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.