I took a look at my bookshelf a few weeks ago, cluttered with comic books, sci-fi and fantasy novels, art books and martial arts instruction guides (the last being my husband's). I realized this was an opportune moment to step outside of my usual fare of books.

So I thought, "What book would maybe my parents like to read?"

I picked up "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society."

My mom and dad had already read it and loved it, so I worried that I would not be able to connect with this book.

My world of fast-paced action, pop culture and cartoonish humor would surely find concentrating on this story a chore, as I (sad to say) experienced with similar historical dramas I had to slog through in high school and college.

I was delighted to find this book transcends generations, and it will finally give my mom and me something in common to discuss, rather than my boring her with trivia about science fiction movies.

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" follows a fictional story of the real-life drama that occurred in Great Britain during the aftermath of World War II.

A successful English writer named Juliet tries to find the subject for her next novel. One day a stranger writes her a letter, setting in motion what will become a turning point in Juliet's life.

Responding to this stranger, she soon receives letters from several people who live on the island of Guernsey, all who are members of the captivating collective, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Through this cast of characters, we share in their experiences of the trials and hardships during the German occupation and how one person can change the course of many people's lives.

The story unfolds as a series of letters exchanged between the characters, trading off between the daily events happening in "present day" 1946 and the tales based on true events that happened in occupied Guernsey and concentration camps in Europe during the war.

Juliet is endearing and witty; her journey begins with her as a reclusive writer whose only outings involve tea gatherings and news conferences,.

As she opens her eyes and heart to the people of Guernsey, she discovers more about herself and becomes more complete among the people she grows to love.

The people of Guernsey all have distinctive personalities, but are all united through common loves and friendships. The most fascinating characters are some who we unfortunately do not get to meet - at least not through a first-person account.

If there is anything most symbolic about how this novel connects various generations, it is that this book was a collaboration between aunt (Shaffer) and niece (Barrows).

Both were able to learn more and share more of their experiences with each other, as a pair of storytellers sharing the tale of another, gaining a wider perspective of the world through an island of storytellers.

Through humor, sadness, comfort, pain, love and hate, Shaffer and Barrow's novel embraces the storyteller within everyone.

Alison Reeger Cook is a Gainesville resident whose Off the Shelves book review runs every other week in Sunday Life. Know of a good book to review? E-mail her to tell her about it.