Courage. Perseverance. Bigotry. Dedication. Love. This novel will make you “sit up and think!” This is the story of the librarians known as “Book Women” during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration ( WPA) . These women, and a few men, traveled by horse, mule, boat, or even by foot to reach their devoted patrons in the woods, coves, and up the creeks of Kentucky. The Pack Horse librarians were paid $28 a month and depended on donations for books, magazines, and newspapers for their deliveries.

Cussy Mary Carter, the Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, is one of the Blue People of Kentucky. She lives with her father who works in the coal mines. Cussy Mary’s dad tells her she is the last of the blue mountainfolk. Any emotion turns her skin “as blue as the familiar bluet damselfly skimming Kentucky creek beds,” so the doctor has nicknamed her Bluet.

All the book lovers who have ever tried so hard to find a book to match a reader’s interests will identify with Cussy Mary and her absolute determination to find the perfect “read” for each of her patrons. This reader was enthralled by Cussy Mary’s courage to endure persecution and bigotry as she carries on with her deliveries; overcoming physical attacks, weather related storms and those human ones caused by fellow mountainfolk due to her color. Do the doctors find a cure for her color through their experiments at Saint Joseph Hospital? Will that really bring her happiness and a marriage? You’ll find yourself loving, hating-crying, cheering- all at the same time. Do yourself a favor and put The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek on your “to be read list.” You’ll thank librarians everywhere!

Troublesome Creek, Kentucky is rightly named. There are few jobs, too little food other than what can be coaxed out of the stubborn soil and a deep prejudice back in the 1930s. If you are colored you don’t have the same rights as white folks and if you are a blue you are considered to be almost less than human. Children stare and almost everyone refrains from touching a blue.

Cussy Mary Carter is a blue. She lives with her Pa and is proud to have a job delivering books with the Pack Horse Library Project. Pa works in the coal mines and along with the small amount of pay he also collects a large amount of coal dust that resides in his lungs and is slowly leaching the life out of him. Before he dies he wants to marry off Cussy so that she won’t be alone. Cussy on the other hand, does not want a suitor much less a husband. Married women cannot be Book Women and she loves bringing books to people in the Kentucky mountains. They cannot afford books and there isn’t a library to go to in Troublesome Creek.

Known to many as Bluet, Cussy cares for the people on her book route. They depend on her. She grows closer to some than others, but always knows just which books and magazines to bring to each on her route. She goes without food to help feed starving children and brings coveted medicines to sick or injured along with the books in her pack.

The town doc wants to do medical testing on Cussy, but she firmly refuses. Unfortunately she and her Pa need his help and the only way to get it is to allow him to run the tests he has asked for. She will take her first ride in a motor car and go to the city where they take some of her blood and examine her against her will. Surprisingly, there is a cure for her blue skin. The Doc has figured out her ailment and can treat it. She can be white – but at what cost?

The harshness of the hills in the 1930’s is not sugarcoated in this novel. This is where people die from starvation, books and newspapers are hard to come by and blue people suffering from Fugates’ Congenital methemoglobinemia really exist. Ms. Richardson pulls the reader into the hard scrabble life of the Kentucky mountain people. Both the beauty of her prose and the stark realities, she pulls the reader along the rough road Cussy travels as well as the bits of beauty, charm and love she encounters. Ms. Richardson doesn’t just tell the story; you become immersed by the language and descriptions. A couple of my favorites are when Cussy first sees the city. “..the unusual buzz, the city’s open hymnal..” and also when she first sees the city hospital, “…a concrete tree with branches of polished corridors…”.

Be sure to read the afterward that explains about methemoglobinemia, the history of the disease as well as pictures of those afflicted. The Pack Horse Library Project, established in 1935 as part of President Roosevelt’s WPA program is also detailed. By reading the afterward, it is evident Ms. Richardson weaves the facts masterfully into her work of fiction. An advocate for prevention of child abuse and domestic violence (which is also touched on in the book), Ms Richardson has written several novels as well as a best-selling memoir, The Unbreakable Child.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy from Bookish, Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Copyright © 2019 Laura Hartman

This is a beautiful book. Everyone who loves books will enjoy it. In particular the history woven into the story. Kim Michelle Richardson did an outstanding job.

