27. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

listened on Libby
narrated by Julia Whelan - Absolutely fantastic.

Unabridged audio (13:52)
2019
388 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 3/25/2021
Goodreads rating:  4.27 - 251,213
My rating: 5
Setting: 1937 eastern Kentucky

First line/s:  "Listen.  Three miles deep in the forest just below Arnott's Ridge, and you're in silence so dense it's like you're wading through it."
 
My comments: Hot damn, I loved this book.  I had read The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek last year, so I was acquainted with the general idea of the WPA eastern Kentucky packhorse librarians of 1935 to 1943.  The narrator was absolutely fantastic.  I loved the characters: seven feisty women, two wonderful gentlemen, and a huge array of small-town folk who were mostly unlikable.  Yes, definitely a love story, but more importantly a wonderful piece of well-researched historical fiction,

Goodreads synopsis:  From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
          Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.
          The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.
          What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.
          Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic–a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond.

72. The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

listened to Chirp/Audio
narrated by Imogen Church
Unabridged audio (10:28)
2019 Park Row
352 pgs.
Adult CRF (British)
Finished 5/1/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.70 - 13,936 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting: Contemporary England

First line/s:  "As always, Martha Storm was primed for action._

My comments:   This book seemed to drag on and on, but that'show I read it, taking at least a month and only reading here and there.  90% of it was really quite depressing for me, a lost life, only coming into her own when she was, what, fifty years old or so?  The story is about a wasted life, though Martha learns to live it in time to appreciate a few good years to come. 

Goodreads synopsis:  Librarian Martha Storm has always found it easier to connect with books than people--though not for lack of trying. She keeps careful lists of how to help others in her superhero-themed notebook. And yet, sometimes it feels like she's invisible.
          All of that changes when a book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep. Inside, Martha finds a dedication written to her by her best friend--her grandmother Zelda--who died under mysterious circumstances years earlier. When Martha discovers a clue within the book that her grandmother may still be alive, she becomes determined to discover the truth. As she delves deeper into Zelda's past, she unwittingly reveals a family secret that will change her life forever.
          Filled with Phaedra Patrick's signature charm and vivid characters, The Library of Lost and Found is a heartwarming and poignant tale of how one woman must take control of her destiny to write her own happy ending.

11. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

listened to Audio - borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated  by Katie Schorr
Unabridged audio (9:26)
2019 Sourcebooks Landmark
308 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 1/17/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.25 - 18,615 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1936 Kentucky

First line/s:  "The librarian and her mule spotted it at the same time."

My comments:  Based on numerous historical facts and beautifully written.  Cussy - nicknamed Bluett because of her blue skin - riders her ornery mule, Junia, through treacherous eastern Kentucky mountains to deliver precious books and magazines to her poor, starving "patrons."  Ostracized with other people of color, she and her father - a coal miner dying of lung sickness - struggle to make a living and survive in the harshest of bad times.  There are lots of characters, all so well written that they quickly become unforgettable.  But no matter how difficult circumstances or situations become, Cussy's strong will and compassion carry her through.  I'm so glad I read this book, I almost didn't.  Will I remember it, will the story and its circumstances resonate?  Absolutely.

Goodreads synopsis:  In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.
          Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.
          The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a powerful message about how the written word affects people--a story of hope and heartbreak, raw courage and strength splintered with poverty and oppression, and one woman's chances beyond the darkly hollows. Inspired by the true and historical blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek showcases a bold and unique tale of the Packhorse Librarians in literary novels — a story of fierce strength and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.

131. The Darkling Bride by Laura Anderson

listened to eAudio/Chirp
narrated  by Sarah-Jane Drummey
Unabridged audio (12:02)
2018
369 pgs.
Adult Mystery in two time periods
Finished 12/28/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 2253 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:

First line/s:  "Twenty miles south of Dublin, Deeprath Castle brooded in its shallow valley scooped out of the Wicklow Mountains."

My comments: A gothic mystery, taking place in Deeprath Castle in Ireland, where a young woman goes to catalog the huge library.  Once she gets there, she discovers a family enmeshed with the mystery of a murder twenty years previously, of the parents of the two current owners.  Hopping back-and-forth between the late 1800s and present day, an interesting mystery is solved.  Not sure I liked many of the characters, but I guess I wasn't really supposed to.  Interesting, but for some reason I couldn't really relate to any of them, particularly the protagonists.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three generations of Irish nobles face their family secrets in this spellbinding novel from the award-winning author of the Boleyn King trilogy.
          The Gallagher family has called Deeprath Castle home for seven hundred years. Nestled in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, the estate is now slated to become a public trust, and book lover and scholar Carragh Ryan is hired to take inventory of its historic library. But after meeting Aidan, the current Viscount Gallagher, and his enigmatic family, Carragh knows that her task will be more challenging than she’d thought.
          Two decades before, Aidan’s parents died violently at Deeprath. The case, which was never closed, has recently been taken up by a new detective determined to find the truth. The couple’s unusual deaths harken back a century, when twenty-three-year-old Lady Jenny Gallagher also died at Deeprath under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind an infant son and her husband, a renowned writer who never published again. These incidents only fueled fantastical theories about the Darkling Bride, a local legend of a sultry and dangerous woman from long ago whose wrath continues to haunt the castle.
          The past catches up to the present, and odd clues in the house soon have Carragh wondering if there are unseen forces stalking the Gallagher family. As secrets emerge from the shadows and Carragh gets closer to answers—and to Aidan—could she be the Darkling Bride’s next victim?

