The Giver of Stars

 

Kendall chose the book for our Girls' One-Book-A-Year Book Club for 2024. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes was published in 2019 so it's been around for a few years. I had seen it many times but for some reason, I had never looked into what the book was about. I never would have guessed.

Jojo Moyes generally writes in the romance genre and this book did have some romance. It was about more than those relationships though. The book was based on the true story of the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. These brave women rode on horseback to deliver books to people in the mountains who would otherwise never have access to books. Sometimes the women would stay awhile and read to illiterate people. Packhorse Librarians were the Great Depression's Bookmobiles.

In 1930 up to 31 percent of people in eastern Kentucky could not read. The Packhorse Libary program was initiated under the New Deal's Work Program Administration (WPA). Carriers rode out at least twice a month, with each route covering 100-120 miles (Smithsonian).

The Giver of Stars was a combination of romance and historical fiction. All of us enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it. Under my rating system, I would give it a 4. 

The best part of reading the book was our dinner out for the book discussion! We left the kids (except Ezra) with the guys and went to 17 River Grille in Chagrin Falls on Friday night. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time. 

Because of construction and limited parking in the town we parked right in front of the Popcorn Shop. The shop was open after dinner so we went in and bought ice cream, popcorn, and Daisy Cake cake pops to take home.

The guys did a good job feeding the crew Chipotle for dinner, but their supervision skills need improvement. Dean and Marina had a ball upstairs by themselves. Apparently, they had a fashion show trying on clothes from my closet. After that, they pretended to have a sleepover inside the camping closet using my extra blankets and pillows. I still haven't figured out why the toilet paper and all the Q-tips were missing from the guest bathroom. Only Gavin and Ezra are innocent.