Thanks to Kim Michele Richardson, BookishFirst, and NetGalley for the ecopy for my Kindle.
Because I love to read books and I had a Pack Horse Librarian in my family from Kentucky (Harlan Co., KY- Amburgery), I was drawn to this book.
What an interesting book about women who risked their lives to deliver books to rural areas!
I didn't expect to get a history of the Blue People of Kentucky, but it was very interesting to learn the history of the Blue People.
This is definitely a great book for anyone who loves books and enjoys reading historical fiction about Appalachia.

This was a beautiful book that's going to stick with me long after I've finished.

Cussy Mary is the last of the Kentucky Blue People, suffering from a genetic disorder that causes blue skin. Bullied and ostracized by the people in her rural Kentucky town, Cussy finds solace in her Pack Horse Library route, traveling hundreds of miles a week to bring books to patrons who have no way to get to town.

Part coming of age story and learning how to be comfortable in your own skin and overcome the hand dealt to you, this is mostly a book about the redemptive power of books. In an age of instant downloads and easy access, it can be hard to remember what one book can do, and this novel explores that so beautifully.

Both the Blue People of Kentucky and the Pack Horse Librarians were real, and I enjoyed doing my own research on them as well.

I love when a book pulls a little known piece of history and creates an amazing story around it. This one did that twice. Once with the Pack Horse Librarians and then with the Kentucky Blue People. The story was told shining a very interesting light on prejudice, and on poverty. The characters were deeply drawn, I can picture every one of them and hear their individual voices. I just kept wondering as I read, were the two stories so unique, and so interesting, that they should have each had their own book. Could the librarians have held their own story by expanding past the main character's route? Did the blue people have more history and more stories that could have been told?

DNF at 10% (rating only because NetGalley requires it; Goodreads review has no rating)

This is entirely because I'm not a fan of the writing style.

I really wanted to read a historical fiction book about the Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, and was really intrigued by the main character being one of the blues of the area—people who had a recessive genetic mutation called met-H or methemoglobinemia—who faced discrimination, fear and disgust due to her unique coloring.

But again, not a fan of the writing style.

Too much tell, not enough show, with info dumping by dialogue while pa messes with a courting candle for two chapters. Plus a scene of marital rape right in the beginning.

Again, I'm sure that this is going to be well-received and well loved. It's been on several book lists already and has a 4.3 rating so far.

It's just not for me.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

You will remember Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry LONG after you finish 'The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek'. Cussy or Bluet as she is known is an amazingly well developed character who makes you wish you could crawl into the book and talk to her. Her loving mother is dead and her father/Pa is a coal miner whose lungs with the 'Miners Sickness' have started to let him know the coal is too much. She and Pa live in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky where education is almost non-existent and food is not a 3 meal a day kind of thing.

Against the wishes of her Pa, she gets a job with Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) Pack Horse Library Project. She brought joy and learning to her customers during a time where food was scarce and ignorance ran rampant. Customers like Angeline, a teenaged pregnant wife who years for something more and knows she is 'stuck'. R.C, the firewatcher who believes in Cussy and her helping him. Jackson, a returned Kentuckian who has seen and read more than MANY if not close to all of her customers combined. Queenie, the co-worker who can most relate to her and has BIG BIG dreams and wants Cussy to dream big.

I could write so much more and not capture it,. This is a book that I wish would have a sequel (or maybe a book about a different character with Cussy making an appearance so we know how she is).

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!!