Picture Book Biography - Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre by Anika Aldamuy Denise

Illustrated by Paola Escobar

2019, Harper Collins

HC $17.99

32pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.42 - 790 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers:  These are the BEST - Candles, Daisies, Mouse groom and Cockroach bride from her stories, books, all on page sage green..
..

1^st line/s:  "It is 1921.  Pura Teresa Belpre leaves her home in San Juan for a visit to Nueva York."

My comments: Pura Belpre, whose name I know because of the awards given yearly in her memory, moved from Puerto Rico to New York City when she was 22 years old. Speaking three languages - Spanish, English, and French - she was hired to work in the library. When she realized there were no book in Spanish, and no stories like the ones she'd always heard her grandmother tell, she began to share the stories during storytime, along with puppets she made. Wonderful story. I particularly like the folky illustrations, I'd love to have some fabric that looks like the endpapers!

Goodreads:  Follow la vida y legado of Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City.
          When she came to America in 1921, Pura carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular stories into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and cuentistas continue to share her stories and celebrate Pura’s legacy.
          This portrait of the influential librarian, author, and puppeteer reminds us of the power of storytelling and the extraordinary woman who opened doors and championed bilingual literature.

PICTURE BOOK - Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady

Illustrated by Amiko Hirao

2018, Charlesbridge Publishing

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.29 - 92 ratings

My rating:  4.5

1^st line/s:  "Katherine Tasaki returned a stack of books and turned in her library card.  "We've go to move soon," she said.  "All Japanese, you know."

My comments:  The internment and mistreatment of Japanese Americans during WWII has always bewildered and incensed me.  This true story connects kids not only to this sad part of American History, but also highlights a brave American woman who did something to help alter a horrendous situation.

Goodreads  A touching story about Japanese American children who corresponded with their beloved librarian while they were imprisoned in World War II internment camps.
          When Executive Order 9066 is enacted after the attack at Pearl Harbor, children's librarian Clara Breed's young Japanese American patrons are to be sent to prison camp. Before they are moved, Breed asks the children to write her letters and gives them books to take with them. Through the three years of their internment, the children correspond with Miss Breed, sharing their stories, providing feedback on books, and creating a record of their experiences. Using excerpts from children's letters held at the Japanese American National Museum, author Cynthia Grady presents a difficult subject with honesty and hope.
          " A beautiful picture book for sharing and discussing with older children as well as the primary audience" -- Booklist STARRED REVIEW 
          "A touching tribute to a woman who deserves recognition" -- Kirkus Reviews
          "[An] affecting introduction to a distressing chapter in U.S. history and a brave librarian who inspired hope" -- Publisher's Weekly

Return of the Library Dragon - Carmen Agra Deede

illustrated by Michael P. White
2012, Peachtree Publishers
Ellsworth Public Library
32 pages
Hardcover $16.95
Goodreads:
cag:  4 stars
Title Page:  yellow dragon-y front on light blue, with dragonflies fluttering
front:  "Librarian Retires" news article
1st line/s:  "Sunrise Elementary School had a BIG problem:  their beloved librarian, Miss Lotty, was....../....RETIRING.

What happens when a tried & true librarian's job is taken over by a guy who gets rid of all the books and replaces them with technology?  The beloved librarian disappears and a dragon taker her place.  This book reinforces the idea that BOTH have their place and they can work TOGETHER.

When I was checking out new-to-me books at the library I almost put this one back until I spotted the 40+ quotes on the endpapers.  I was hooked!

"A book is a friend; a good book is a good friend.  It will talk to you when you want it to talk, and it will keep still when you want it to keep still; and there are not many friends who know enough to do that."  - B. A. Billingsley

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."  - Mark Twain

"Books are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind.  Books are humanity in print."  - Barbara W. Tuchman

"When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day."  - Jean Fritz

"My library was dukedom large enough."  - William Shakespeare

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if there is any left, I buy food and clothes."  - Erasmus

"I cannot live without books!  - Thomas Jefferson

"Never judge a book by its movie."  -J. W. Eagan

69. The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown

audio read by Kirsten Potter (she was great)
Penguin Audio, 2011
$39.95 TPPL
9 unabridged cds
10.5 hours
336 pgs.
Rating:  4
NYTimes Review (from 1/16/11) excellent plot summary
The Reading Lark book review - I love her format, and I agree with so much of her thinking!

