June 2022 Book - Wed., the 8th @ 7PM
The Giver of Stars
By: Jojo Moyes
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.
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Discussion Questions:
- Did the characters and sense of place feel authentic to you?
- Have you ever moved to a distinctly different location? What was that transition like? How did you adapt?
- Literacy and censorship are significant issues in The Giver of Stars, issues that affect the women of the novel very differently from the men. What are your thoughts around that?
- Did you ever wish a character had taken action when she hadn’t? If so, when, and what could she have done different?