I was so impressed with this book. I was familiar with the Pack Horse librarians, and this book served to expand my knowledge of this very vital part of the 1930s WPA programs. The language and slang of the Appalachian culture brought the whole area to life. Cussy Mary was a "Blue," the last of her kind (or so she thought), which is a real medical condition. In 1930s backwoods, she was considered to be "Colored," and as such, her life was very proscribed in the places she could go, businesses she could enter, houses of worship. Cussy was a strong woman and she persevered in spite of all the obstacles thrown in her path.
Pa was a coal miner, suffering from black lung, and devoted completely to his daughter. He was one who saw what the mines were doing to the Kentucky hills, and he understood that unions could help the situation.
Cussy delivered her books and magazines and scrapbooks which she made herself, to every patron on her route. Some did not want her to leave materials - after all, these were tools of the devil. Other stops, she taught people to read. She delivered materials to mountain schools, where she watched children slowly starving to death. Her mule, Junia, protected her at every turn.
With each chapter we learn more about the Appalachian way of life. We learn about bootleggers, religious fanatics, young mothers who had to watch their children starving, unkind people who went out of their way to treat Cussy badly, and then we have the wonderfully kind, caring people who were her true friends.
The regional dialect was an asset to this story. Her insistence on keeping her Pa's clothes and bedding clean, even though it was an ongoing struggle with the coal dust; her ability to conjure up a meal out of a bunch of wild greens; her willingness to share each and every morsel of food with those who had even less than she did.
A big thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Book Woman Of Troublesome Creek by author Kim Michele Richardson is a wonderful historical fiction novel. It takes place during the 1930’s in the hills and valleys of backwoods Kentucky. There Cussy Mary, a 19 year old blue skinned girl lives with her pa in a cabin in the woods. Cussy Mary, also known as Book Woman, is a Pack Horse librarian. Her job is to deliver much anticipated books and other reading material to her patrons on horseback through the sometimes treacherous terrain. What amazed me was that during the Depression when food was scarce, the patrons were more interested in receiving the written word via books and old newspapers, that they thought nothing of sharing what little food they had to survive. Cussy’s father is a coal miner who works nights leaving her alone to fend for herself. While some of the locals treat Cussy with respect, a great deal of them are prejudice and look down on her as being colored. It’s a story of one young woman’s struggle and perseverance against hardships and prejudices to live a happy and fulfilling life. I really enjoyed reading this and want to thank BookishFirst for gifting me the arc. I highly recommend it to all historical fiction readers and give it a 5 star rating.

Booklovers unite! because this might be the most impressive piece of historical fiction you will read this year!
Wow, do I sound blown away? Yes my tribe, I am!

1936. Meet Cussy Mary, a tough cookie struggling to survive the harsh life deep in the Kentucky mountains.
She's a Pack Horse Librarian, carrying books and other forms of print to the poorest and most isolated families of Troublesome Creek. She's also one of the last Blue People of Kentucky. Yes; blue, as in blue-skinned. It's called methemoglobinemia, an enzym deficiency in the blood that causes the blue sheen. Imagine how people look at her and judge her. It's a tough life, filled with sorrow and hunger.
Being a Pack Horse Librarian is her livelyhood. Riding her donkey up those mountains, bringing the joy of reading to isolated families, this book is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Cussy is a caring soul, and throughout the story we watch people change their opinion of this woman they call Bluet.
I love how she knows just which books to bring to certain people, educate them, show them some love. Sharing her homemade scrapbooks filled with news clippings, poems, recipes, sewing patterns and cleaning tips with the mountain folk.

This story impressed me deeply. The struggle to fit in, meanwhile trying to accept the self, the hunger for knowledge, so familiar, the Pack Horse Librarian Project, part of Roosevelt's New Deal, and of course learning more about methemoglobinemia. All based on real people and real history.
The journey is tiresome, the hunger gruesome, still this book moves with dignity, respecting human and animal alike. The ending is comfortable and put a smile on my face. Highly highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

This is a portion of the review posted on my blog Trails of Tales
Kim Michele Richardson has written a fiction, beautiful beyond words, teeming with strength inspired by the actual blue mountain folk of Kentucky and the dedicated services of the mobile library of 1930’s.

