Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes, whose novels have been number 1 best sellers in twelve countries, including America’s New York Times best-seller lists, and have been translated into forty-six languages, read a story in the Smithsonian magazine about the Packhorse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky. She quickly and easily decided her next novel would be about them. She visited Eastern Kentucky three times from 2017 until this year, rode horses along the trails that the Packhorse Librarians followed, stayed in a tiny mountain-side cabin, and talked with legions of people. “I have never enjoyed writing a book like I enjoyed this one,” she has said. For this novel she chose five women as her main characters. One an Englishwoman like herself, who marries a local man, another an African-American, one handicapped, all strong and self-reliant. The title is a tribute to the Poem, “The Giver of Stars,” by Amy Lowell (1874-1925), which can easily be viewed as a feminist love-letter. The novel deals with themes of femini