The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson was chosen as the top LibraryReads recommendation for May 2019 and it is one of my own favorite books of the year so far, too. The main character in this historical fiction novel is a resourceful 19-year-old woman named Cussy Mary Carter, although she is more often called Bluet due to the color of her skin.  As the author explains, there is a recessive gene which can result in methemoglobinemia, a hereditary condition where the individual’s skin appears blue due to the lower oxygen levels.

Reminiscent of Catherine Marshall’s Christy (which is set in 1912 Tennessee), THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK takes place in rural 1936 Kentucky and deals with the extreme poverty and poor working conditions for miners in Appalachia.  Even though her coal miner father worries about her and seeks to marry her off, Cussy is fortunate in that she has a WPA job – being a pack-horse librarian which involves bringing donated books and reading materials to isolated, local residents. It is through those travels that readers meet her patrons such as an older seamstress struggling to see properly, a moon-shiner looking out for his family, a teenage mother-to-be, a lonely fire-watcher, and the school mistress and her charges, many of whom battle starvation.

Cussy Mary’s gender and color result in numerous slights and acts of prejudice, but she battles on, drawing strength from her work and her interactions with patrons. Richardson says, “In writing this novel, my hope was to humanize and bring understanding to the gracious blue-skinned people of Kentucky, to pay tribute to the fearsome Pack Horse Librarians – and to write a human story set in a unique landscape.”  She succeeded. If you are looking for more great books about libraries and librarians, try this list of 10 from BookRiot.