The Giver of Stars | Holly Furtick Book Club

In 2018, I have this great idea to start a book club, mostly because I love books. I particularly love audiobooks, and I love forcing them on other people and then talking about them. And so I started this book club and I just put it out there on Instagram. I said, hey, read this book and then let's come together and chat about it. And I wanted to share those chats with you here on my YouTube channel. So I hope you enjoy this video. Jojo Moyes, the Giver of Stars. I'll hold it back up again in a second. Jojo Moyes, the Giver of Stars. I'm super excited to talk about this book. I hope you are, too. My sister Emily said that she thinks that this book might have been her favorite book of the year. And so did one of my best friends, Lisa Hughes. And Lisa and I read almost all the same books and both of them said they think this might have been their favorite book of the year. And I might agree. I would put this in for sure. Like, probably my top three.

I don't know.

I read a lot of really great books this year.

So.

Okay, let me give you a little bit of background. I, you know, when I get pick.

A book and we get on for.

Book club, I always go and watch interviews of and read interviews of the author. Okay. Anyway, I was reading All About JoJo. She lives in Essex, England, and she. I think that's how you say that. Essex, England. And she has a husband and three children, and they live on a farm. And she was a journalist for 10 years, and she was writing on the side. Like her writing fiction stories on the side. And her first. This is. This is so fascinating. Her first three manuscripts got rejected. The first three books that she wrote got rejected. And then she wrote her fourth book and she decided if this one doesn't get picked up, I'm done. And of course it got picked up. And she's written. I couldn't really count because she's got some, like, short stories and stuff out there. Let's see, six more books that didn't really do great. And then she wrote the book that we all know. Probably everybody here give me the little, like, girl raising her hand if you.

If you read me before youe.

Okay, let me see it. Girl raising your hand if you read me before you. It was an awesome book. If you've never Read Me before youe by JoJo Moyes. It is a great book. It's about a man who is a paraplegic and he wants to commit suicide. And it's about a sunny, beautiful girl that comes to be his temporary caregiver. Like as, like a temp job. And it is such a great book. You can also.

It counts.

I'm. Does it count? If you only saw the movie? Look at all the hands going up.

I love it.

If you only saw the movie. You have to give me a heart.

Okay?

It doesn't count. You can't raise your hand if you.

Didn'T read the book.

Chrissy said she cried like a baby. Okay, that book I will never forget. I was reading the book and we had people coming over and I was almost finished and I was like on the verge of crying and the friends came and I had to put it down and then read like the last five pages of the book. And I didn't cry, but I thought the movie was an excellent adaptation. So anyway, that book went on to check this out. I wrote this down. 14 million copies, 19 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Also made it into a movie. And it's such a great book. And JoJo said that one of the encouraging things, an interview, I didn't actually talk to her, but she said that once people read that, they went back and read some of her other books and the sales of her other books picked up because. Because of that book. So she since wrote two more books about the main character in Me before you. I haven't read either one of them.

My mother in law has read both.

Of them and gave them both to me. But as I've shared with you guys.

Before.

I don't read sequels. I don't usually like sequels. I like the story to just end. So if you read the sequel, comment, tell us if it was worth the.

Read and I might go back and read. I don't know.

I just want to. Sometimes I just want to move on sometimes. Maybe I don't want to go back. Like if I just. If the book comes out like the sequel comes out like two years later. I never read the sequels, but she wrote two sequels. And then here comes this book, the Giver of Stars. And so this book is about the pack horse librarians in rural Kentucky in the 1930s. And I love books that are set in the 1930s during the great Depression. I love obviously books about books. And my favorite genre is books about women and female friendships. And so like this book just like hit everything that I love. So in an interview, the interview that I watched, JoJo said, she said, oh, somebody's saying you have to read the other two books. They're different. But so good. Okay. I might. If they go on sale on Audible, I will buy them. Okay. So JoJo said that she read this article that was about the Pack Horse Librarians, and she immediately. She was like. The story just jumped out at me. She said. She said it was like she immediately knew that she had to write her next book about these librarians. And then she said, I wrote this down because I just thought this was so fascinating, and if my husband's still watching, he's going to know exactly what I'm talking about when I read this. But she said she, like, almost immediately hopped on a plane to Kentucky, and she was like, I have to know more about these women, and I have to write a book about them. And she said she was so nervous that somebody else was gonna, like, stumble across this article and write a book about them that she was like, had this automatic, like, sense of urgency that she had to get to Kentucky. She had to write this book. So she says this. She said, I knew that someone else might write it better, but I was going to write it faster. And I just love that because sometimes my husband and I have this discussion about, like, songwriting and stuff and how God that. How God is. He has a message that he wants to get out there, and he's looking for a vessel to do that through. And I believe the same thing about creativity and about stories and how she just had this feeling like he. She was so compelled to write this story. And she said that it was a super easy book to write, that it came, like, fairly easily as far as writing a novel goes. And she says that, what else do I have written down here? And we're going to talk about this in a minute. Christine, get ready.

