Review 92: The Giver of Stars

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable book about the pack-horse librarians in Kentucky during the depression era. Having read earlier this year another book on a similar topic I had a little concern that the two would be similar. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson focus was upon one of the librarians and dealing with poverty and racism towards the librarian as a blue person.

This book, in contrast, was more about the beginning of the library and all of the women librarians working in it, particularly a British woman, Alice, and the main organizer, Margery. Alice is recently married to the son of the town’s mine owner and finds herself in complete contrast with her father in law. The book is about the library, and more so about the women running it and how much they change and learn about themselves as being the bringer of books to the rural community.

This book didn’t have the rural, and poverty feel to it as one may expect. It felt more like town and middle class women. Even though Margery was living a distance away, it was still easy walking distance.

This is the first book I've read by Moyes, so I didn't know what to expect from her writing. It seems her books are generally more romance related, which isn’t the type of books I tend towards. Since that is her writing tendency it makes sense that this book is more concerned with relationships than the social structures.


I listened to the audiobook and found the narration was superb and a great way to read this book.