*If you are new here, WELCOME! For Where the Crawdads Sing, I provide your book club with a brief summary, a recipe, and discussion questions in that order!
Where the Crawdads Sing Book Club Questions and RecipeWhere the Crawdads Sing Book Club Questions and RecipeWhere the Crawdads Sing Book Club Questions and Recipe
If you haven’t heard of Where the Crawdads Sing yet, I’d be surprised. The book, released in 2018, has already sold 7 million copies as of this writing. Still, it’s a pretty new release, especially for some book clubs who require that a book is readily available through a library before they select it to read. Before now, securing the book via any other means than buying the hard copy would have been difficult.
The book is Delia Owen’s debut novel, although the author has written other non-fiction works. It’s a novel rich with natural history and scientific details of the ocean marsh where its main character, Kya, lives. Delia Owens’ background in zoology adds a significant depth to Kya’s love for the marsh and its creatures, taking the novel beyond a normal love-triangle and murder mystery plot.
*If you are new here, WELCOME! For this post, I provide you with a delicious recipe for Apple Cake with Honey Bourbon Glaze!
Apple Cake with Bourbon Honey Glaze
Whether it’s fall, winter, or the middle of summer, nothing beats a slice of spice cake, a warm cup of coffee, and good discussion with your closest friends. That includes your book club!
This spice cake made with apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pecans is comforting and delicious.
The additional of the bourbon honey glaze on the cake adds a depth of flavor and a sweetness that compliments the spice nicely.
Cooked in a Bundt pan, the cake forms a nice crust on the outside while remaining soft on the inside—my favorite.
If you’re stopping by here while searching for recipes, you may not know that the recipes here are all inspired by books! This particular recipe was created after reading The Giver of Stars.
The book follows five Pack Horse Librarians in the 1930s who form an immutable bond that is tested in unforgettable ways as they journey through the dangers of the Appalachian mountains.
If you love reading, check out more about this great book HERE!
*If you are new here, WELCOME! For The Giver of Stars, I provide your book club with a brief summary, food ideas, and a recipe idea in that order!
The Giver of Stars Book Club IdeasThe Giver of Stars Book Club Ideas
If you haven’t checked out the previous post in the series where I share my thoughts on The Giver of Stars and a fun activity idea for your book club, check out that post HERE.
You can also check out the next post in the series where I share discussion questions for your book club based on the bookHERE.
In this post, I’ll review the premise of The Giver of Stars and share some great food ideas for your book club based on the book.
The Giver of Stars
Here’s a brief summary of The Giver of Stars:
Hoping to escape her life of suffocating expectations in England, Alice marries the handsome Kentuckian Bennett Van Cleve. The honeymoon is cut short when she finds herself in an equally stifling situation under the watchful eye of Bennett’s strict father in a small and secluded Kentucky town.
When the chance arises to join the Pack Horse Library, Alice steps forward despite Van Cleve’s disapproval. There, she meets independent Margery O’Hare, who encourages Alice to stand up for herself and fight for true love.
The bond they form with each other and the other three Pack Horse Librarians is tested in unforgettable ways as they journey through the dangers of the Appalachian mountains to bring its hardscrabble residents hope through books.
Keep reading for great food ideas for your book club!
*If you are new here, WELCOME! For The Giver of Stars, I provide your book club with a brief summary and book club discussion questions in that order!
The Giver of Stars Book Club Discussion QuestionsThe Giver of Stars Book Club Discussion Questions
If you haven’t checked out the previous post in the series where I share my thoughts on The Giver of Stars and a fun activity idea for your book club, check out that post HERE.
You can also check out the second post in the series where I share several great food ideas for your book club based on the book HERE.
The Giver of Stars
In this post, I’ll review the premise of The Giver of Stars and share book club discussion questions that are sure to get your book club talking!
If you don’t recall, Jojo Moyes wrote the smash hit Me Before You, among other bestsellers.
The Giver of Stars follows a group of Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky in the 1930s.
Pack Horse Librarians were part of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and a special project of Eleanor Roosevelt. They carried books via horseback to some of the most rural and remote areas of Kentucky.
The novel is permeated with friendship, primarily centered around five librarians and the events that happen to them.
If you don’t know, Jojo Moyes is English, but if you do, you might be wondering how she pulled off writing a novel about rural Kentucky. The main character, Alice, is an English-born and bred lady who marries a native Kentuckian and we follow her as she moves to Kentucky and ultimately joins the Pack Horse Librarians.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Since Moyes started out as a romance author, you won’t be surprised to find a good deal of romance in the novel as well. The romance is clean and you won’t find any on-page sex.
But romance isn’t the primary driving force of the novel, there are high stakes and some life-threatening situations for almost all of the characters that will keep you turning pages.
I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the book and expect it to be another hit by Moyes on the scale of Me Before You.
That said, I cannot continue without addressing the fact that there has been some controversy regarding the similarity to another book about Kentucky Pack Horse Librarians, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which I am also featuring.
