To The Stars Through Difficulties

Andrew Carnegie is remembered for the gifting towns across the United States with libraries, what most people don’t realize is that he did not provide content (books) for his buildings. In this story, 100 years after a small town in Kansas got their library, Angelina returns to her father’s hometown to write her dissertation about the prairie women who held bake sales and baseball games to provide books to fill the shelves. History repeats itself when Angelina meets Traci, in town to raise money for the Carnegie Arts Center, they are joined by Gayle, who has moved to town after her own town was destroyed by a tornado. While this book can be a little over the top emotionally, it presents a fascinating side to the Carnegie story most of us don’t know, and librarians of today will be all too familiar with not having money to buy content for their patrons

Angelina, Gayle, and Traci have all come to Kansas for different reasons--Angelina wants to finish her PhD, Traci wants to create art, and Gayle has lost her home in Prairie Hill, a town just destroyed by a tornado. The three women begin to bond, and decide that Prairie Hill needs a new library and center for the arts to begin the rebuilding process, and that they are just the women to spearhead such a project. Tilghman draws the three characters and their intertwining relationships compellingly, and this book is recommended to readers looking for stories about found families.

I loved this book! I grew up in Kansas City and went to college in Kansas 'in the middle of nowhere' so I enjoyed all the references to Kansas. Though I've never lived in a small town, I still could identify with the typical Midwestern women in this book. I could picture the groups laughing and talking as they quilted. And I could imagine the horror and devastation of losing everything in a tornado.

The characters were varied and believable. They were unique personalities who blended together toward their common goal. I enjoyed learning the history about Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy in building libraries throughout Kansas.

This was a nice, easy, feel-good read.

The empowerment of women to impact their community, the use of art for healing, and a belief in the power of books are the themes behind the stories of three women.

A tornado has destroyed the Kansas town of Prairie Hill. Gayle has lost everything, and she and her husband are weighing rebuilding or relocation. The Prairie Hill women mourn their losses, including antique heirloom quilts.

"If only someone could stitch together the few remaining pieces of my tattered life into something whole and new and beautiful." - Gayle

Bibliophile Angelina is pushing forty and trying to finally finish her dissertation on the Carnegie libraries, particularly the one her grandmother helped to build in New Hope, Kansas--population 2,975. She leaves her disapproving mother and Philadelphia behind, gambling on the dissertation to bring a career and independence.

Traci is a twenty-six-year-old self-taught artist from the streets of New York City. An unwanted baby raised by a dysfunctional foster family, she feels bitter and unloved. She was hired, under false credentials, to be the artist in residence for the New Hope art center located in the old Carnegie library. Her art quilts embellished with 'trash' had garnered her an NYC gallery show.

"Great. I've swapped bed bugs for tornadoes." --Traci

Angelina arrives in New Hope for material and to find her grandmother's legendary journal which holds important documentation on how women built the library she loved to visit as a girl. Along the way, Angelina discovers more than history; she finds family, acceptance, love, and a career.

Traci is dismayed by the plebeian work the local quilters turn out.

"I see these women are all great seamstresses but their choices of fabric are dismal: American flags, spiders, and cats. It's amazing how they can put so much time and energy into such crap."
She encourages the No Guilt Quilters to use quilting for self-expression, expanding their techniques to include surface design and the repurposing of textiles and trash for embellishment. She is able to prod them past local gossip and partisan divides (there is antagonism between Prairie Hill and New Hope) so that they become a force for community change.

"You've got to throw all your pain into your creativity. Believe me, it's the best therapy."

Traci has a rough start with the teenagers sent to the art center as punishment after being kicked out of school band. They resent their conservative and parochial community. "We're runners," one explains. "Ran away from home, and if we run away from the foster family, we'll end up in juvvy." Their first project does not go over with the locals, but the teens are empowered and find their voices in art.

Along the way, readers learn about robber baron Andrew Carnegie's charitable donations and orphan trains.

Having lived in Philadelphia, with a husband who worked in New York City, and having afterward having lived in several small towns, I appreciated the East Coast ladies' adjustments. The inability to agree on a paint color for the library recalled a small town church that got pretty riled up over deciding what color to paint the sanctuary. I also enjoyed Traci remarking, "where I come from, there are never so many white women in one place." I had an adjustment coming from a diverse neighborhood to a county with one family of color out of 40,000 people.

But don't think there is an East Coast bias to the book. In the end, Traci and Angelina discover "there's no place like home," and that home is in New Hope, Kansas.

I don't need a happy, tied up ending to a book, but for readers who do, this one offers a wish-fulfillment ending for all. Online questions for book clubs are available at http://www.romalyn.com/resources

I received a free ebook from She Writes Press through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Angelina returns to the town where her father grew up in Kansas to complete her PhD about the Carnegie public libraries. Traci becomes the artist in residence at the Carnegie Art Center and Gayle is from a neighboring town that was just hit by a tornado. When an old journal is discovered, these three women begin to interact to find a way to raise money to build a library and arts center in Prairie Hill, the town struck by the tornado. All three women are full of secrets and looking to build new futures for themselves. I loved all the information about libraries and Kansas. Wonderful debut novel by Romalyn Tilghman.

To the Stars Through Difficulties is a well written story about three different women from three different places and their connection to New Hope. In addition, the novel is filled with fascinating details about the Carnegie Libraries. The story is a little slow in the beginning but please continue reading because the pace does pick up and there is an interesting twist in the end.

