"This old land." Jackson stared off. "It sure makes a man yearn for it and want to flee it altogether." *

Cussy Mary Carter hasn't had an easy life.  She's isolated deep in a Kentucky holler, her mama's dead and her father is dying thanks to the conditions in the coal mines.  Not to mention the fact that she's blue.  No one understands why, but her folks and her all have an unknown condition thats been passed down through kin that leaves their skin tinged blue.  The local doc has been hounding Cussy and her daddy for ages to let him run some blood work and figure out their condition.

Their blue skin leaves them outcast in Troublesome Creek.  Folks are afraid of them, religious people seem to think they're an abomination.  Cussy is perfectly content to live at home with her father and bring in extra money as a pack horse librarian, thanks to Roosevelt's WPA program.  She loves reading and it brings her joy to travel the hills and bring books to folks so isolated they'd never have an opportunity to look at a book otherwise.  Unfortunately for her, Cussy's father made a promise to her mama that he'd make sure Cussy married and had a stable life.

Readers follow Cussy on her route and get to know her patrons who begin to welcome visits from "Book Woman".  Still, Cussy is careful never to offend or touch her patrons, many who remain fearful of her blue skin.

"Well, them cloths are a lot like folks. Ain't much difference at all. Some of us is more spiffed up than others, some stiffer, and still, some softer. There's the colorful and dull, ugly and pretty, old, new 'uns. But in the end we's all fabric, cut from His cloth. Fabric, and just that." *

Cussy's married off to a cruel local man but karma swiftly knocks him down ...dead.  She's only too happy to return to her home but before long her dead husband's kin,  the local preacher, begins following Cussy on her work route, accusing her of being evil because she's different.  

When the preacher turns up dead on Carter land, the doctor knows a second dead Frazier man involved with the Carters will look suspicious.  He uses the preacher's death to take advantage of the situation and Cussy agrees to the testing the doctor wants to perform if he'll keep Frazier's death a secret.

The doctor's testing leads to a diagnosis: methemoglobinemia, a genetic defect in an enzyme with reduced oxygenation of tissue, hence the blue skin tone.

Cussy wants nothing more than to belong.  When the doc offers a pill that will temporarily turn her skin lily white, she jumps on the chance to fit in with the folks in Troublesome.  

"Those that can't see past a folk's skin color have a hard different in them. There's a fire in that difference. And when they see you, they'll still see a Blue. No city drug's gonna change small minds, what they think about peculiarity. For them like-minded folks, there is no redemption for our kind." *

Pride is a powerful thing, even in a small town where folks are dying daily from starvation and refuse a hand out.  Some may see Cussy as an equal but most remain prejudice against what they can't understand.

Cussy takes her job seriously and feels it is an honor to teach folks how to read and offer them books either as an escape or a way to learn.  Her patrons appreciate her and she becomes a part of their lives in a small but powerful way.

Then comes the day that Cussy arrives at a patron's home and discovers a man hanging from a tree, a baby wailing at his feet.  What follows is a captivating tale of perseverance, love, and hope.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was heartbreaking and captivating!  I loved how Richardson managed to take two groups from Kentucky history, Pack Horse Librarians and the Blue Fugates ("The Blue People of Kentucky"), and create a fictional tale that shares the grim truth of life for many in Appalachia during the 1930's:  prejudice, isolation, starvation, pride, coal mines, and the intimidating company stores that kept families in danger and in debt.

If you appreciate Appalachian history, historical fiction, and unusual stories, this is a read I recommend!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is scheduled for release on May 7, 2019.

*Quotes included are from a digital advance readers copy and are subject to change upon final publication.

In The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson weaves together two historical events to create an incredible story of a woman caught in the web of racism, superstition, hard times, love, and more. Cussy Mary Carter is the last Blue Carter, the last member of a family who have strange blue skin. In spite of her color, Cussy Mary works as a Pack Mule Librarian to deliver books and magazines to remote hollers and mountains in her corner of eastern Kentucky. Nothing is easy for Cussy Mary in this book. At times, I wondered what more Richardson could throw at her protagonist without breaking the young woman. Thankfully, Cussy Mary is the kind of person who will always get back up after she’s been knocked down.

We don’t meet Cussy Mary under the best of circumstances. Her father is determined to get her married and he doesn’t really care who. Potential suitors are thin on the ground because of the color of her skin. She’s caucasian but she’s not white. Like her father and some members of her family, Cussy Mary has blue skin. (When she blushes, other characters say she looks like a blueberry.) Some people think the blue is contagious; more are sure that any children she has will be blue. In spite of her protestations, Cussy Mary gets hitched to the only man who will take her, a truly horrible man who has the decency to have a fatal stroke before he can permanently damage her. Now known as either the Widow Frazier or her old nickname, Bluet (after the damselfly), Cussy Mary returns to her job as a pack mule librarian. If she can just dodge the people who are more than willing to abuse her, physically or verbally, because of her skin, she’s content with her life as a librarian—no matter how much her father grumbles about the need for her to be safely married in case anything happens to him in the coal mine.

So much happens in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek that it’s hard to believe that it all happens over the course of 1936. We follow Cussy Mary from her ill-fated marriage to her return to her route through the mountains. We also see the preacher stalking her, the man on the mountain who seems to like her and her color, and the doctor who will not let up until she agrees to let him try to cure her blueness. We see the best and (mostly) worst days of Cussy Mary’s 1936. To be honest, though, there were times when I was startled to be reminded that it was 1936. The people on Cussy Mary’s route are more likely to use herbs and folk remedies (such as “mad stones,” rocks that were believed to ward off rabies) than pay for a doctor. So little news makes it through that the mountains feel completely cut off from the rest of the world. Except for the occasionally reminder about World War I or vaccines, this book could have been set anywhere in the nineteenth or even eighteenth century.

The events of Cussy’s life not only help relate the stories of the Blue Fugates—the inspiration for Cussy’s Blue Carters—and the pack mule librarian program, but also the absurd cruelty of racial prejudice and the stubborn beliefs of backwoods Kentuckians. The only thing I didn’t understand about this book is Cussy’s devotion to her father. I loathed the man for most of the book. I consider his determination to marry his daughter off at the beginning of the book completely unforgivable. That said, there is a lot of food for thought in this book, assuming that readers can get past the brutal opening chapter of the book. Once I got past them, I was hooked by Cussy’s story. She reads like a quiet missionary, spreading the gospel of reading and educational betterment through books. Bad weather, worse roads, people who greet strangers with weapons, and a deeply disapproving father cannot stop her from delivering her battered books to her readers.

I highly recommend The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek!

Throughly researched with characters that are easy to become invested in, I didn't want it to end..hoping for a sequel.

Not only does it explore the history of the brave women delivering reading materials to the mountain families, it also explores the Blue People of Kentucky. Facinating!!

As a librarian myself, I do sway towards liking books about librarians, even if they're terrible. But this one is awesome. It really delves into the empowerment that the Pack Horse Library initiative brought to women of the time and enlightened me massively into what life in Troublesome Creek was like. It is not just the empowerment of the female librarians, but also beautifully explains the joy and change which reading and books can bring about. It was a joy to read, although the content is of course troubling and difficult at times, and I feel that if this was in my secondary school library, I would have to warn students about the marriage night scene which I found distressing. It's a lovely study on human nature, community, reading, love - in fact I would say it's a love story about being in love with reading, rather than the romance between characters (although that's good too). Fantastic book which I will definitely be recommending.

This story of Cussy Mary Carter, a “book woman” for the WPA in the hills of Kentucky during the Great Depression, tells about the heroic efforts of the real library women (and a few men) who traveled on horses or mules at great peril to deliver books, old newspapers, magazines, homemade scrapbooks of recipes and local folk remedies to people in the eastern hills of “Kaintuck” who were literally starving—for food, but also for reading material, letters, news, and stories that delivered hope, information and entertainment.

Author Kim Michele Richardson deftly puts people’s speech patterns into the local dialect and intimately describes the hardscrabble life of people who were eking out livings by coal mining and subsistence farming in the dark and barren hollers. But even more, she richly describes the customs and folklore of the region, the treacherous pathways to get to mountain schools and remote cabins, and the rare (and actual) blood disorder that affects Cussy Mary and her family and turns their skin blue, making them “colored” and subject to prejudice, isolation, and persecution.

How do people—and particularly, Cussy Mary and her family—survive and thrive in a time of hard living and isolation, prejudice, illiteracy, enslavement by coal companies and the resulting environmental issues and black lung disease? These are all interwoven into an immersive story that is suspenseful, heartbreaking, and hopeful. This corner of America in the 1930s is brought to life in a brilliant way, with so much to think about and to discuss.

Put this at the top of your list as it’s historical fiction at its finest.

I'm sure The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson, is a lovely book and wonderful story. It may have just been me, but it was not really my kind of read, I did try and continue to no avail. Thank you so very much for the chance. #NetGalley

Put two things together - Appalachia and books - and you've got me. Then add in the Blue People of Kentucky and it is mind-blowing. Yes, blue people actually did exist in the hills of Kentucky, due to a genetic disorder with a lot of vowels that caused a lack of oxygen in one's blood. In Richardson's new book, she creates the character of Cussy Carter, a young "Blue" from Troublesome Creek who works as part of Roosevelt's social program delivering books to folks throughout the hill country. Riding on her stubborn mule, Cussy gets to know the unique characters that inhabit these hills, yet must also tolerate the racism and violence directed towards her, as we see the upheaval during the Great Depression, the fight to unionize coal workers, and the struggle to literally survive. This is a fascinating read, wretchedly sad at times, but ultimately heroic and hopeful.

