The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (2019)

I chose this book because it was about librarians in Kentucky carrying books to their readers in the mountains on horseback. This actually did happen 1935-1943. Alice is a rebellious young woman in England when Benett, a visiting Kentucky mine owner's son, falls for her and marries her. She is happy to escape all the criticism she gets at home, but is a bit taken aback when she gets taken to a small town in eastern Kentucky, where her father-in-law owns the area mines and rules over the town and his son and daughter-in-law. She is not allowed to do anything at the house, so when a packhorse library is formed, she takes on being one of the librarians that rides out every day to bring books to people. Through this she becomes part of the community. She befriends Marge, a stong willed woman, who also does not like to follow society's rules, but who cares deeply about the people around her. She sees the injustices done to the miners and that the mines plan to take over peoples lands, so she fights Alice's father-in-law, who fights back. She has a great guy Sven who backs her. Then there is Fred, who owns the building and horses the librarians use - a sweet guy whose wife disappeared. Izzy is one of the librarians, who has some disabilities from polio, but can ride a horse and has a great singing voice. Kathleen joins them later, after her husband dies, but she appreciates the respite Alice gave nim by reading to him while he was ill. There is a lot of controversy about what ideas the librarians are brining to people - as there is today. 
 

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012)

 

Beautiful book manages to intertwine the lives of  WWII soldiers, residents of small fishing village in Italy and Hollywood actors, directors and others. The various characters tell their story jumping around  three time periods: post WWII Italy, the time of the filming of Cleopatra in the early 1960s in Italy and current day Hollywood.

One of the main characters dreams of running a hotel in this small village that is only accessible by boat. He wants to build a tennis court out on a somewhat flat outcropping. But he has never seen tennis played and didn't realize that the balls fly out of the court all the time and for his court they would land in the sea. He falls in love with an American actress comes to stay at his hotel, possibly by mistake. Later he tries to find out what has happened to her. We get cameo appearances by Liz Taylor & Richard Burton. Just a touching book.

Educated by Tara Westover (2018)

I have not read a book I could not put down in long time - I started it one evening and found I had to finish it the following day. This is not a novel, but a true story of the author growing up in a family in Idaho that did not believe in public education, medicine or the government. She worked in her father's junk yard, was abused by an older brother helped her mother with her herbal medicines, but longed to go to school and learn. She learned to read from the Bible and religios books, found ways to sneak in other types of learning, sang in the church, participated in local musical theater, and slowly with the help of an older brother and some friends found a way out. It is not exactly a spoiler to say she made it out and got a PhD from Cambridge.

One of the things that amazed me was the way she could remember the way she felt and thought as a little girl, before she was educated in the wider world. How she could get back into the mindspace where everything her father said was absolute truth. Then the courage to stand up to him and start finding her own voice, realizing she could think for herself. Never mind going to college without ever setting foot in a classroom of any kind. Just wow!

One of the themes is family and how far should family loyalty go. She even wrote her doctoral dissertation on family in American thinking  in the 19th century - from various religious perspetivs. Families are complicated.

And now she writes this, her first book. Thankfully the author wrote in journals as a child, and I believe that helped her confirm memories and get a sense of how she felt. She also states that she interviewed those siblings that were willing to be part of this exploration. In the beginning she states that for certain people she used pseudonyms. I referred back to that list more than once, and it included her parents and her other siblings.

I am cleaning out boxes of papers I and my parents have saved, and there is always the question of how much to save. These things remind me of my life at various stages and as I am writing my own life story for my son, they help validate my memories. 
 

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny (2020)

 

Another winner by Louise Penny and set in one of my favorite cities - Paris. I am going to try to restart writing in my blog, but need help to start out, so am using an Amazon review for the storyline. I listened to this on my trip out west for the holidays. Loved being in Paris, loved being with Gamache and his family and was happy to learn the backstories of some of the characters that helped resolve some of the ongoing conflicts between them.

"If earlier Gamache books showed the detective’s preternatural kindness and steadfastness in the face of evil, All the Devils are Here sheds light on the tragedy out of which his steadfastness came, and the second family who taught him kindliness, empathy, and patience. The Gamache family—including Armand’s godfather: wealthy industrialist Stephen Horowitz—gather in Paris to await the birth of Annie’s and Jean-Guy’s daughter. But walking home from dinner that night, Stephen is mowed down by a passing van and it’s immediately clear to Gamache that this is no accident. To catch a would-be killer in the City of Light without the resources of the Sûreté at his back? Tough. But he has an old colleague he can call on to help, and a family that has his back, though some old tensions float to the surface. Despite this fascinating glimpse into the workings of the Gamache family, there will be those thinking: A Gamache book in which we don’t visit Three Pines until near the very end? Mais, non! Rest assured, Penny takes with one hand and gives with the other. The sixteenth entry in the series is essentially an origin story fans will love, one which sets up a complex whodunit which is also a whydunit, all of it buttressed by a Penny trademark: a canny mix of empathy, psychology, and suspense." —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review