Cussy “Bluet” Carter enjoys her work as a book woman for the Pack Horse Library Project. The year is 1936, and the project is part of Roosevelt’s WPA (Works Progress Administration) effort to increase employment and education in rural areas. Cussy travels a tough route through rural Kentucky, where she shares her love of the written word with her patrons. However, poverty and the stigma against women working aren’t the only two issues Cussy faces. She’s also the last living member of the Blue people, an ancestry that is identified by a recessive gene that turns her skin blue. Kim Michele Richardson takes us back in time as we travel with THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK.
It’s hard to find words to properly describe all the emotions that Kim Michele Richardson pulls out of the reader with THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. We see Cussy’s successes with her patrons as she seeks books to tempt even the most incalcitrant person to embrace a love of reading. Her willingness to share food with others less fortunate than her is heartwarming, even as it seems futile due to the hardships of the world in which they live. However, it is the cruelties she has to endure that hit home the most, as we are angered and horrified by certain events that occur simply because of the color of her skin.
Kim Michele Richardson portrays the social issues that plagued the 1900s in a way that brings it to vivid life. The poverty is staggering, as it’s so hard to imagine folks living in such sad conditions without access to food. I love Cussy’s generous heart, even when she is suffering herself. Cussy’s story is both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time as the reader can’t help but admire her strength and courage in the face of such adversity.
I love historical fiction that teaches me even as it touches me and THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK is the perfect example of this. I’d never heard of the Pack Horse Librarians or the Blue People so seeing how both of them tied in with the plight of miners back in the 1900s is both enlightening and sad. Kim Michele Richardson does an excellent job of bringing history to life as she sheds light on a time often ignored by history. If you love historical fiction, then give THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK a chance as it’s a stunningly good read.
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.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a powerful message about how the written word affects people--a story of hope and heartbreak, raw courage and strength splintered with poverty and oppression, and one woman's chances beyond the darkly hollows. Inspired by the true and historical blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek showcases a bold and unique tale of the Pack horse Librarians in literary novels — a story of fierce strength and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.
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