Along with several other women (including one black woman, Sophia, whose employment causes controversy in a town that doesn’t believe black and white people should be allowed to use the same library), Margery and Alice supply magazines, Bible stories, and copies of books like Little Women to the largely poor residents who live in remote areas. And even though all this makes Margery a town pariah, Alice quickly grows to like her. Margery doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, rejects marriage, and would rather be on horseback than in a kitchen. Much to the dismay of her husband and father-in-law, Alice signs up and soon learns the ropes from the library’s leader, Margery. She’s just about to resign herself to a life of boredom when an opportunity presents itself in the form of a traveling horseback library-an initiative from Eleanor Roosevelt meant to counteract the devastating effects of the Depression by focusing on literacy and learning.

But when she and Bennett settle in Baileyville, Kentucky, she realizes that her life consists of nothing more than staying in their giant house all day and getting yelled at by his unpleasant father, who owns a coal mine. Women become horseback librarians in 1930s Kentucky and face challenges from the landscape, the weather, and the men around them.Īlice thought marrying attractive American Bennett Van Cleve would be her ticket out of her stifling life in England.

Books similar to the giver of stars