The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson – 308 pages
Book Blurb:
In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.
Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government’s new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.
My Review: 4.5 stars
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a book lovers’ kind of book. It reveals day to day life in the mountains of Kentucky, among the hill people and local folks, that live in a small mining town. This book suffered from one thing: the title! It was given an inordinately long title that screams chick-lit, when instead, it offers a beautiful historical story teeming with heart, family and books.
Learning about the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Program was something new to me and so were the blue people of Kentucky. Richardson brought to light, not just one thing to google upon completion of the book, but two. If you follow me regularly, then you’ll know that if I want to learn more about something after finishing a book, it’s definitely a keeper. Everything from mining conditions, small town gossip, racism, friendship, poverty, hunger, medical trials, courting traditions, the power of books to make connections, romance and family are woven into this literary tapestry.
Although socially naïve, I loved the main protagonist. Cussy has been stuck in my head since finishing the book. Her determination about the importance of reading and getting books to her patrons was admirable. The color of her skin was her own cross to bear, and watching her develop into a self-accepting beautiful woman, on the inside and out, was very well done.
Book clubs will devour this one! I highly recommend.
Quotes I liked:
Bring me new words when we meet again so I know the book and brain ain’t gathering dust.”
“I never understood why other people thought my color, any color, needed fixing.”
“I curled myself into a tight ball on the blood-soaked Kentucky soil, wailing for Henry and all the Henrys in these dark hollows who’d never be a common grown-up. Stuck forever as Peter Pans.”
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