The Giver of Stars: A Novel by Jojo Moyes

The Giver of Stars: A Novel. Jojo Moyes. Penguin Publishing Group. October 2019. pb, 400 pp.; ISBN #: 9780399562488.

Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains is a gorgeous gem of nature.  However, during the Depression years, families suffered from poor mining conditions and they were hamstrung by ignorance.  However, Eleanor Roosevelt began the project of traveling libraries, and this novel is about the five women known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.  Initially, they are composed of a motley crew of women.

Meet Alice Van Cleve, an English woman who married Bennet Van Cleve so that she would escape the stifling existence of British life and wound up strangled from the worse situation she was living in, with her father-in-law cruelly stifling her husband’s romantic expression.  Then meet Margery, a single woman with a hugely independent streak, who always did the right thing and couldn’t care less what anybody else thought about it.  She was loved by a young man but wouldn’t marry him because she wanted to maintain that independent status.  Then there is a gal with a physical injury who thought she had nothing to give life but turned out to have a gorgeous voice.  And meet Sophie, an African-American woman who has all the skills of a professional librarian; nothing will stop her although the racists of the area certainly have their say to try to stifle her presence.

You will find people falling in love with fairy tales, comics, romances, adventure stories, Bible stories and even a book about romantic sex.  Little by little the rural readers are reading and passing along more books than the Packhorse Librarians can handle.  Others begin to help them. 

Two marriages will fall apart, two new marriages will eventually happen, a woman will be physically battered, a woman will be charged with murder, and a family is disgraced for their brutal treatment of miners and their families.

This is a gorgeous, lovely novel readers will love!  It covers just about every form of virtue and vice, beauty and ugliness, defeat and victory that the imagination can consider.  It’s about victory, friendship, loyalty, honesty, truth and love in the worst of circumstances!  It’s joy-full.  Highly recommended historical fiction!

The Carpet Weaver of Usak by Kathryn Gauci

The Carpet Weaver of Usak. Kathryn Gauci. Ebony Publishing. September 2018. 254 pp. ISBN#:  9780648123545.

Aspasia and Saniye, the former Greek Orthodox and the other Turkish, are two friends whose love and care for each other endures the terrible Greek-Turkish conflict between 1914 and 1919. These women live in Anatolia, a place of beauty and joy, where Greek and Turkish families celebrate frequently in the town center or meydan between the towns of Stavrodomi and Pinarbasi.

Usak is the nearby center of the carpet weaving industry.  In the early period of 1914, Greeks and Turks work together to create these masterpieces that one can virtually see in the wonderful descriptions of old classical and new styles of designing and weaving rugs.  Even the methods of creation are described as women work from home and some work from factories in hand-tying the strands that eventually become a completed rug.  During those times of work, some workers have conversations that grow and unite these women stronger by the year.  Husbands, lovers, pregnancies, family lives and death are united to the point that when the wars between Greeks and Turks begin, these women help each other give birth and survive with each other when their spouses are forced to serve for opposing sides.  The carpet weaving industry almost disappears as war becomes more dangerous to all sides!

In the beginning, even in war, soldiers on both sides do their jobs.  Many die and the sorrow is evident everywhere.  But that doesn’t stop some from rescuing those who are in danger of capture.  In 1919 the war becomes worse with the arrival of the Greeks at Smyrna.  In the meydan, the Fountain of the Sun and Moon now becomes the place where punishments, mainly death sentences, carried out. The treasured unity is shattered!

Throughout this novel, many die or suffer from prevailing grief, lack of food, loss of children and spouses, and so much more.  The author does such a good job at describing each scene that the reader is drawn into the entire account by numerous images that make one think and feel.  What stands out, beside the horrors of this war that too few people are aware of, is the ties that bind these two friends and families when distrust prevails.

This is a story that readers will not soon forget, one that celebrates love, laughter, trust and endurance as well as what denies, divides and shatters tradition! Outstanding!!!

Gilded Summers by Donna Russo

Gilded Summers. Donna Russo Martin. Creativia - Amazon Digital Services. Copyright June 2018. E-Book. 323 pp.; ASIN: B07BYTVSWJ.

Pearl is the daughter of wealthy parents in the world of the Astor and the Vanderbilt families.  Her father is kind, intelligent and artistically inclined.  Pearl’s first encounter with the art of Mary Cassatt changes Pearl’s vision of the future, inclining her to become an artist like the woman who has challenged the world of the Gilded Era.  Pearl’s mother is only interested in aspiring to be as well-loved, respected and inspired as the wealthy, surrounding neighbors who live in gilded castles filled with the finest paintings, architecture and furniture.  But she tries too hard and is scorned for her over-exertive efforts.  The reader is enthralled with this world but gradually grows to dislike the snooty airs and disdaining dialogue and gossip that fill the days of these women who could have done so much more with their influence.

Ginevra and her father are immigrants from Italy.  Her father has been hired by Pearl’s father to build elegant European furniture and create the best violins to play European classical music.  Ginevra is hired as a maid and eventually will rise to become Pearl’s lady’s maid.  However, Ginevra is embraced by Pearl and they gradually become best friends.  Ginevra is an extremely talented seamstress.  Together these two friends become confidants to handle the demands of their generation and social positions.  They then plan to become artists who will create their own houses of beautiful creations in art and fashion.

Both will fall in love with the same men which the reader will discover in unimaginable scenes of violence and lies.  The outcome is sheer stunning fiction!

What is most notable about this novel that glorifies and satirizes the well known Gilded Age of America focuses on the narrative voices of Pearl and Ginevra.  Their inner thoughts and external conversations are intimate and gradually revealing, including questions, dreams, visions and plans that flow seamlessly and naturally, with no sense of contrivance.  They alternate between mundane and revolutionary ideas, foreshadowing the future that will emerge to surpass the glory of the Gilded Age into an individual sense of worth and social responsibility.  They will become the foundations of new artistic perspectives.  They will literally change the world and the way persons perceive wealth, poverty, art and design!  They will become glorious rather than gilded!

This is remarkable historical fiction that this reviewer highly recommends.  Donna Russo Martin’s writing has evolved into something more meaningful, serious but joyfully engaging, and memorable in a creative, new style sure to endear readers of all ages!  Wonder-full!

Trouble at Timber Ski Lodge by Max Elliot Anderson

Trouble at Timber Ski Lodge. Max Elliot Anderson. TBCN, Inc. Copyright January 2018. pb. 136 pp.; ISBN: 97809384417191. TWEENS Reading - Ages 8-13.  

Sean Baxter is the number one enemy to his 12-year-old brother Eric.  The remarkable dynamic between these two brothers is that Sean never gets caught making trouble, a fact that frustrates Eric more and more with each passing day.  Now, however, the brothers are distracted by an exciting event that comes to the town in the mountains where their ski lodge is located. 

Before that discovery, Eric has to put up with his neighbor’s son, Vince, who runs another ski lodge, one that has all the latest gadgets and luxury items that make that lodge highly successful and profitable.  Vince, who really needs a friend, is constantly bugging Eric and putting down their lodge, which his father and grandfather manage, barely getting by because of lack of funds.

Now, an exciting event comes to their area.  Some thieves have stolen gold and are carrying it in a stolen airplane.  Given the fact that the area around these lodges are high in the mountains, most of the residents know that a plane will never make it through the mountains.  Finally, it will be Eric and Vince who put aside their mutual dislike and jealousy to solve the mystery of the missing gold and thieves. 

Max Anderson’s characters are strong, courageous yet full of humor and excitement, something for a young reader to truly enjoy!

The story is exciting and is guaranteed to thrill those who love adventurous stories, especially mysteries!