Books 57-59
Once again I have fallen miserably behind on updating. Here is part one of my valiant effort to catch up:

#57 The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (Fiction)
In 1959, Florence opens a bookshop in a town that doesn’t want a bookshop. I started this book a few months ago but never got past the first 10 pages. I picked it up again and read it in one sitting. It’s not very action packed, but is an enthralling portrait of a small town and the small, almost passive evils that motivate and destroy people.
It’s a very “quiet” sort of book. I thought the ending was perfect, though some might not enjoy it (in reviews I’ve read, some have expressed dismay).
Rating: 4 / 5

#58 The Luxe by Anna Godberson (YA Historical Fiction)
Not bad. Entertaining way to pass a few hours, which is all I really expected from this. I probably won’t read the rest of the series. It was like Gossip Girl transported to the late 1800s.
Rating: 3.5 / 5

#59 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows (Historical Fiction; Epistolary)
I will admit that the title alone is what drew me in. It’s fun to say. It’s richly alliterative. The story told in letters about the effects of WWII on the island of Guernsey, however, is what kept me reading until the very end.
This is an utterly charming, delightful book. Even with small plot problems and predictability, I was able to overlook flaws that normally sour my reading experience. Once finished, it took me a few days to pick up another book for I was so loathe to leave this book’s world. I can’t say that about many books. Personal best book of the year contender
Rating: 5 / 5