I'm about to put you on.

She said that the title was just agony trying to figure out how to title this book. And so we're going to talk about the title in a second. But she also. I also read that she credited her days as a newspaper writer for helping her be able to tell good stories that were concise. So I want to bring on my friend Christine Kane.

Go live. She's going to join us, and we're going to talk about this. Hi, how you doing?

You are the best doing this.

I am.

My daughter Catherine and I have been hanging off every word. Thank you.

My husband just commented. He said, do I need to go to Kentucky to write another book? Listen, I know so much about JoJo Moyes and her whole process of writing this book. Like, you and my husband would find this fascinating. She, like, immediately she goes to Kentucky to this town called. Okay, the town in our book is Baileyville, I think. And she go. The actual town is called Battiesville, where she went. And she got there, and it's like the. The crystal meth capital of the world or something. And she was, like, super freaked out. She was like, I can't stay here. So she ended up staying at this woman's property that was, like, I don't know, like. Like 50 miles outside of Babiesville, and in this cabin and. And she talked about how she was so scared because the door didn't even have a lock on. It just had, like, a little hook and eye, and it was, like, super primitive. But if you go back and you look at the dedication, she dedicated the book to the woman, Barbara, who owned this, like. I think it was like a bed and breakfast, but it was like cabins or whatever. She dedicated the book to her because this woman just made her fall in love with the south and with people from Kentucky. And the woman read through because she was, you know, JoJo's English. She was really nervous about portraying Appalachia in a way that would be honorable to the people that lived there. And so the woman, like, would read through it and would talk to her and help her and make sure that it was, like, a great representation of them. So anyway, she dedicated the book to the woman who owned the place where she went to write. And she still goes back there. Like, she loves it.

So, okay, they put a lock on the door. I don't think they did.

I don't think they did. All right, so, Chris, tell me what you like about the book.

All the things like. Okay, so I love your recommendations. You know, I get it on audible, too, because it's. It helps when you're traveling. I loved everything for all the same reasons you did, but even the themes of. I loved how it dealt with domestic violence. I love how it dealt with sisterhood, empowerment. And for an English chick writing about an American city, she did brilliant. Because I'm from Australia, and so I'm always fascinated when I read books about the South. Like, you know, because I'm reading it with very different eyes to even how you're reading it. Because I. Foreign to me, I felt this was one of the best books of capturing the like. For a foreigner like me reading a book about the American south in the 1930s, I'm like, I was so there. I was hooked. I was so frustrated with you because I had so many papers due for grad school, but you recommended that book and I just. I couldn't stop. It was like, just so captivating because there was good twists and turns and the relationships with the men I really like. I mean, as in the men that sort of came through for Were just amazing as well as, like, I know I'm not stopping, but I thought she did a brilliant job of depicting the father in law, and he would have been very typical of that kind of man in that day.

The husband.

Yes, Bennett. Oh, Bennett. Oh, yeah. I mean, my mind just went wild because you could actually draw 20 different conclusions about Ben. I mean, I mean, each of those characters alone could have been a book of just like, psychoanalyzing the relationship.

I love how open she left Bennett. Like, it was so open for interpretation of, like, you're like, what is going on with this guy? Is, has he been abused by his father?

Is.

Is he struggling with his sexuality? Like, did he marry the wrong girl and he wants the other girl? And. And I mean, she just left him so unanswered and so open. But it was really fun and funny.

Like, because I had about 10 different. But I thought it's so awkward that his dad's in the same cabin on the ship on the way back, and then he's in the house. I'm. I'm thinking, you know, I mean, you don't know anything. Did his dad abuse him? Did his dad beat him? Did his dad like, I mean, that, you know, it was. And then she said just enough about the sex lives with the, you know, to go, wow, okay, I don't know where this could go. And then the redemptive side of. What was the name of the guy that she ended up with?