I am struggling to find words potent enough to describe how I felt about this book.

Not just Cussy Mary but all the other characters that the author brought to life in ‘The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek‘ were created lovingly with a insightful depth.

Kim Michelle Richardson’s dedication to her characters is more than apparent in her writing.

Cussy Mary is the perfect protagonist for this story. Her fear is palpable. And so is her love for books.

I felt as afraid as Cussy did crossing those dangerous routes to deliver books, afraid of the man who kept trying to rape her in the name of ‘purging her of her unholy unnaturalness’.

I realized that is is easy to identify with a fear like that when you are a woman.

Speaking of characters, there is one special character I would like to draw your attention to.

Junia, Cussy Mary’s female mule who is extremely loyal, intiutive, brave and has a lingering suspicion of all males.

I believe that if you have an animal in your life who chooses to love you, then you are truly blessed.

Junia’s love for Cussy Mary was undeniable and her loyalty towards Cussy was what kept her safe and sound on more than one occassion. Their friendship gave an extra layer to this story that warmed my heart and made me more attached to ‘The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek‘.

It must be a huge undertaking for an author to write a historical fiction. Weaving a story that resonates with the audience and respecting the weight of the history involved at the same time has to be tedious. But Kim Michelle Richardson has given it her all and given us a result that will not cease to amaze.

The author has given a detailed history of the blue skinned peoples and the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project at the end of the book. It was inspiring to read how many people slogged to carry the magic of books to those who didn’t know of it.

It lays bare the truth of what happens when people refuse to see beyond the colour of skin. As a Person of Colour myself this is not a story that I can ignore.

I am positive that ‘ The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek’ is a tale that you will cherish. Add it to your TBR list now!

This was a wonderful story and the main character had such grit. I had also never heard of blue people so that was fascinating. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I love novels where the story telling is based on true historical facts, especially when they are something I'd never heard of before. In this novel, the author weaves together two interesting, well researched historical episodes from 1930s Kentucky to tell a fascinating and memorable story.

Nineteen year old Cussy Mary Carter and her widowed coal miner father live in a small shack near Troublesome Creek, where they barely scrape by on his meagre wages and her small salary as a librarian for the Pack Horse Library Project. Cussy and her father are both members of the Blue people, an inbred family with a mutation that makes their skin appear blue, causing them to be reviled by the whites in town and banned from white-only rest rooms, restaurants and events. Because of this Cussy loves the solitary nature of her job bringing library books by horseback through the mountains of the Appalachians to impoverished backwoods families (her 'patrons'), who are mostly too excited to see new books arriving to worry much about the colour of her skin. While Cussy is happy to stay single for the rest of her life if she can only keep being a librarian, her father wants only to see her married before he dies of the miner's lung disease that is slowly killing him and that's when all the trouble starts.

This is a heartwarming and, at times, heart wrenching tale of racism and injustice and the power of books and a fierce, courageous woman determined to open up the world for others through education and knowledge. There are some wonderful characters amongst Cussy's patrons - quiet, shy teenager Angeline expecting her first child, R.C. the firewatcher who wants to study to become a forest ranger as well as Cussy's friend and handsome Jackson Lovett as well as Cussy's friend, Negro pack horse librarian Queenie who eventually escapes the small town bigots to become a librarian in Philadelphia and Doc who desparately wants to get his hands on Cussy to study her blood and skin. Highly recommended for those who enjoy good storytelling with a historical background.

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.

This book broke my heart, twisted it, stomped on it, and then uplifted it. I cried and raged as I read it. It is an emotional hotbed kind of read dealing with extreme poverty and hardship, discrimination, and perseverance.

Cussy Mary Carter is a "Blue" (the last female of the blue-skinned people of Kentucky) who lives with her father (a "Blue" coal miner) and who works for Roosevelt's WPA Pack Horse Library Project. She delivers books to isolated mountain people. These people are so poor some are dying of starvation but they are also starving for books and news. Cussy is devoted to the people on her route and tries to bring each one something special to read. She is also devoted to spreading literacy. Her perseverance through hardship proved her a strong and courageous girl.

