"Gentlemen: Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialize in out-of-print books."

Recently, in all of the talk about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, another book was mentioned that I have wanted to read and so I picked it up at the library. That book was 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. This is a collection of letters between New Yorker Hanff and the employees of the Marks and Co. bookstore in London, especially with one Frank Doel. For twenty years, Hanff orders old and rare books from London and becomes friends with Doel, his co-workers and his family. She sends them care-packages of meat and eggs when they are suffering through rations after WWII. She sends friends to visit the bookstore when they travel abroad. But unfortunately Hanff is never able to save enough money to take her own trip to England to meet these friends.

This is a very short book, only 97 pages, but it is so incredibly sweet and funny that it is worth the time reading it. It gives insight into some everyday lives that we otherwise would never know about. I highly suggest reading this book if you haven't yet.

Wanting to find the England that I dream of,
K


Buy 84, Charing Cross Road on Amazon or find it at your local library.