Women’s Literary Fiction

Baileyville, Kentucky, 1937, a small town with not much going on until a proposal for a town’s library. Not just any library, but a one that travels to its patrons in the form of horse, the Packhorse Library. There are five strong, very different women take part in the project. We see relationships form, tragedy occur, love blossom, loves fall apart, trickery and hatred. What can possibly be missing? 

Alice Wright, a British well-educated lady. However, Alice was impulsive, and this always led to trouble.  Bennett, an American, who is on a European Tour with his father meets Alice and they fall (or so it would seem) head over heels for each other. They are married in a matter of weeks and Alice heads to her new home, an adventure, to Kentucky. It is when they reach their final destination and start their married life, that Alice realises that she may have made a mistake in being so hasty, but then she meets Margery O’Hare. 

Margery O’Hare, what a lady, afraid of no one, speaks her own mind and doesn’t care what people think of her. Although she has a history and a few of the townspeople don’t trust ‘her lot’ meaning her father, it doesn’t stop her from trying to do the right thing and bring the community together through the Packhorse Library.   

This story is an epic tale based on true events, which always makes these types of books even more exceptional. Jojo Moyes has written this story with heart, capturing the essence of how five women; Alice, Margery, Izzy, Beth and Sophia, made a momentous difference to their town. 

The main characters, Alice and Margery are thoroughly well written, as a reader you could feel the aching misery that they both suffer in parts of their own stories, you can feel the deep connections that they make as friends and above all how they stick together for the greater good. 

Absolutely loved this and wouldn’t say no to seeing it on the big screen!!