First line/s:  We came home because we were failures.

Setting:  Contemporary rural Barnwell, Ohio, a small college town and hour from Columbus (I think)
OSS:  Three very different sisters return home at the same time and show us, the reader, why they hate and love each other.

The three sisters told the story as "we," which I suppose was very clever and difficult to write, but which I didn't really like.  The father, a Shakespearean scholar, professor, and fanatic, and  his wife, a stay-at-home mother who was a free spirit in her own right, have raised three daughters in a home with lots and lots of books and no television.  They go to a "hippie/granola" school, then to the small college where their father teaches.  They are all bright, and all tainted in some way - as we all are.  Named for Shakespeare heroines Rosalind (Rose), Bianca (Bean) and Cordelia (Cordy) love each other fiercely, but while comparing themselves to each other run amok.

I enjoyed the book without really liking any of the characters...well, I did like Cordelia.  Everyone has flaws.  They had lots...and they overcame them all so that the ending is a lovely, tidily wrapped up package.  It's nice to know that you can like a book without really liking its characters.  Lots to think about with that, alone!

Busing Brewster - Richard Michelson

Illustrated by R. G. Roth
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$16.99
24 pgs.
Rating: 5 (Yup, this is a good one)
Endpapers: covered with stick-like figures playing on a school playground (pale, pale sage green)

Set in the 1970's, when schools were segretated and busing students far across town was used to begin to desegrate the schools. Brewster and his slightly-older brother Bryan are not as excited as their mom when they discover that they will be bused to a previously-all-white school, having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go the distance. And when they get there, they are greeted by protestors, rocks being thrown, and nasty white classmates. Before school even begins on the first day, the brothers are put into detention in the library with "freckle-face", a white kid who'd heckled them and precipitated them getting caught arguing.

Well. By the time they leave the library they've made friends with the librarian (who then initiantes Brewster into the wonderful world of books and reading) and also with Freckle-face. When they leave school, however, a friendly wave goodbye to their new friend is ignored, because he's being picked up by his father, who is saying something derogatory about the desegreation - so young readers can see where the bigotry and hatred are coming from, and how it keeps gathering speed.

Great history lesson for kids - my kids - who, luckily, have no clue about the bigotry and racism so prevalent in the 60s and 70s. I only wish I could say it's gone....but it has to be better than it was. The Author's Note at the end gives additional information on the history and background of the story.

The illustrations are great. It's somewhat difficult to describe them. Cut paper. Sponged stencils. Tiny, tiny repetetive patterns. Pale watercolor-brushed lines. I'm only guessing at all this, but I love the mixed media look. The colors are muted, lots of grays and muddied greens, mustards, clays.

Great book. The more I think about it the more I like it. Storytelling in a positive way. Great protagonist. Kids doing real things, especially at the playground. Super illustrations. Yippee!

Fire Up With Reading - Toni Buzzeo

Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Upstart Books, 2007
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: White

Mrs. Skorupski, the Liberty School librarian, has come up with a great idea to get the whole school reading - a 6-month competition to end on March 2nd, Read Across America Day. Her theme is based on fire-spouting dragons. Kids earn a dragon scale for every 30 minutes of reading...and the whole school starts to read, read, read, including Patty Lee and her 4th grade class.

Colorful, fanciful, simple illustrations cover the entire page. But do you like the cover? I don't.

Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I Don't) - Barbara Bottner

Illustrated by Michael Emberley
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$17.99
24 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers - Vertical 3/4" plum and green stripes

Miss Brooks is a librarian that will do anything in her power to interest kids in books. She particularly loves to dress up as the characters when she introduces one. The protagonist, an unnamed first grade girls, just doesn't understand it. She certainly can't find any books that she loves like Miss Brooks does!

And then, horror or horrors, during "book week," the girls had to dress up and share her favorite story. She's fit-to-be-tied. There's no favorite story to dress up as. She reads and reads -- and then reads some more. And then she finds it! A book she loves! She can dress as a "stubborn, smelly, snorty ogre" --- Shrek! Yay!

The illustrations are terrific. the two protagonists are funky and fun. Miss Brooks has a Ms. Frizzle craziness to her and our protagonist's messy hair protrucing from her striped knit hat and her specs are adorable.

The pages are almost too glossy and seem to have a musty, moldy smell to them. Sort of unpleasant, like it's the survivor of a flood....and it's brand new, still in the store!

Otherwise, cool book.