Oh, Fred.

Fred. Yes. And just how honorable Fred was compared to Bennett.

Yes.

I thought it was pretty awesome.

And I love. Not to skip to the end, but one of my favorite. I love a book that. Where you like, you love the secondary characters too, and how, like, just alive everybody feels and how at the very end. And I want to talk to you about the blue book. Okay. But at the very end, you know, they have their marriage annulled. She gets with Fred, and Fred marries the girl, you know, his high school sweetheart. And. And then the girl, the high school sweetheart, comes asking for the blue book because you're like. You're like, oh, well, maybe, you know, maybe he. He'll be intimate with her. But then she comes asking for the book and you're like, oh, no.

Oh, no. It didn't even work there. That's why you wonder how many times. And you don't even know whether it actually happened any other time either. Like, was he married before and got annulled? And does every wife go looking for the blue book because she doesn't know whether she's actually consummated the marriage? Like, wow. I mean, what a apt ending. I just thought she was genius. I mean, she was. She was this genius about writing about the blue book and the wives, but I thought she was very powerful with her writing about their relationships. With the animals, too.

Yeah. With their horses.

Yep. Totally.

I love a book where the animals are, like, almost have their own personalities.

And I'm not even a mammoth animal lover, but I was there. And the mule, I mean, I was very emotional. Like, when I thought, was it the mule that was gonna die? The horse. Was it a horse or a mule? Whichever. You know, when the flood came and, I mean, I was right there with Marjorie and the. @ thinking, okay, you're saving lives. I was there with the animals. I don't know. She put you in the scenes. I don't know. She. Like, I could. My daughter could read it, and someone in grad school could read it, and you both could totally get a ton of stuff out of it. That's what I thought was. Was so good about it because it just. I don't think there was any throwaway pages. I could not stop listening.

I totally agree. Okay, so the main thing I wanted, I could talk to you forever. And I can talk about books for forever. But what did you think about the title?

Yeah, random. If the title did not capture me, as in if you had not. I'd walked past that book in the bookshop at the airports, you know, because that's. I don't know, a hundred times if you know. And then when you. You know how I always text you give me something to read, and you're kind of sending me your recommendations. I thought, okay. I did think, like, at first, because when I went and looked it up, that cover came up, you know, in the Audible books. And the title, it just had never grabbed me. Even now, it still kind of doesn't.

Okay, so I'm going to be full disclosure. Donna says she wouldn't have picked up that title.

I picked it up.

I don't know what made me read it. It was Reese Witherspoon's book club pick, and I think I just read a synopsis, and I saw 1930s librarians, and.

I'm like, okay, so.

But I honestly went through the entire book, and I was like, I never caught why she called it The Giver of Stars. And yesterday when I was prepping, I googled it. I was like, why is it called the Giver of Stars? So, and this happens sometimes when you do an audiobook. You sometimes, like, miss small details. So I don't know if you remember the scene where Marjorie. Not Marjorie, Alice is. She's, like, really sad about her relationship with her husband. She doesn't know he. If they've consummated their marriage or not. She's, like, super confused. They've got this blue book that they're passing around, which, for those of you who haven't read the book, if you're listening to this, it's a book about sex. And the women are all like the blue book. They're all. Which is so funny because, like, sex is just such a hard thing for women to talk about, but especially 100 years ago.

Mr. There was no sex, Ed. There was no, There was nothing.

There was nothing.

Mothers didn't talk to daughters about it.

So they have this little secret book that gets passed from woman to woman. And so she, the guy Fred, he gives her a book of poetry and he says, you know, that you might like. You might like these poems. Poetry is really personal, blah, blah, blah. And she reads a poem called the Giver of Stars. And the poem is, it's super short. Here, I'm going to read it. It says this. Hold your soul open for my welcoming. Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me with its clear and rippled coolness. That loose limbed and weary I find. Rest outstretched upon your peace on a bed of ivory. And then the next sentence is like, alice got up to get the blue book. And so the book just, like the poem just really moves her and kind of makes her realize that she doesn't even know what intimacy with a man is. And so she goes to get the book. And I had, I mean, I literally had to go back and figure all of that out today. And I was listening to this interview, and it was a really long. It was like an hour and a half. And I'd had it on in the background. I was about to shut it off. And the, the interviewer goes, let's talk about the title.

And I was like, yes, I want.

To hear her talk about this title. Because I didn't think it. I didn't think it. Like, again, like, it doesn't grab you. It doesn't tell you what the books are out. It's not catchy. It, you know, like, yes, I know.

I was, I was not gonna pick it up.

So here's what she says. She says that she originally. That her working title the whole time was called the Knowledge. And everybody in England didn't like the title because of the taxi test or whatever. And so it just completely got X'd. And she said they went. It was so interesting to me because she starts off the interview talking about how this book came so easy for her, but then she could. They could not land on the title. And they went around and around for months, and she said they even started looking through country music titles and lyrics to see if they could find something, you know, that, like, everybody knows or something that's, like, cheeky or whatever. And they finally landed on naming it after this poem, which was an actual poem, because I looked it up and it's like, that was an actual poet. Amy Lowell. And it's like a book of poetry that's supposed to be sensual, but I don't know how.

I don't know.

I found out when they were reading it in the book. I mean, my English lit hat went off when I was listening to that part. You know, when they read that. Well, I heard it because I didn't read it. The. The thing that. It's stunning, though, because I think later on in the book. Do you remember when he wouldn't kiss her, he wouldn't touch her, and he said, I'm giving you words. Which was the words in the books, that poem. Do you.

Oh, shoot.

Remember that part where he wouldn't. He said, I'm a man of intent. You're still married. And he said, oh, with Fred? Yes, with Fred. All I have to give you is words. So that would circle back around to when he gave her that book. You know what I mean? Like, it's. And that poem was in there. And so I just wonder, like, when you read. I thought, I remember that. And I remember later on, he said, basically, I can't touch you. I'm giving you words through books. And that was. It kind of makes sense. I mean, it's still abstract to me. I still wouldn't have picked up the book based on the title, but. But it does tie in. And that ties in even to their intimacy, because he's like, I. I'm not touching you. This is all I can give you right now. So it's pretty wild.

I think so, too. And I just. I. I think it's cool. I'm like. I like knowing if I can figure out why you named the book. That way I can get on board with it. But I also, as a wife, of an author. And you're an author, you know how important a title is. And it's just like I'm thankful that she had a name that would carry the book because if she, if her name wasn't on the book, I don't know how, how well it would have.

And I'm thinking, you know, I've never sold. Did you say it was 14 million copies of the other book?

14 million.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it doesn't matter what she calls her next book. Unlike Pastor Steven and I, it really does matter what we call it. But she can do whatever she wants. But. And she's also just such a gifted writer.

Yeah.

And I think I loved everything I loved because it put you as a woman. And of course both of us, you know, we're so committed to women and watching women fulfill their purpose to see where, you know, almost 100 years ago where women were at. Like you just, you know, that she tries to. Her best shot at life is to get out of her little English life, to move to the other side of the world in the hope that there's going to be a bit more freedom, a little bit more. And then she's got to shrink right back into that kind of Southern belle kind of lifestyle. And life is small and gossip and slander and a woman is trapped. So even to the point that she was being, you know, she got trapped and then beaten by her father in law and still the thought would be, I should stay. I mean, you know, just insane like. But that, but she had no other options, no money.

And her family was like, her parents.

Were like, I'm not taking you back. So if a woman's family would not take her back, she was stuck. She's stuck in this abusive marriage, this, like, it's just, man, oh man, we've come. I thank God, we've come a long way. The truth is though, I was thinking, because I know that I have a person that I'm in relationship with it. I think that is still a reality for some women. There's no doubt about it that, you know, they, they're thinking of the children or whatever and so they're in a. What could be a violent kind of situation of which, you know, I'm just such an advocate of. You've got to get out of anything that is violent in order to be in a safe place before you can work on anything. But to think back then there was not even the choice to get out in a safe place. And the one that was, that helped her is the one that everyone thought was like this immoral. Marjorie has all her baggage from being a child and all the abuse and abusive father. Oh my gosh. Again, the same sort of thread, but that would not have been uncommon back, like. So it wasn't that I didn't get any thread of I hate men. It wasn't like that. It was just. Here is a picture. It was actually quite loving because it was men that brought the redemption. So that's what I think. Set it apart. Because I'm also hyper aware that I don't want books that pull down one gender to pull up another gender. I don't feel she did that at all.

