Do you love going to the library? Do you find how important libraries are and how can a librarian positively influence their society? Libraries are the powerhouse of knowledge, and librarians connect people to information. So the book which I am reviewing this time, The Giver of stars by Jojo Moyes, has a major theme as the book as the knowledge of power, Also combines the issue of access to literature, history, and the lives of five women who work at the local library, deliver knowledge to people and a lot more.
The Givers of Stars by Jojo Moyes takes place in the US, during the Depression-era in Kentucky. It follows the adventurous story of five remarkable women with their memorable journey. This group of women begins a traveling library that delivers books to the rural area hills of Kentucky on horseback.
The book not only directs you about sharing the love of books with others but discusses the connection between knowledge, accessibility, and improvement. Talk over the several relationships between the women and men in their lives. You will be able to see the settings in rural Kentucky in the 1930s. It’s a story of female friendships and women supporting other women, which you can’t find too often in our modern world.
Follow this ride with me if you want to dig more into the novel to calm your curiosity.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes | Book Review
About the Author
Jojo Moyes
Jojo Moyes is a romance novelist and screenwriter known professionally as Jojo Moyes. She was born on 4 August 1969 in Maidstone, Kent, England, and lives in Essex, England. Jojo Moyes is an English journalist and completed her undergraduate degree from the Royal Holloway University of London. She became a full-time novelist in 2002 when her first book was published. Jojo Moyes won the Romantic Novelist Association Romantic Novel of the year award in 2004, and again in 2011, she is one of the few to receive this award twice. The Giver of stars was her fifteenth book published by Pamela Dorman Books in 2019.
How did she do research work for the book? She shared her experiences in one of her interviews. Jojo Moyes traveled three times to Kentucky for research work and stayed in a tiny cabin in the mountains of Kentucky. The cabin was located on seven miles of dirt track and had no doors with a toilet behind a curtain. It’s not always easy to make a good piece of writing. It depends on your dedication and hard work for something.
Overview | The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The Giver of Stars is a historical fictional novel by Jojo Moyes published on 3 October 2019. The book was shortlisted for the 2020 fiction book of the year in the British book awards. The Giver of Stars spent 33 weeks on the New York Times bestselling list. Received the USA today’s top 100 books to read and was a hello sunshine book club pick.
Is the book based on a true story? The Giver of Stars is based on a real-life story of packhorse librarians. During the Depression-era female librarians packed their saddlebags full of books and rode by horseback to some of the most isolated communities in eastern Kentucky.
What’s the inspiration behind this book? Jojo Moyes discovered the story of the packhorse librarians of Kentucky in a Smithsonian magazine with a series of pictures of women on horseback. She was so inspired by these women, as they were so determined even against the uneven countryside. Jojo Moyes incredible intrust takes her to write about them, but she also wanted to be one of them.
The main character Alice Wright Van Cleve, is the main character, even though it follows the story of Beth, Izzy, and Margery, who ends up being Alice’s best friend. The story goes around Alice and Marjorie and their friendship and all these women. Also shows you what these women had done to deliver books in the hills of Kentucky.
Summary of the Book The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The story starts in the 1930s. Alice Wright decided to move from England after marrying a handsome American named Bennett Van Cleave, son of the local mill owner. She landed in a small Kentucky town in the middle of the great depression, living under the same roof with her dominating father-in-law. But her life in America is not as good as she once had imagined.
When an opportunity arises in the fall of 1837 in Baileyville, Kentucky, they are looking for a team of women to join a new traveling library, taking library books on horseback to mountains. Despite what her husband says and her father-in-law with total disapproval, Alice immediately with full enthusiasm joins the horseback libraries, an actual program that Eleanor Roosevelt promoted.
Alice needs escapes from her overbearing father in law that she always wants. Up to when she meets Margery O hare, a clever and self-standing woman, daughter of a notorious felon, never wants to depend on men for their permission for doing anything in her life. Margot’s mission is to spread the magic of books and read to the poor in the hills of rural Kentucky.
The other three women, including Alice, joined Margot’s mission, known as the Parkhouse librarian of Kentucky. Then the story shows you how these courageous women ride out each day to take books to those who need them the most. How they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape simultaneously is beautiful.
They faced many problems but never set off their jobs, wholeheartedly bringing books to people who never had any with the fact of changing their lives with full knowledge. You will see the close relationship among these women who ride. You will find what happened to these women and the men they love with an unforgettable drama of passion, dedication, humanity, and justice, how these brave women refused to be startled by men or tradition.
What to Take away From the Book?
The book focuses on the power of friendship and the human desire for life. The novel is beautifully written with a beautiful description of nature and the mountains in Kentucky throughout the entire novel. The book is mostly about Alice and Margot about the challenge they face as women in Kentucky. You will explore the evolution of their personality and the evolution of the friendship they are building.
This book is relatable as it deals with women’s empowerment. The novel also touches on the growing romance that encourages you to guess how things work out. The novel has moving narration that explores many powerful themes like racism, poverty, prejudice against women, dedication for passion, books as a house of knowledge, and finding love in most unexpected places.
My Thoughts on The Book | The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The book has an incredibly encouraging story that will uplift you and give you the sense of a self-independent person who personally loves the story of how these women provide poor people with an opportunity to gain knowledge. Knowledge is one thing by which one can feel confident in any aspect of their life. The story shows how men dominate these women but prove that every woman has a full right to make her life as she wants.
Rating for the Book The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The book The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes earned 4.5 stars out of 5 Stars from me.
Conclusion & Recommendation | The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The story is a valuable message to the power of books and literature as to how books can bring us together and deliver us the importance of books in our life. I would highly recommend this novel to all book lovers who are well known because books influence our personality in real life. ” Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
Also checkout the links of our exciting articles below:
