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The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.
Cussy’s not only a book woman, however, she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike … kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.
Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.
Fans of historical fiction will fall in love with this bestselling novel’s:
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I enjoyed this book so much. I learned a lot about people who lived in this area during this time. Some of it was not good but some was happy and loving.
Cussy Mary had a very hard life yet she dedicated her time to helping others. She loved the people on her route and the children were her world. The love of reading was so prevalent then and Cussy, or Book Woman as some called her, made it her mission to get books to anyone who wanted them. She ran into lots of mean cruel people or people who just did not understand that she was a human just like them. She was not white and she was not black. She was a blue. She was feared because people didn’t understand what exactly caused her to be blue. All she wanted was to be accepted and treated with kindness. He mama had died and it was only her and her dad. He dad worked in the coal mines and was sick from the coal dust and such hard work. He loved his daughter and only wanted what was best for her. He thought the only way to keep her safe was for her to marry and have a man to protect her.
This book had a lot of emotion in it. It made me cry, laugh in places, cringe, and cry some more. There were parts that just made my head spin. I don’t understand how some people can be happy at other people’s expense. How can some people be so mean and cruel just because they think they are better than others. There were lots of very nice caring people in this story too. It made me stop and think quite a bit. It touched me in ways that a good book is suppose to. I’ve never been a prejudice person and don’t intend to start being one now. I have always believed we are created equal and this book certainly had people that loved Cussy Mary even though she was different. She was a ray of sunshine who only wanted to be accepted.
I didn’t realize this was based on actual events until I read the Author’s notes at the end. It’s such a good story to be written and I feel very fortunate to have read it. Thank you to Kim Michele Richardson for writing this book. It needed to be written. It was a true joy to be given an ARC of this book. It’s my first by this author but won’t be my last.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks landmark publishing for the ARC in exchange for my complete and honest review.
It’s a big 5 stars from me.
Informative about the first mobile book libraries and the fate of women in those early days.
Emotionally resonant and unforgettable, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a lush love letter to the redemptive power of books.
The Bookwomen of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Kim tackled so many themes in one story…life with methemoglobinemia (blue disease), the Great Depression in the hills of Kentucky, importance of reading in life, prejudice, life as a coal miner, the struggle of women’s rights. The book is the endearing story of Cussy Mary who is also known as Bluet. She and her father both have the “blue blood” disease. Her father also suffers from lung disease from working in the coal mines. Starvation is prevalent in the hills of Kentucky. The Pack Horse Librarian Project was one of the WPA projects that hired mainly women to carry library books to people living in the mountains. This vehicle allows the reader to see the goodness of many of Cussy’s clients, the bad in the desperate living conditions of her clients, and the extreme prejudice in the hearts of some.
You owe yourself to get to know the people of Troublesome Creek. You will she’s a tear or two and laugh with them along the way. My thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is Richardson’s finest, as beautiful and honest as it is fierce and heart-wrenching.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is an excellent historical novel, set in the hills of Kentucky. The setting, the language, the personalities are all evocative of these isolated communities in the mid-1930s, the hardships of the depression and the closing of several coal mines, and the works of the WPA.
Cussy Mary Carter is 19 years old in 1936, and a new member of the WPA Pack Horse Librarians. She is one of the gentle Blues, those blue-skinned children of two parents carrying the very rare recessive gene for methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder that limits the uptake of oxygen into red blood cells and results in brown colored blood and blue coloration to the skin. There were actually several families of Blues in this area of Kentucky in this time frame. (See the Fugates family information at Wikipedia.org.)
Cussie, called Bluet by everyone but family, is briefly married to an abusive member of the influential and wide-spread Frazier family, a match approved by her father because he feared his black lung would take him and she would be left unprotected, Cussy is freed when Charlie Frazier’s heart attack ends his latest abuse. Her inheritance is a mule named Junia who also fears men, and a return to her much loved WPA job lost to her on her marriage. Cussie loves her job, her patrons, her books. She is a strong advocate of education and does her best to spread reading across her hills. But will she ever find happiness? All it would take to make her happy would be a family of her own, a man who could see past the blue of her skin into the warmth of her heart. But that would be impossible, with the built-in prejudice in the Appalachian community that includes Troublesome, Kentucky.
I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Michele Richardson, and Sourcebooks Landmark. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this book of my own volition, and this review is my honest opinion of this work.
This book is one of the reasons I love historical fiction so much. It’s based on the WPA Pack Horse Library Project and the Kentucky Blue People. It is set in the 1930s and is in a very depressed area of Kentucky. I learned so much reading this book about the people, this program and how bad racial division was in that time.
