427. The Giver of Stars
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Recommended by: Aileen Schwab, Katy Fasset
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
400 pages, published October 8, 2019
Reading Format: Audio Book
Summary
Set in the Depression, The Giver of Stars is the story of five women who become the Packhorse Librarians, delivering library books to the residents of rural Kentucky and changing lives (their own and others) in the process. The main character is Alice Wright, a beautiful young British woman who marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her provincial English life. Alice is befriended by Margery, a rugged, self-sufficient woman who advises Alice who advises Alice that “there is always a way out of a situation” when Alice’s marriage becomes interminable. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.
Quotes
“There is always a way out of a situation. Might be ugly. Might leave you feeling like the earth had gone and shifted under your feet. But there is always a way around.”
“She just wasn’t sure she had yet been to the place she was homesick for.”
“That some things are a gift, even if you don’t get to keep them.”
“You know the worst thing about a man hitting you?” Margery said finally. “Ain’t the hurt. It’s that in that instant you realize the truth of what it is to be a woman. That it doesn’t matter how smart you are, how much better at arguing, how much better than them period. It’s when you realize they can always shut you up with a fist. Just like that.” She mulled over it for a Monet, then straightened up , and flashed Alice a tight smile. “Course, you know that only happens till you learn to hit back harder.”
“There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham. • ANNA SEWELL, Black Beauty”
“Time flew. And each ended the night full and happy with the rare glow that comes from knowing your very being has been understood by somebody else. And that there might just be someone out there, who will only ever see the best in you.”
“he makes my heart flutter like a clean sheet on a long line.”
“And there followed a strange, elongated couple of minutes. The kind in which two people know they have to part, and don’t want to.And while neither can acknowledge it, each believes the other feels it too.”
“She had earned every one of her bruises and blisters, had built a new Alice over the frame of one with whom she had never felt entirely comfortable.”
My Take
I really enjoyed The Giver of Stars, another great book by Jojo Moyes. Previous books by Moyes, a talented and entertaining writer, that I have read on my Quest include After You, One Plus On, The Girl You Left Behind, Silver Bay, Still Me and Paris for One. A foray into historical fiction, The Giver of Stars is one of Moyes’ best books. The characters are interesting, well detailed and come to life, especially in the audio version that I listened to, and the plot definitely holds your interest. Highly recommended.
