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The Giver of Stars


Genre: Historical Fiction / Contemporary


Book Type: Audio


Author: Jojo Moyes


Narrator: Julia Whelan


Pages / Length: 400 pages / 13 hours and 52 minutes


Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (October 8, 2019) / Penguin Audio


Book Description:

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve, hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. 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.


The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.


What happens to them--and to the men they love--becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity, and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.


Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic--a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond.


Thoughts: This wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how this book left me feeling. It's amazing the power a book can hold, and I loved the power reading brings. This book was so heartwarming and strong. My heart broke for Alice as she tried to escape for a better life, but loved how she found her strength through a sisterhood of delivering books. I loved the perseverance and friendship found within this book.


Favorite Quotes:

✨ There is always a way out of a situation. Might be ugly. Might leave you feeling like the earth has gone and shifted under your feet. But you are never trapped, Alice. You hear me? There is always a way around.


✨ Because something else has changed too, something fundamental. Alice had discovered how, for a woman at least, it was much easier to feel anger on behalf of someone you cared about, to access that cold burn, to want to make someone suffer if they had hurt somone you loved.


Alice, it turned out, was no longer afraid.


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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