I feel like, totally agree.

Actually came from men. So I love those sort of books, you know, I think. And she did that beautifully because it was loving. So there was a great sisterhood and the girls all stuck together, but it was men that really came through and what they lacked in love from their father. And, you know, it was something that a man healed. I thought it was powerful. Of course, I'm always gonna get a bit spiritual.

I'm sorry, I totally agree. So who was your favorite? Who's your favorite woman? Like, were you more like Marjorie or Alice?

Yeah, I would resonate more with Marjorie because I'm a little bit, for want of a better phrase, you know, spiritual gonadsy. I'm out there and it's just me and my horse. Not that I'm into animals, it would be my car. But it was her resilience. And she's got great compassion. So there's a very tender heart, which is obvious from how she went to help and save lives and the fact that she fought for that library. She fought for those women. She, you know, made sure she was inclusive. Ethnicity, race, gender. She's very. So there's this thick veneer, but let me just say it. I don't mean to be so blunt. It's not that she was hard. She just won't take crap. She could just tell the difference between what's crap and what's real. And that would be me. I go to people. I'm not really as hard as you think. It's just I've got zero tolerance for crap.

But, you know, and she was a fighter.

Totally. She's like, I'm gonna fight for what's right.

Yeah, that's what I liked.

She fought and she just stood up to the father in law and the injustice, you know, and then the mother's heart came through. Of course, when, you know, she's in jail and gives over her daughter has.

The baby, she gives the baby away. But like, it was so well done too, the way that she was breaking. Like she, you were cheering so hard for her. You're like, don't give up, don't give up. But she really, like, she got to a place where she was so depressed and she was so broken and she was so hopeless. And then lo and behold, it's a woman who comes to her rescue and speaks for her. And before you go, can we just talk about. Have you ever read a book where the murder weapon was?

A book. I was so fired up. The book, okay. That's sheer genius, though, to write a book about books. And a book is the, you know, and. Oh, man, I could say so much.

But everywhere throughout the. There's like this thread throughout the story.

Where because, you know, she starts you.

Off in the beginning with this man who's like attacking her. And then throughout the story they keep saying, where's Little Women? Who has Little Women? And there. And nobody. And nobody knows. And I kept, like, I kept wondering why, why do they keep saying where's Little Women? Like, I didn't make the connection until the end when they tell you that it was a murder weapon. And just even the irony of her using that type, that book, Little Women.

And you know, of course, back then the big argument is don't let a woman be educated or learn how to read, because a woman that knows how to read is a powerful woman. So what did the father in law keep trying to do? Shut down the library. Shut down the library. Shut down the. And it's kind of, I mean, just in a very personal way, even though I'm from another country, another time, because I grew up in a Greek Orthodox home, I grew up very Greek, where a woman could never be more educated than a man. So I remember my, my parents would say, you know, at school, don't try to excel too much, because if you're too smart, no boy's ever going to want to marry you. No one's ever going to date you. And I was engaged at 18 to a Greek man and I was accepted into university. And his mother said, my son didn't go to university, so you have a choice, you can come. And it was. He sort of owned a fruit and vegetable shop. You can come and work in the fruit and vegetable shop, but you can't go to if you're going to marry him. This is enough that his mother is telling me this. I don't know what else I need to tell you that his mother is but you can't clue number one that.

You need to run.

You can't marry him. It's your choice basically university or that because it was like a Greek girl should not be more educated and doesn't need. You don't need a degree. I would have heard a thousand times growing up, you don't need a degree to get married and have kids. You don't need a degree to get married and start, you know like it was just this constant thing. So I kind of really get a lot of the countries we work with in a 21 the thinking would still be the same. And it's just interesting to go, wow. In rural Kentucky just 100 years ago there was still shut down the library. You don't want the pretty little women to have the book because they might kill someone.

And how like reading. Reading is so powerful. And it's free. I mean the library it was free and it. And it's. And how books can set you free.

And stories you think how many and that common theme of abuse. I know you know I came from a background of 12 years of abuse. I A part of my saving grace was books. I would that's the only place that escape Books were like my best friend until I could get out, you know and get out from that situation. And so I always say the right book in the right hands at the right time can just change your life. Literally. Yeah. Yeah.

I love it.

I love you.

I love you so much.

Thanks for hopping on.

All right. It's been my pleasure. I love you all.

Sa.