I finished Guernsey!

Ta-da!

It's 11:45 on Monday night and I just pried The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society out of my hands.  I finished it and then couldn't bring myself to set the book down.  I am always fascinated by the different effects each new book has on me.  I felt no need for additional closure with this one, but for whatever reason, I felt like I could soak more of the book through the skin on my hands if I just kept holding it.

The book itself (the physical paper of the book) was a gift from my parents to Meme on her last birthday.  I don't know if she ever read it, but I feel like she has read it now, through me.  We won't get into the inherent spookiness of that last sentence, but just to say that I don't mean it the way it sounds.  After she died, my cousins and I agreed to let her live on in and through us, her grandchildren.  I believe she can see our joy in life and in the things that we love most--the qualities and interests we possess from being hers.  I stared at the words inside the front cover from Mama to her Mama on her 81st birthday.  Mama gave me the book after Meme died, and it feels like more than just a good book, but something I was meant to read.  Between adoring the book with a part of my heart that I didn't realize I had, and the book having belonged to Meme, I guess I understand why I had a hard time setting it down.

Normally, I feel so accomplished and free after finishing a book that I immediately snap it shut and set it down in my book cubby in my bedside table, but not with this one.  The only reason I was able to set it down was because I wanted to document my findings in my blog--my blog that I haven't written in in a few days due to a massive painting project going on in my house that requires all of my waking/non-working/non-reading attention.

I've had one other book that I thought I was going to hold forever after I finished it, and it was The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I didn't hang onto it feeling satisfied and unwilling to release myself from that feeling in the same way as the GL&PPPS made me feel.  I clung to The Help because I felt changed, heartbroken, enlightened, moved, and inspired after reading it.

On the last page of the GL&PPPS, there was a quote by Juliet that I thought was noteworthy:

"This obsession with dignity can ruin your life if you let it."

Kind of simple, but very profound.  If only making note of a quote would actually be enough to take heed of its advice.  Maybe it can.