This is the story of Cussy Mary Carter who is a Pack Horse Librarian and also a blue skinned woman. She travels through the back woods of Kentucky to the remote poverty areas and to people who basically have nothing. On top of that, because she’s blue skinned, she’s looked down upon as inferior and racially unequal. I love the story of Bluet…what the people on her pack horse route call her. She is so kind hearted and has so much compassion. They love her. She loved bringing the written word to the poor who would otherwise never have books, magazines or anything written to read. She is connected to the families and cares about them very much. Her side kick is an aging mule named Junia. She is cantankerous and also very perceptive. She trusts only Bluet. She protects her. I fell in love with this mule. There were many passages that I felt anxious for them both but together they accomplish their goal of delivering the books and reading materials to the people.
This story is written in the dialect and language of the Kentucky back woods people. It gave the book even more elements of authenticity about the subject and how much these people didn’t have. It’s a coal mining community and the poorest of the poor worked in the mines. I was taken into these back woods and hollers with Bluet and found myself loving the families and people she cared so much for. There were other characters in the book that were not likable but they also brought the reality of how coloreds and blues were actually treated…as inferior human beings. It was a trying time back then for them.
This passage spoke about that:
“Nary a townsfolk, not one God-fearing soul, had welcomed me or mine into town, their churches, or homes in all my nineteen years on this earth. Instead, every hard Kentucky second they’d filled us with an emptiness from their hate and scorn. It was as if Blues weren’t allowed to breathe the very same air their loving God had given them, not worthy of the tiniest spoonful He’d given to the smallest forest critter. I was nothing in their world. A nothingness to them.”
I was in this book totally and completely. I couldn’t put it down. Ms. Richardson writes so that I was in the Kentucky hollers, in the dilapidated cabins, with the starving and hungry families. I was on the remote trails with Bluet and hearing the wilderness sounds and smelling the smells. I had strong feelings all over the emotional map. It was a total immersion of an experience in the lives of the characters and “living” in the pages in this book.
This book is up there with one of my best reads so far this year.
I want to thank Bookish and Ms. Richardson for the amazing opportunity to read this book! It’s been a journey that I will cherish and remember for a very long time.
I would love to give it way more than 5 stars! It’s a must read in my opinion.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson is a historical novel of Appalachia specifically Kentucky during the depression era. I believe this is an important book because of the historical details and research.
There are so many aspects of this book that make it special to me. Kentucky is home and has been my family’s home since before the American Revolution. This book appealed to me because of the pack horse librarian and medical elements as many family members have been in education and the medical field.
I first heard of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky from my mother and the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Hindman Settlement School of Troublesome Creek still exists today as an NSDAR approved and supported school. It has been exciting to read and learn more about the people of this area.
I recommend all of Ms. Richardson’s books but this one is exceptional and opened my eyes to new historical facts about Kentucky. I hope in the future that there may be a new historical book from this author about the frontier nurses of Kentucky.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this excellent book.
This is one of those books that will leave a lasting impression. I absolutely loved the main character, Cussy Mary (a.k.a. Bluet), with her fierce determination to deliver books even though it came at a great risk to her own safety – in addition to the difficult trails there was the possibility that she could encounter people who wanted to do her harm because of the color of her skin. No matter how she was treated or what atrocities she had to endure, she continued to do what she could to bring books (and sometimes food) to her patrons – even thinking up ways that she could entice those who were less inclined to read with scrapbooks containing recipes or other information that she thought they would find helpful. This story was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.
horror, Appalachia, prejudice, starvation, love, historical-research, historical-places-events, historical-fiction, libraries, *****
Cussy Mary Bluet is fiction. The horrors of starvation, prejudice against both blue and black skin colors, and coal mining are real. Also real is the recessant gene for methemogobinemia with the dubious studies and treatment of the 1930s, the pride and perseverance of the people of Appalachia, and the WPA Pack Horse Project librarians including the kindness of those who donated reading materials.
The story itself is of one Book Woman who suffered from a misunderstood trait, the debilitating prejudices of those around her, and the soul deep sadness that comes from being helpless to improve the dire living conditions of others. Despite all, the end of this book is uplifting.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley. Thank you!
This is one of those books where I can’t start another right after. I have so much to think about. This was a beautifully written story about a family in Troublesome Creek, KY. Life is hard in the 1930’s for people living in this area especially for the blue-skinned People like Cussy and her father. Cussy is one of the last born females with this genetic disorder that turns the skin blue. This story shows the prejudice, hunger, mining work. What I also saw through out this book is hope, generosity and love found in the relationships she built in her job. The author did a great job on character development and setting the landscape. Anytime I can learn something new reading a historical fiction is a blessing. I wasn’t familiar with the packhorse librarians and was amazed at the work and bravery that was involved to do this outreach on foot or horse/mule to the tucked away homes in Kentucky so people had access to reading material and conversation. When you love books you want to spread that joy as Cussy did. I loved Cussy’s mule – Junia and his devotion to her safety. I highly recommend it.