This is probably the book that most of my Goodreads friends have read that I haven't -- until now. I thought it was just as charming as everyone said, and it makes me glad I still write some letters (though they aren't as good as these ones). After reading this, I have a strange desire to re-read L.M. Montgomery's books. I don't know if it was the island descriptions, the quirky characters, or both, that put me in mind of her writing. 
 Favorite quotes: 
 "I wish I'd known those words on the day I watched those German troops land, plane-load after plane-load of them -- and come off the ships down in the harbor! All I could think of was damn them, damn them, damn them, over and over. If I could have thought the words, 'the bright day is done and we are for the dark,' I'd have been consoled somehow and ready to go out and contend with the circumstance -- instead of my heart sinking to my shoes." 
 "Have you ever noticed that when your mind is awakened or drawn to someone new, that person's name suddenly pops up everywhere you go? My friend Sophie calls it coincidence, adn Mr. Simpless, my parson friend, calls it Grace. He thinks that if one cares deeply about someone or something new, one throws a kind of energy out into the world, and "fruitfulness" is drawn in." 
 "She is a woman too good for daily wear." 
 "Isola exaggerates, but only enough to enjoy herself." 
 "When I got up this morning, the sea was full of sun pennies." 
 "Isola doesn't approve of small talk and believes in breaking the ice by stomping on it." 
 "How could I ever have considered marrying him? One year as his wife, and I'd have become one of those abject, quaking women who look at their husbands when someone asks them a question. I've always despised that type, but I see how it happens now." 
 "Not being silent myself, I am wildly curious about people who are." 
 From the Acknowledgements: 
 "Besides believing in my writing, they insisted that I actually sit down at the computer and type, and it was these twin forces at my back that propelled the book into existence." 
 "I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art -- be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music -- enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised." 
 From the Afterword: 
 "The wonderful thing about books -- and the thing that made them such a refuge for the islanders during the occupation -- is that they take us out of our time and place and understanding, and transport us not just into the world of the story, but into the world of our fellow readers, who have stories of their own." 
 "In what ways does fiction provide a means for more fully understanding a non-fiction truth?"