I loved everything single aspect of this book – the plot, the characters, the details about the Carnegie-funded libraries, the setting, the author’s writing style and the cover. Romalyn Tilghman weaves her story around three main characters: Angelina, Gayle and Traci, three strong women facing struggles. Her characters are well-drawn, authentic and likeable. The story takes place in two towns, Prairie Hill and New Hope, neighboring towns whose residents have been at odds with each other for years since New Hope was awarded the county seat when two counties merged. Prairie Hill was recently wiped out by a tornado, and residents are debating whether to rebuild; New Hope is trying to keep its Carnegie Arts Center from closing. While demonstrating the power of women, Tilghman crafts a story that is a love letter to libraries and books that will appeal to everyone.

As I began reading the book, I was so curious about its clever title: To the Stars Through Difficulties. Thankfully, my question was answered fairly early on in the book – the statement is Kansas’s state motto. The title is perfect for the book which I always appreciate. I am fairly picky about both titles and covers; it drives me crazy when either one does not match the book itself.

Before reading To the Stars Through Difficulties, I knew very little about Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic pursuits. According to Tilghman, Carnegie spent 90 percent of his wealth on various charitable pursuits for “the improvement of mankind”. One of his most enduring legacies was the funding of public libraries across the country; 59 of which were built in Kansas. The towns had to provide the land and agree to fund the library for an agreed upon amount of time, and Carnegie had approval power over the design of each and every library. One of my favorite parts of the book was learning about some of the actual Carnegie libraries and their subsequent histories – some have remained libraries while others have become Arts Centers and other similar type places once the towns’ book collections grew too large for the original libraries. I also loved reading about how women were so instrumental in bringing the libraries to these towns.

Another fascinating part of the book for me was learning that Carnegie’s father convinced his fellow weavers in Scotland to pool their money to buy books, and then one man would read while the rest toiled away at the looms. Cuban cigar workers adopted this idea to pass the time, and so do Tilghman’s characters. I just absolutely adore that bit of knowledge. Tilghman imparts many other interesting tidbits throughout the book which made me love the book even more.

I do not usually include quotes from books but there were so many good ones in this book that I just have to include a few. The local newspaper man says in an article in support of the town library: “It is respectable to associate with books… even if you do not yourself actually read them.” (How could you surround yourself with books and not read them?!) Andrew Carnegie states: “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.” That is an amazingly true statement.

I highly, highly recommend this novel to everyone. Thanks to She Writes Press and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This is a feel good story and it was just what I needed. It an easy read, lighter than the last book I read - thankfully! While there is nothing light about a town being destroyed by a tornado, the story of three women connecting to do something good for the community and ultimately themselves in the process is uplifting . The narrative alternates from three points of view of three young women, each at a crossroad in their lives. Angelina, coming back from the east to New Hope, KS, where she once spent a month with her grandmother is trying to get back to her dissertation on the Carnegie libraries that she has put aside for ten years. Running from her controlling, unsupportive mother who kept her from ever seeing her grandmother again, she discovers the wonderful spirt of her grandmother's work with a Carnegie library and some family secrets to boot. Traci, the avant-garde artist, creating art our of trash, an orphan who never felt she belonged anywhere decided to escape New York. Gayle has lost her home and all of her belongings to a tornado that ripped through her town searching for where to go and what to do from there.

I loved that this was about libraries and the small town life was described so perfectly that I felt as if I were there. A bit cliched with a predictable ending with a shout out to another story about a tornado in Kansas with the ending words , "there's no place like home", this was an enjoyable read . Recommended to readers of women's fiction and lovers of libraries.

I received an advanced copy of this from She Writes Press through NetGalley.

We currently have a big display in the library about Diverse Books and are looking for more, including titles from less known publishers like She Writes Press who recently released TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES by Romalyn Tilghman. The novel is set in contemporary Kansas, but also focuses on events of roughly a century ago when Andrew Carnegie was donating money to fund local library buildings. He said, "A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert."

In TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES, there are three main characters whose lives become entwined with each other's and with those of the local townspeople from New Hope and neighboring Prairie Hill:

Angelina – an all-but-dissertation PhD candidate who is writing about and researching Carnegie libraries. She travels to Kansas because her grandmother had settled in New Hope and helped to start its library.
Traci – a self-taught artist known also as Trash who uses the finds from her "dumpster dives" to create art. She comes to Kansas as an "artist in residence" and soon works with the No Guilt Quilters and a group of troubled teens.
Gayle – was living in Prairie Hill, but lost her home and all of its contents to a recent tornado. She was traumatized by that event and needs to make the difficult decision to rebuild or not.

I thought that all of these women were well-drawn characters and I loved learning about the history of Carnegie libraries and the close-knit communities. Plenty of secondary characters are librarians by profession, either "the kind who want to know everything on the universe [or] the kind who want to categorize everything." A not-so-subtle theme is the role of women and their strength in effecting positive change by banding together – something it seems we need to relearn with every generation.

There are numerous references to The Wizard of Oz and to Kansas history (like the orphan trains) which is apt since Tilghman was Executive Director of the Association of Community Arts Councils of Kansas and a regional representative for the National Endowment for the Arts. TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES could easily be chosen as a Junior Theme selection (let us know if you are aware of a similar title about Illinois) and is recommended for making readers reflect on their own life choices or passions and those of the strong women who preceded us.

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