The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

 

Sometimes you just have to give a book a few tries.  I borrowed this one last year - read two pages and my mind kept wandering.  I tried again this year and the same thing happened.  Then my mom told me that she'd read and enjoyed it.  So, I told myself I had to stick with it...and then by page three, I couldn't put it down!  I don't know what it was about those first two pages...

Set in the Kentucky mountains during the depression, this is a book about strong women making things happen even when many of those around them are physically holding them down.  Eager to escape her British home, Alice marries a handsome American and returns to his small hometown where she finds the honeymoon is quickly over.  Looking to escape yet another home situation, Alice signed up to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt's new traveling library.  The effort has its opponents in town - those who feel it is a frivolous waste of time, and that the only book anyone should be reading is the Bible.  But, Alice finds friends among the other women involved in the endeavor, and together the support each other through the difficulties of being women in this time.  There were a lot of moments of dread in this book, but mostly it was a quick read and a compelling story.  I found the bravery of these women incredible - and their willingness to just keep going despite having these truly hard lives with little recognition or reward.  Highly recommend reading this one curled up by the fire on a rainy winter evening.