Review: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A heart-ripping story of bigotry, illnesses, coal mining, and poverty during the early 1930s in Kentucky. This tale is about Cussy Mary Carter and her work with the WPA Pack Horse Library Project.
Remember that this is historical fiction based on two real events. There is a Troublesome Creek in Kentucky. The bigotry is horrid, but only because the bigotry we have now is not widely acceptable and is usually kept to oneself.

This was a wonderfully sad read and will be perfect for book clubs.

This book is very loosely based on a real family, so the Blue Skinned people part is true: "The 'Blue People of Kentucky' were the Fugate family, who lived in Eastern Kentucky in the 19th and 20th centuries and possessed, due to a rare recessive genetic trait and inbreeding, a condition called methemoglobinemia. This caused their blood to have a lower oxygen-carrying capacity, resulting in blue-tinted skin, purple lips, and, usually, a normal lifespan."



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SUMMARY: "

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."