Diane says: This is my favorite book of 2008/ 2009.  It is a delightful story of love in a time of hardship.  The Island of Guernsey was occupied by German soldiers for about five years and the inhabitants faced many trials.   The main character, who we never met, showed love of all kinds as she put herself in harm's way to help others.   Love is also blossoming in the current-day story of a writer who falls in love with the inhabitants of the island and their story.  This epistolary novel is such a delight and an uplifting look at life- even during the most trying of times.  Mary Ann Shaffer, a librarian and bookseller, has recently died.   She did get a chance to collaborate with her niece, Annie Barrows, to finish this book that shows the power of books to nourish people even in dark periods.

And if you liked this one, I might suggest 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.  It is also written in an epistolary form (in letters.)   A writer was unhappy because she couldn't find some obscure classics and British literature titles in New York so she wrote to an antiquarian bookseller located in London.  Over the course of twenty years the author and the bookstore employees corresponded and each took on a great importance in the lives of the others. 

With an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts and food parcels to compensate for post-World War II food shortages, the correspondents became close friends who would never meet.  It is a delightful story!

Diane says: I never thought I would be drawn to read a book about a 24-year old pierced and tattooed genius hacker but this one led me on a merry chase around Sweden. Maybe the locale was the draw for me but the mystery quickly captured my attention. This book, part family saga, part love story, part financial intrigue, shows the dark and seedy side of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. It is a sensation in Europe and is likely to be one here too.

Caroline says: This mystery is technically the sequel to French’s debut, In the Woods, but it can definitely be read as a stand-alone novel. Detective Cassie Maddox is pulled into a new case with an uncanny twist – the murdered girl looks exactly like her, and was living under an alias that Cassie created years earlier. To solve the crime, Cassie must go undercover, but is she putting herself in danger by pretending to be the murdered girl?

Andy says:  "A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story... because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price..."
 
David Martin is a writer of pulp fiction, unlucky in love and life, who accepts a commission from a mysterious patron. As he progresses with the writing, Martin's life improves dramatically -- until he begins to question just who it is he's working for.

Set in Barcelona in the 1920's, this novel is a whirlwind of gothic intrigue, a captivating page-turner in the style of Anne Rice's best work, written in flowing, lyric prose. It is the kind of story you fall into, in turns genuinely frightening and sweetly sentimental. I loved every word of it.

Diane says:  I didn't like this one as much as Shadow of the Wind but we do revisit the Cemetery of Lost Books again in this dark and brooding novel.  It is a Faustian story that I did enjoy.  
 

Linda says: Shanghai on the cusp of World War II is the exotic cosmopolitan backdrop where we meet Pearl and May. When their glamorous existence crumbles, they are forced to move out into a dangerous world where the suffer great hardship but also find happiness and a sense of purpose in a new land. The story of these remarkable sisters
is one that will stay with you long after the final page.

Linda says: The ghost of Geoffry Chaucer inhabits the pages of this novel. An earthquake traps nine people in the basement of the Indian Consulate. As time passes their situation deteriorates and fear and anger causes a violent episode. A young woman who had been reading Chaucer before the disaster suggest that each one there tell the group a story from their life. The result is a compelling novel of humans at their best and their worst. This is makes for a book groups to will be eager to discuss.