I read the ARC of "The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek" by Kim Michele Richardson through NetGalley. This historical story is based in the Appalachian Mountains during the end of the Depression when women, typically, became traveling librarians on horses, mules or foot to readers in hidden corners of the mountains. I really enjoyed this novel which gave an accurate portrayal of the poverty and customs of real blue-skinned people of Kentucky. I am excited to have found a new author (for me) and will be seeking out Kim Michele Richardson's other novels now!

I really enjoyed this book. I was not born during the CCC or WPA era but I have been to the hills of Eastern Kentucky. In fact my son married a girl from there and they live there now. The hills over there are treacherous. The roads are bad, t can’t imagine paths thru the mountains.

I knew that Roosevelt did many things to help our country. My father worked for the TVA, another program of that time, but I was not familiar with the Book Women. I had heard of the Blue People and read articles about them. cussie Mary was a Blue person. People did not accept people of different color. And Cussie was no different. She was of color. She became a Book Womanonly by going around the two very prejudice librarians. Book Woman’s patrons looked forward to her visits each week

The hardships, the prejudice, the unkind actions are described in the book. It was very interesting. And I learned more from the story. Michele’s words bring pictures into my mind. She has a way with words. I would definitely recommend this book.

This was an extremely enjoyable and quick read. I loved getting to know the characters and reading historical fiction.

An intriguing look at the Bluets of the Kentucky hills, and the WPA library project of President Roosevelt's New Deal Acts. Though the story itself is fictional, any true historical facts are woven into the novel. Cussy Mary is one of the Bluets, and gained a position as a Pack Horse Librarian. This is the story of her struggles both on and off the book route. Racism, miners' unions, and pure hate were obstacles faced by these Kentucky people.

The Fugates of KY, carriers of a rare gene called methemoglobeinemia, had blue skin due to red blood cells carrying methemoglobin at levels higher than 1%. In laymen’s terms, the hemoglobin can carry oxygen but it’s not able to release it effectively to body tissues. This also makes the blood look like chocolate. Thanks medline plus!  This book is based loosely on that family and the struggles they faced, as they were considered “colored” in those times, as well as the WPA, the government’s Works Progress Administration, which was instrumental in helping create the book women in Kentucky, who rode miles on horseback, on mules, through hollers, up creeks, and anywhere they were needed in Kentucky to ensure that the library program was reaching people that had little been exposed to reading before. Most rural schools didn’t have a library so these women were exposing children and families to books and bringing the outside world to Appalachia in a way it had never been before. Ok, enough history, onto The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
Troublesome Creek is a real place (about 113 miles southeast of Lexington), as was the WPA, the book women, and the blue Fugates. Ms. Cussy Mary, her patrons, her pa, her patrons, and the like are all a work of fiction, but it brings the region and the tale to life in an absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, and sometimes rage inducing way. Her pa is a coal miner, because of course he is. There was very little other gainful employment in the region back then, and we get emotionally drawn in as his health and well-being is sacrificed in favor of others since he’s “just a blue” and isn’t considered as high value as the white miners. Richardson creates in Cussy (our protagonist, and a beautifully rendered woman of her time that values books above all else) a true gem. She knows just how to draw out each patron, what will work to get that recalcitrant patron’s interest in the library program, how to get that moonshinin’ father to let his boys read her books, how far one kind gesture can go in getting nearly an entire town to support her in a moment of need. But deep down, she still feels less than at some moments. She still wants to know what it feels like to not be considered less than because of the color of her skin. Doc offers her that when he discovers that she suffers from a gene disorder related to oxygen after a particularly violent visit to the hospital. Cussy has a choice to make at this point. Is she willing to accept herself as she is? As a certain patron of hers sees the inner beauty that she already holds? Or will she given in because of the hateful taunting and disgust that she sees on the faces of townsfolk when she visits the library center in town?
I got utterly sucked in by this book. Richardson has painted a picture from the unique characters, to the heartbreaking pain and poverty that ransacked the Appalachian region in the 30s. It’s a little bit history book, a little bit love story, some pain and some joy, all interwoven into the perfect kind of story for people that can share a kinship with the kind of woman that would ride miles to share her love of stories. If you love to read as much as I do, and would do just about anything to share the joy of books, this story is for you.

While the writing is bit ragged in places (it was a galley, full disclosure), the subject and characters are fascinating enough to keep me reading. It is a unique window into racism and misunderstanding, and a sad reminder that we haven’t changed much in a hundred years. Book clubs would definitely enjoy this title.

Books about books. Any real reader can relate, right?

