What saved me in my teen years was a mobile library housed in a bus. “The Giver of Stars” offers the fascinating tale of an even older mobile library, a horseback service run by women in rural Kentucky in the late 30s, so of course I was hooked. Jo Jo Moyes is a capable stylist, perhaps a little prone to clichés in characterisation and dialogue, but her steady plot, involving as it does marital woes, the library service’s battles against conservative men, and even a death, drew me in. Englishwoman Alice Wright and firebrand Margery O’Hare emerge as memorable. Descriptions of the library’s routes in all seasons bristle with life. An enjoyable read, although the ending rounded matters up too cleanly for my twisted likings.
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