a bit flat at times, and I adored Billy Beale (can there please be more of him in the next book??) And of course I LOVE Simon. 

But other than that, I can't really name a character that I was really rooting for on the sidelines, besides maybe Maurice Blanche. He was pretty cool.
Buy It?
     Maybe. If I found it at Chamblin's for a really good price.

     There are 12 books, I think, in this series.  Hopefully I'll get around to reading the rest of them soon? As always, if you've read this, feel free to talk about it in the comments!

[The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society] Mary Ann Shaffer

     The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

     With a name like that it’s impossible not to be interested. It begs to be read; and once you open it, the begging gets more desperate.

     Read me! It cries. I’m a book of letters! I feature a writer and a loveable farmer and an only-slightly-crazy islander/potion brewer! I’ll make you laugh and cry! You’ll have a peculiar urge to visit the English island of Guernsey after reading me!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Genre: Historical, Epistolary*, and if it were a genre, Home.

Author: Mary Ann Shaffer

Content: Often people talk of the horror that came with living on occupied Guernsey during World War Two. Mentions of concentration camps. A woman has a child before marriage. A Ravensbrück survivor spends a good deal of time in the letters.

Memory: "And then Dawsey, dear Dawsey, swore. He took the Lord's name in vain. "My God, yes," he cried, and clattered down that stepladder, only his heels hit the rungs, which is how he sprained his ankle."

Rating: 5 stars.

Overall

     I love this book. I love Isola Pribby with everything and I adore her parrot. Dawsey Adams has taken up residence in my heart and Juliet Ashton will forever be one of my literary role-models. I want Amelia as a grandmother, or maybe just a good friend.

     I want to be a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

     After reading this, I get the same feeling I remember having after finishing the Anne of Green Gables books. I wanted to live in Avonlea more than anything, and I wanted red hair, and I wanted a Gilbert Blythe. Finishing this felt like walking through the doors and into the brisk air conditioning of the Bell Center Lobby this past summer.

     It felt like Home.

Characters

     This isn’t a plot driven book at all, although there was a tiny plot that I was rooting for and seriously flopped back on my bed and laughed when everything tied up with it. No spoilers here though. ;)

     Back to what I was saying. This is not a plot book; it’s a character one. You don’t pick up Potato Peelers to read about the German Occupation of Guernsey or an author’s struggle to find a good plot for her books in 1946, you do it to hear Juliet become pen pals with the members of the Society. To listen to Isola Pribby’s hilarious stories, to hear Dawsey talk about Charles Lamb.

     You read for the characters, and they are amazing. They’re so real, it almost feels like this is a collection of letters from 1946, not a story. I picked this up and was taken to Guernsey even when Juliet wasn’t there yet. I was, for a few hours, a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it was amazing.

     There’s one character I haven’t talked about yet, and that I don’t want to say much about because I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone. But her name is Elizabeth, and she is one of my favorite characters in any book I’ve read.

Buy it?

     Yes.

      Oh, yes. If I didn’t already have a wonderfully beat up copy from Mariesa, I would order a hardcover from Amazon right now.

     And, finally, this book is so quotable. I think I spy some new canvases on my walls in the future. ;)

*I only just looked up the genre epistolary, because I saw it on Goodreads and thought it looked good. ;) It's a book of letters, in case you couldn't tell from its being put with Potato Peelers.