This book was given to me by my mother-in-law over a year ago and it has been collecting dust on my shelf ever since. I was talking to her a few weeks ago and she mentioned the book, so I dusted it off to give it a try.

The Giver of Stars is set in 1930's Kentucky. I really like the setting, and the traveling librarians on horseback are super interesting. The romances are pretty sweet, too. I was worried that this book would have a sad ending, but it doesn't.

I didn't love some of the conflict towards the end and thought the end was rushed, but overall it was a great read.

I read and listened to this book at different times. The narrator for the audiobook does a great job. ( )

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: COPYRIGHT: 10/8/2019; PUBLISHER: Pamela Dorman Books - 1st Edition; ISBN: 978-0399562488; PAGES: 400; Unabridged.)
(Available as Digital)
*This edition-Audio: COPYRIGHT: 10/8/2019; ISBN: 9780525530220; PUBLISHER: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; DURATION: 13:59:15; PARTS: 14; Unabridged; FILE SIZE: 399544 KB
Film or tv: Movie rights purchased by Universal Pictures—production still in progress.

SERIES:
No

MAJOR CHARACTERS:
Alice Wright – Young British lady
Bennett Van Cleve
Jeff Van Cleve
Margery
Fred
Sven
Izzie Brady
Mrs. Brady
Sophie
Beth
Kathleen

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it: There is a branch of the San Bernardino Library in Trona, California that Don and I have been watching for signs of life. It closed during the pandemic, but there’d also been a large earthquake that sent a large number of residents permanently packing. Apparently, it’s been open for a while now, but Don and I only just noticed a car out front this past Saturday when we were about to drive by. The last time I got a San Bernardino library card was when we first got the Running Springs, California house some 15 years ago and I figured it had expired. I was so thrilled to have a new card by the time we were leaving that I just had to try it out on Overdrive. Hmmm. Sadness. Only 14 days for a loan? My other libraries all give me 21. Oh well. I hunted for something currently available and this is what I found. I was familiar with JoJo from “Me Before You”, so tried it.

Being a librarian, I love this book! But even if I wasn’t, the story has great merit beyond that.
Because this book portrays folks with no experience of libraries until volunteering to carry books on horseback through the brambles and backwoods of 1937 Appalachia as Librarians, I feel obligated to mention that for the most part, beginning in 1928 it had been determined that people required a Masters degree in librarianship (library and information science is how we refer to it today) to bare the title “Librarian”, but it’s quite possible that the term was employed loosely in the locations and days (1935-1943) of the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Pack Horse Library Project. According to Wikipedia, it was 1876 when Melvil Dewey and some other scholar-librarians of the day founded the American Library Association, providing national recognition to the field. And it was Dewey who founded the first library school, The School of Library Economy, in 1887. Library education programs then evolved from a 3-month course followed by two years of internship, to Bachelor Degree programs provided by many colleges, then finally, as previously mentioned, to Masters programs.
As a boring stickler to facts, I admit to one other objection that was an even smaller detail-and adhering to it, would probably have detracted from the mood of the story. I actually can’t mention here without spoiling things for anyone who hasn’t yet read the story, so I’ll keep it to myself.

AUTHOR:
Pauline Sara Jo (Jojo) Moyes: “(born 4 August 1969), known professionally as Jojo Moyes, is an English journalist and, since 2002, a romance novelist and screenwriter. She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association and her works have been translated into twenty-eight languages.[1]” __Wikipedia

NARRATOR:
Julia May Whelan: "(born May 8, 1984) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her role as Grace Manning on the television family drama series Once and Again (1999–2002), and her co-starring role in the 2002 Lifetime Television movie The Secret Life of Zoey. A noted child actor, Whelan first appeared on screen at the age of 11, and continued to take television roles until her matriculation into Middlebury College in 2004; Whelan graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury in 2008 after spending the 2006–2007 academic year as a visiting student at Lincoln College, Oxford.[1][2] Whelan returned to film acting in November 2008 with a role in the fantasy thriller Fading of the Cries." __ Wikipedia
Julia is an exceptional narrator.

GENRE:
Literature; Fiction; Romance; Historical Fiction

LOCATIONS:
Kentucky

TIME FRAME:
1937

SUBJECTS:
Depression; Elenore Roosevelt; The New Deal; WPA; Pack Horse Library Project; Race relations; library; books; incarceration; childbirth; friends; loyalty;

DEDICATION:
"To Barbara Napier,
Who gave me stars when I needed them.
And to librarians everywhere."

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
Excerpt From Chapter One:
“If Alice felt a vague dissatisfaction with the way Mr. Van Cleve stuck to them like a limpet, she smothered it, doing her best to be the delightful version of herself that the two men seemed to expect. On the liner between Southampton and New York she and Bennett at least managed to stroll the decks alone in the hours after supper while his father was working on his business papers or talking to the elders at the captain’s table. Bennett’s strong arm would pull her close and she would hold up her left hand with its shiny new gold band, and wonder at the fact that she, Alice, was a married woman. And when they were back in Kentucky, she told herself, she would be properly married, as the three of them would no longer have to share a cabin, curtained off as it was.”

RATING:
5 stars.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
5-28-2022 to 6-7-2022 ( )

This was a Book of the Month selection. I recommended this for my book club.
Not my favorite. I was hoping that this book, about women who provided books to poor Appalachian families during the depression, would explore the impact that books would have on readers.
It was more of a romance novel than historical fiction. While the characters are presented as early feminist pioneers, this is not how the story plays out. It was very disappointing!
Very predictable. 2.5 stars, generously rounded up. ( )

Well written, enjoyable read. ( )

Historical fiction based on the true story of the Pack Horse Library initiative — a Works Progress Administration project promoted by Eleanor Roosevelt project that ran during the ‘30s and ‘40s and sent an army of women out on mules and horses to deliver books in the remote, rural areas of the country. In this story, the characters travel into the remote Eastern Kentucky mountains to deliver books, recipes, magazines and a bit of conversation to the most isolated mountain residents. Interesting characters, entanglements, a greedy mine owner, a murder trial, and the court of public opinion are woven into this tale. I found the writing a little awkward in spots, but overall enjoyed it. ( )