"The flickering flame of life required not only bodily nourishment (candy from vending machines), but spiritual ailment, that is, books. Mary Ann could no more endure a day without reading than she could grow feathers, so she helped herself to the offerings at the Guernsey airport bookstore."

- in the Afterward by Annie Barrows about Mary Ann Shaffer- writer of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.