40 acres and no mule cover

40 acres and no mule

by Janice Holt Giles

"In the late 1940s, Janice and Henry Giles moved from Louisville, Kentucky, back to the Appalachian hill country where Henry had grown up and where his family had lived since the time of the Revolution. With their savings, the couple bought a ramshackle house and forty acres of land on a ridge top and set out to be farmers like Henry's forebears. To this personal account of the trials of a city woman trying to learn the ways of the country and of her neightbors, Janice Holt Giles brings the same warmth, homor, and powers of observation that characterize her novels. Enlightening and evocative, personal and universally pertinent, this description of a year of ""backaches, fun, low ebbs, and high tides, and above all a year of eminent satisfaction"" will be welcomed by Janice Holt Giles's many readers, old and new."

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?