If you’re interested in pack horse librarians (and with the added feature of Kentucky’s “blue people”), I’d recommend The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.The Giver of Stars is a gorgeously-written book set in Kentucky in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Overall, I’d rate “The Giver of Stars” just okay. I don’t charge that same workforce four times the fair amount for groceries and sack them if they try to buy food anywhere but the company store …” and on and on and on (I know, YOU GO GIRL, right? Sigh … ). I might not spend enough time in church, granted, but I actually do minister to the poor and sick and needy … I don’t call in men with machine-guns from across state lines to threaten my own workforce. When actually I think I may have been the godliest one in the Van Cleve household. There’s the predictable moment (in this book, it occurred on page 219), when our normally quiet heroine Alice burst forth with a little impromptu “woke” manifesto that would do Ashley Judd or Meghan Markle proud (of course, it was prompted by the village pastor, another 100% BAD character): “Is that godly behavior, Pastor? Because I’m listening really hard and all I’m hearing is everyone telling me what I’m apparently doing wrong. On the other hand, the romantic interests of two of the pack horse librarians, while also being men living in rural Kentucky in the 1930s, are totally good. For instance, coal mine owner father-in-law is BAD, with apparently no redeeming qualities. I rolled my eyes a bit at the stereotyping in it - I get tired of books where characters all seem to be either all good or all bad.

The book itself is well-written and moves at a decent pace. The book focuses on the relationships that form among the five librarians. She doesn’t have much to do until she gets involved as a pack horse librarian. On to the book itself: Alice comes over from England to live with her new Kentucky husband and his father, who owns a coal mine. It seems strange that such a big-name author would choose to write a book bound to cause controversy. Did its author indeed plagiarize the lesser-known author of “Troublesome”? After reading both, I do think that “Giver of Stars” has too many similarities to be a coincidence. “Giver of Stars” is now mired in controversy. You might think it coincidental that two books about such an obscure topic would come out in quick succession, and the author of “Book Woman” (the first to be published) did as well. That book, too, is about 1930s Kentucky pack horse librarians. A few months ago, I read a very similar book with the book club: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Now if this sounds a little familiar to you regulars, it should. It tells the story of Alice and 4 other pack horse librarians in 1930s Kentucky.

“The Giver of Stars” was my April read for the book club I’m in.

Review the giver of stars