The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes - A Story of Love, Friendship and Horses in the Kentucky Mountains

 

The Times says The Giver of Stars is Jojo Moyes' 'best novel yet', and I have to agree.

It is 1937, and Alice, 'kept at home' because of her unseemly behaviour, is swept off her feet by Bennett, a gorgeous, rich American whom she marries to escape the tedium of the English Home Counties. But, when she arrives in Baileyville, Kentucky, she finds that she has to live with Bennett and his boorish father, Geoffrey Van Cleeve, which means that the restrictions on her life are just as bad.

The WPA (Works Progress Association) packhorse library was set up by Eleanor Roosevelt to help educate the minds of the mountain people. Here in Baileyville, they mainly work in the Hoffman coal mine, under the the control of Bennett's father, in very poor conditions. So when Mrs Brady invites Alice to join the packhorse library, she sees it as an opportunity not only to to escape, once again, but also to help these people, and although her horseback experience only amounts to riding round her grandma's Sussex estate, she eventually enjoys the treks up the mountain and gets to know the people there.

Margery O'Hare, one of the packhorse librarians, is threatened on her round one cold December day by Clem McCullough whose family has had a feud with the O'Hares going back decades. However, the people of Baileyville, Kentucky, are used to the constant fighting and many of them are pleased to see Margery and share the library books. 

These two women, drawn together by the library, form an unlikely friendship. Margery, with her wild upbringing, is fiercely independent; she doesn't want to marry Sven who is devoted to her and wants to live by her own rules, whilst Alice, independent in her own way, has found that leaving England has thrown her out of the frying pan into the fire.

The story of Alice Van Cleve, Margery O'Hare and the WPA packhorse library is so captivating that I truly felt I was out riding a dusty mule with them through the Kentucky mountains, taking books to those who needed to learn to read, or to those who needed the stimulation of a good book, and more . . . 

The title, The Giver of Stars, comes from a beautiful poem of the same name by Amy Lowell, (1874 - 1925) about joy and pleasure. This is something that Alice has yet to experience with Bennett, and something that the the local women have problems with too, until Margery begins to pass round a little blue book called, Married Love, by Dr Marie Stopes, which helps them, but enrages Geoffrey Van Cleve. Further trouble ensues when she distributes a letter urging the people to stand up against his plans to extend the mine.

It is these and other problems that bring Alice, Margery, and their friends Izzy, Beth and Sophia together, helped by Fred, the kind horse trainer who offers his barn to house the books, to fight for what they believe in and the very future of the packhorse library itself.

They make such a good team that they remind me of two other books by Jojo Moyes: The Ship of Brides where a group of women set sail from Australia after the war on an aircraft carrier to meet up with their servicemen husbands in England; and Silver Bay  where a group of people join together to prevent a tourist village development which will threaten the whale and dolphin population of their bay.

If you haven't read them, give them a try!

Finding Hope at Hillside Farm by Rachel Lucas - A Great Read for Mother's Day

What better title could you want at the moment and what better book to cheer you up?
Finding Hope on Hillside Farm by Rachael Lucas certainly fits the bill.
Ella's Aunt Bron goes off to Australia for six months, leaving her to run Hillside Farm. She enlists the help of local girl, Charlotte with her ever-changing hair colour, to help her run her equine therapy business.
One day Ella sees a strange young girl peering through a hedge at her. She finds out her name is Hope and she has come with her grandparents, Jenny and Lou, to spend six months in Llanidaeron in a rented cottage. They, along with Hope's father, Harry, are all trying to come to terms with the death of Hope's mother, Sarah, five years ago.

Eventually, Hope comes to the stables as Ella's first child client, and learning to gain confidence with the horses helps her with confidence in her own life.
Through Hope, Ella finds that she comes to terms with her own past which means that she can now make the most of her own life as well.
Rachael Lucas describes life perfectly in this Welsh village with all its wonderful characters, and I found it such a joy to read.

One Winter Morning by Isabelle Broom is her Best Novel Yet!

One Winter Morning is Isabelle Broom's best novel yet! It is in turns brilliant, fabulous, engaging, emotional, heart-rending, and beautiful.
Set around Christmas, it's not a traditional Christmas story with turkey, tinsel and mistletoe, because this December, Genie sets off to New Zealand to find her birth mother, Bonnie, but ends up finding much, much more.
It's nearly a year since her adoptive mother, Anna, died on Christmas Eve in an accident on Genie's horse, Sukie. Genie blames herself for the death of the mother she loved so much, and the horse the meant so much to her.  She's spent the last year unable to forgive herself or forget that fateful day. However, when David, her adoptive father, tells Genie that her birth mother is living in New Zealand, she just has to go.
Isabelle Broom's beautiful description of this special country makes you feel that you are really there and adds a deep dimension to the story. Also, the characters are believable and you feel that you really know them and really care how things work out for them.
Apart from New Zealand, being an important background to the novel, there are also the stables both there, and in England, where the horses add another dimension to the storytelling.
This book reminds me of the earlier ones by JoJo Moyes, and Isabelle Broom is proving to be another such accomplished writer.