The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Great Depression
Growing up in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky during the 1930s, young Cussy Mary Carter is isolated due to her blue-tinged skin, a rare hereditary trait amongst her mostly white community. Unmarried and seeking connection, Cussy joins the Pack Horse Librarian Project, delivering books to those living in rural and impoverished areas. Readers will enjoy Cussy’s quiet determination as she makes her own way in the world, while also learning lesser-known aspects of American history.
Author Biography
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today bestselling author, Kim Michele Richardson has written five works of historical fiction, and a bestselling memoir.
Her critically acclaimed novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a recommended read by Dolly Parton and has earned a 2020 PBS Readers Choice, 2019 LibraryReads Best Book, Indie Next, SIBA, Forbes Best Historical Novel, Book-A-Million Best Fiction, and is an Oprah's Buzziest Books pick and a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection. It was inspired by the remarkable "blue people" of Kentucky, and the fierce, brave Packhorse Librarians who used the power of literacy to overcome bigotry and fear during the Great Depression. The novel is taught widely in high schools and college classrooms and has been adopted as a Common Read selection by states, cities, and colleges across the country and abroad.
Her latest novel, The Book Woman’s Daughter, an instant New York Times and USA Today’s bestseller is both a stand-alone and sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Kim Michele lives with her family in Kentucky and is the founder of Shy Rabbit. - Author's website
Booklist
Cussy Mary Carter knows no one will want to marry her with her blue skin, a rare hereditary condition sometimes found in the mountains of Kentucky. She prefers it that way, since a married woman cannot work for the WPA, and being a Pack Horse librarian is the one light in her lonely, hardscrabble life. But her coal-miner father wants Cussy to be taken care of, which leads to a disastrous, mercifully brief marriage. Now the Widow Frazier—though she prefers what her young patrons call her, the Book Woman —is free to deliver scant reading materials to the most remote hollows of Troublesome Creek. Though Richardson's latest (after The Sisters of Glass Ferry, 2017) is essentially about the power of reading and libraries, it also explores the extreme rural poverty of 1930s Appalachia and labor unrest among coal miners. Readers will respond to quiet Cussy's steel spine as she undergoes cruel medical tests to ""cure"" her blueness, and book groups who like to explore lesser-known aspects of American history will be fascinated. -- Susan Maguire (Reviewed 4/1/2019) (Booklist, vol 115, number 15, p15)
Publisher's Weekly
This gem of a historical from Richardson (The Sisters of Glass Ferry) features an indomitable heroine navigating a community steeped in racial intolerance. In 1936, 19-year-old Cussy Mary Carter works for the New Deal–funded Pack Horse Library Project, delivering reading material to the rural people of Kentucky. It’s a way of honoring her dead mother, who loved books, and it almost makes her forget the fact that her skin is blue, a family trait that sets her apart from the white community. The personable and dedicated Cussy forges friendships through her job, including with handsome farmer Jackson Lovett, who becomes Cussy’s love interest. Cussy’s ailing coal miner father, Elijah, insists she marry, but the elderly husband he finds for her, Charlie Frazier, dies on their wedding night. Pastor Vester Frazier, a vengeful relative, blames Cussy for Charlie’s death and starts stalking her. The local doctor steps in to help, and Cussy repays Doc by letting him perform medical tests on her to learn the cause of her blue skin. A potential cure for Cussy’s blue skin and a surprise marriage proposal set in motion a final quarrel among the townspeople over segregation laws that threatens Cussy’s chance at happiness. Though the ending is abrupt and some historical information feels clumsily inserted, readers will adore the memorable Cussy and appreciate Richardson’s fine rendering of rural Kentucky life. Agent: Stacy Testa, Writers House. (May) --Staff (Reviewed 03/11/2019) (Publishers Weekly, vol 266, issue 10, p)
Library Journal
Richardson (Liar's Bench) takes readers to 1930s Troublesome Creek, KY, where Cussy Mary Carter works as a Kentucky Pack Horse Librarian. Under Roosevelt's WPA (Works Progress Administration), the Pack Horse Librarian initiative put unmarried women to work delivering books to remote locations in an effort to boost both literacy and female employment. Cussy Mary is not only a Pack Horse Librarian, she's a Blue. She's assumed to be the last of her kind—a group of blue-skinned folks regularly shunned, persecuted, and sometimes killed by white locals. Cussy Mary's work to spread literacy through the hills meets with her family's battles against poverty and racial animus, as a doctor sets out to "cure" her of her blue skin. Will turning Cussy Mary into a white woman solve her troubles? VERDICT Based on true stories from different times (the blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the WPA's Pack Horse Librarians), this novel packs a lot of hot topics into one narrative. Perfect for book clubs. --Julie Kane (Reviewed 05/01/2019) (Library Journal, vol 144, issue 4, p86)
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