One of my very best reads so far this year. My thanks to Kim Michele Richardson and Sourcebooks Landmark through Netgalley for an advance copy.

An enlightening and fascinating historical fiction novel that was impossible to put down and will be a hard book to forget.

SUMMARY
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK is about the WPA Pack Horse Library Project of 1935 and the factual Blue People of eastern Kentucky.  It’s a tribute to the librarians who traveled on horseback and mule to provide books to the poor and isolated communities in Kentucky.

Cussy Mary Carter is the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. She becomes a librarian at nineteen, riding across creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule, Junia, 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 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.

“Our Bluet is a librarian for the Pack Horse project. A smart book woman for our little town.” His voice was proud like, like a papa bragging on his child.”

REVIEW
This is a unique, fascinating and enlightening story about the Kentucky Blue People and Pack Horse Librarians. I was not familiar with either of these topics when I selected the book, but a book about books is bound to be good. But it wasn’t just good it was great. This is one of those moments that a book totally took me by surprise.

It’s a tale of one woman’s fierce strength and her belief that books can help ease burdens, escape misery, and grow minds. Cussy’s character was so well-developed you can’t help but feel her shame, her anger, her compassion and her strength. My favorite part was Cussy’s tremendous dedication to help her book patrons in any way she could. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was impossible to put down and will be a hard book to forget.

Kim Michele Richardson’s writing is touching and she provides an authentic Appalachian voice.  She was born in Kentucky and resides part-time in Western North Carolina. She is an advocate for the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence, partnering with the U. S. Navy globally to bring awareness and education to the prevention of domestic violence. Her works includes Liar's Bench (2015), GodPretty in the Tobacco Field (2016) and The Sisters of Glass Ferry (2017). The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is her fourth novel.

Thanks to Netgalley, Kim Michelle Richardson and SourceBooks Landmark for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

““Listen Bluet, we may be able to cure you, make you white. Wouldn’t you like that? “He asked gently and pulled the motor car onto the side of the road. Maybe there weren’t anything a Blue should like better than becoming normal like that, but the pain and the fear left me shaken and crowded out those possibilities.”

Publisher Sourcebooks Landmark
Published May 7, 2019
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

In the mid 1930s, nineteen-year-old Cussy is thought to be the last living female of Kentucky's rare Blue People, which places her in a social class on par with Negroes. Despite her father's increasingly desperate attempts to see her married to a man who will provide for her when the mines claim Pa's life, nobody is willing to take a chance on young Bluet. She joins the Pack Horse Library Project, becoming a librarian who delivers books and other reading materials via mule to the poor hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Although this is a work of fiction, a lot of it is based on reality. I had never heard of the Blue People, but will certainly look into the condition and its potential treatments at my earliest opportunity. While I was familiar with the WPA (Works Progress Administration), I was unaware of their Library Project, which also drove me to learn more. What I learned about both was fascinating, and made this book seem more like one based on a true story than a fictional account. While it took awhile to get into the story, I was glad I stuck with it and will recommend this book to anyone looking for a historical fiction book that will stick with you long after you've read the last page

The story was ok, but had some jumbled writing at times. The way time jumped around at times and the extensive use of vernacular of the era and location took away from the story at times. Cussy is a librarian in the hills of Kentucky. Life is harsh and violent and fierce at the time setting of this book, and Cussy has an extra dose of this tough reality because her skin is blue.

The best part about historical fiction is when it motivates you to learn, and that’s what this book did! I had never heard of the Blue People of Kentucky, and now I know lots about them, as well as the Pack Horse Library Project, established as part of the WPA in 1935. Although this book was a little wordy at times, the author did an excellent job of making sure the reader FELT emotions. At times I was hesitant to read because I was fearful for the main character; other times I was moved to tears. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a great piece of historical fiction.