The Giver of Stars

Jessica’s Epilogue #7: The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

I am a little late to the game with this book and not entirely sure why it has taken me 7 years to read this. This book was published in 2019 and was a Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction in 2019. I absolutely LOVED this book. I do not even know where to begin as I write this review. It is a 4.75 star read for me and was a quick read that kept me very engaged. I loved every word!

The Giver of Stars follows the unforgettable journey of a group of women as they navigate coordinating a traveling library within their Southern Appalachian community in Kentucky. Set in the late 1930’s, the group of women, answered the calling of Eleanor Roosevelt’s plea to provide opportunities for reading to rural and poverty-stricken areas. Their small, but mighty group, come together, becoming the USA Packhorse Library of Kentucky. It is set in a time when strong women of independence, and unconventional standards were frowned upon. This group of librarians soon find themselves not only as friends but women who provide one another with unwavering support and strength through both personal and community tragedies. Through connections, both big and small, the group seeks justice and accountability in multiple ways while sharing their love of books with others.

Alice is a lonely, newlywed from England, she is thrown into this community where she is a stranger to all but her own husband and father-in-law. She has no sense of belonging and is called to action to stifle her loneliness. She is befriended by Margery O’Hare who doesn’t have the best track record based on her family history. Their working relationship blossoms into a wonderful story of friendship. It’s this character friendship that I loved the most, especially as their own story lines unfolded, we saw their own personal growth, but what was most heartening was their unwavering support for one another. This is the aspect of friendship and sisterhood that I seek the most in my own life. We all need strong friends like this to get us through the tough times. Margery is the outspoken friend who has all the best intentions, she looks out for you, teaches you, she ‘gives it you’, straight and does not care what others think of her. She does this in a period that was least accepting to women like that. One of the strongest quotes from Margery:

“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.”

Margery had “been through it all” because of familial circumstances that were beyond her own control but she always approached things with this attitude and when she couldn’t bear the weight of her own struggles, it was her friends who picked her up and helped make her situation less ugly.

As the story unfolds, we then see this duo build a strong, tribe of women who come from all different backgrounds and circumstances. I cannot identify one character as being my favorite. The author did an excellent job of bringing the very, diverse group of ladies to life and at times, I felt like I was sitting there, just another gal in the group. Each character had to overcome their own obstacles and struggles to discover who they were or what they were meant to be but none of them had to be brave and courageous and go about their problems alone. They always had their friends or those that loved them rallying behind them.

The book itself has a few themes: resilience, independence, inclusion, and diversity. But the thing that I loved most was the backdrop and nod to community. To me, this was most engaging. The idea that books are welcomed and shared and that no matter the distance you are, words and stories within books keep us connected. Libraries are often the center of the community, you not only find books, but they offer diverse programs that give us a sense of belonging. As a rural community that stretches miles by horseback, this isn’t immediately available and poverty is a large hurdle for many to overcome, especially after the great depression, Eleanor Roosevelt’s program, with this idea of traveling librarians and meeting those where they are, gave me the ultimate sense of community. To know someone out there cares enough to travel by horseback to make those small connections time and time again, had to have given many people in similar communities with programs like this, feelings of appreciation and gratefulness.

The time period of this book was set in the 1930’s, there are daily struggles with poverty, social injustices, racism and anti-feminism and we see the pack horse librarians navigate community in both a small scale, within their own group but also a larger scale, as they deliver books to very remote locations in the mountains. They meet people where they are at, they get to know the people and form relationships. We see them band together to help their own community survive a natural disaster. I just love the sense of belonging and the message of encouragement that the book relays to seek community. We all have communities and not everything is going to be perfect. This book gives us insight into all things: the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in-between, which is still relatable to our communities today.

The strongest message that this book gave us is the power of literacy and reading. Having access to books changes who we are. Books give us knowledge, insight, a break from current world struggles, they inspire, bring emotions from joy to sadness to laughter, they are relatable, comfortable, and sometimes uncomfortable but the biggest take away of all for me… books meet us where we are. They speak differently to everyone who reads them, we connect differently to settings or characters based on our own backgrounds. We interpret messages and themes differently, and our connection to books can change when we revisit them at various stages in our lives. We store those experiences in our memories, we remember the feelings we have, the characters we love and what we learn while reading them.

I love sharing my passion of reading with others, I can read, write, talk, or listen to any conversation about books… any day of the week. The Giver of Stars, is my passion written out in word form. The packhorse librarians are our local, everyday hero. They know that books are so powerful, they deliver them to their community and then we see the community come together because of the books that are shared. One of my favorite passages from the book was in chapter 6: Margery was sharing the ‘book of facts’. 

 “It’s just facts. I’ve promised it to a women over at Miller’s Creek on my Monday route, but you can take a look over the weekend and see if there’s anything in there might help.”… “Have you read it?” “Cover to cover and more than once. And I can tell you it has brought me a good deal of joy.” She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “And not just me either.” 

Not only have I experienced this in my own circle of friends, but it also makes me giggle to know that this is happening all around the world, and it has happened hundreds of years with all sorts of books…on repeat. It was relatable because I was recently listening to an interview with Sarah J Maas (Romantasy author- she’s a real queen of this genre) and she once said something along the lines of, “we don’t talk about that, but we all know that we are reading it”. I just love this!! I love history and often times, I can get a little sentimental while thinking about history. So, when I read about this ‘facts of life’ book circulating around the community, my historical brain started thinking about how powerful some of our genres and stories have been and I wonder how many times around some of our books have been passed along. It makes me smile and I often think like this when the book I check out from the library is well-loved. It might be a little battered with crinkled pages, but I get the sense that it must be an incredibly good book, worth the read as clearly, many people before me have turned the pages.

Finally, this book inspired me to find a book community, and I hope you do too! When we read there is so much more that comes with it than just remembering the connections we make within the pages, we are meant to share these ideas and emotions. We shouldn’t be afraid to read them or talk about them. From the author’s vision, we get words, from the words we get a book. From the book, we get the opportunity to connect and share, whether through book clubs, book talks, social media pages, librarians, or friends in a circle sharing what they love. Find this community for yourself and share the book with the world!