When I was in elementary school, my mother could always tell who I was friends with because I acted just like them at home. One phrase! One facial expression! would reveal my companions – for better or worse. Like most children, I was part-chameleon. Someone funny helped me be funnier. Someone brilliant helped me be more brilliant. Someone athletic pushed me to new heights. Someone social brought out the party in me. I suppose we all have enjoyed each other’s strengths as inspiration for our own. At some point, as we decide what works and what doesn’t work; who has a healthy influence and who doesn’t, we grow out of this to some extent. But we never lose our inner-chameleon completely.
Books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, stir up my old chameleon tendencies, and I love every moment because I get to sound just like them when I write my own little mementos in my personal journal. The voice(s) of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are personal, endearing, and real: worth every moment of my time. I’m a better thinker, friend, and historian because of them. Oh, I’m not going to tell you what it’s about, but I will echo Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote the apropos endorsement: “Treat yourself to this book, please – I can’t recommend it highly enough.” Your heart will be filled with compassion and vigor — just what it’s been waiting for.