Though I knew something of Roosevelt's WPA programs, I knew nothing about the Pack Horse Librarian Project. Designed to make books available to those extremely poor communities tucked up in the mountains and hillsides, it was apparently a much-appreciated and successful program. It's really so hard to imagine in this day of immediate access to information and entertainment that people once felt this way and treated books like rare treasure. Because they are.

Also, I knew nothing about Blues. Literally, blue people suffering from a rare genetic enzyme deficiency from within a small population of Kentucky. Fascinating. Disturbing that people were so narrow-minded. I really just don't get hating people so badly that they can be killed for the color of their skin. Our history with blacks in this country is nightmarish enough. Seriously, if I ran across a Blue, I would just be afraid they were going to STOP breathing let alone plan to cause it myself. Cyanosis is a THING, people! It's not a race or a contagion or the devil's work!

But I guess if you're far enough back in those hollers, chances are pretty good the city docs don't get a chance to warn you about kissing your cousin.

Seriously, though, there's a lot going on in this story. The things I've mentioned as well as labor rights for coal miners and the sheer enormity of the poverty throughout the U.S. in the 1930's. We take so much for granted. Less than 100 years ago, entitlement was reserved for white men and even then it was no guarantee against starvation.

My only real issue with the book was its convenience. Sadly, truly villainous assholes don't drop dead or conveniently get heads bashed in without legal intervention. Cussy got lucky three times and found a prince. A little heavy-handed with the sweet factor at the end. And an abrupt end, at that. At times, it almost felt like Christian fiction but it wasn't, really. But it did ping that radar enough to muddle the issue.


Actual Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded down for being kind of icky-sweet
Format: Kindle eARC
Source: Netgalley
Current ebook price: $9.99
Opinion of Price: Fair value, for a certain kind of reader
My Cost: $0.00

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michele Richardson, Sourcebooks, May 7, 2019

WOW! Kudos to Kim Michele Richardson, Author of “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” for writing such an intriguing, intense, captivating, riveting, compelling and thought-provoking novel. I love the vivid descriptions that Kim Michele Richardson uses of the characters and landscape. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, and Historical Fiction. The time-line for this novel is the Depression in Kentucky. The story goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events . The author describes her dramatic characters as complex and complicated.

I found two things fascinating in “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek”. The first is how important the Book Women who carried books and magazines on mule or horse were to the poverty-stricken people in the hills. The people looked forward to literacy, and trying to be able to connect with their world and make it a little bigger and better. The hills were treacherous, and there were all kinds of dangers for the Book Women to negotiate.

The second thing that I am amazed with is the “Blue People” who actually exist in Kentucky. These people were really blue and considered “colored” and feared because others felt they were contagious, and inferior. There was terrible prejudice to these people. More information can be found in the story.

Food was scarce during the Depression, but the people were so grateful for the Book Woman to bring the books to loan, they would often want to share what little they had. In Troublesome, the people were lucky to have one woman deliver the books.

I loved how courageous and brave the Book Woman was. I highly recommend this amazing novel, especially for those readers who enjoy adventure and a thought-provoking book. I received an ARC for my honest review.

Charming story about real life heroes during the Depression, carrying literature to people in far-reaching rural areas. Also touches on racism and prejudice, and how people treat others who are different from them.

So good!!! The Book Woman, Cussy Mary, is a packhorse librarian in 1930's Kentucky, braving all kinds of weather and personal difficulties to bring literacy and information to her neighbors in the Appalachian hills. She does it for the money, for the love of reading...and despite being a feared and despised "Blue"--due to a genetic condition, her skin is literally blue. Over the course of the story she faces prejudice for being "colored", blame for maladies she has nothing to do with, and no man wants to court her besides. Then she meets a loner on a mountain top by the name of Lovett, and her life is never the same.

Such an enjoyable read, for the historical aspects of the WPA, the "Blue" people, and the abject poverty of Appalachia during the Depression. Highly recommended!

'The goodwill died on my tongue.'

Throughout time there are certain constants, for example ignorance and cruelty. This novel is an ode to the pack-horse Librarians who rode their way throughout Kentucky inspiring people of all ages to read. Richardson takes this historical story and blends it with a tale of the blue skinned people, ostracized cruelly for their differences. Nineteen-year-old Cussy Carter of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky spends her days delivering books to the people of the mountains, her Dad’s fervent wish and promise to his dying wife was that Cussy would find respectability. She needs to stop carrying on with book deliveries, now that he is making money in the mine again, killing himself more like. He wants nothing more than security for his girl, and nothing can offer that for a girl in 1936 better than marriage. “I could barely meet someone’s eyes for fear my color would betray my sensibilities.” A young woman who can turn ‘blue as a damselfly’ when blushing, heir to a strange condition that began with a French great-grandpa, there is no chance any respectable white man would ever stoop to marry her. Upon her deliveries she encounters many who shun and shame her, but if this program can get even a blue like Cussy reading, well it promises to spread literacy to anyone!

Nicknamed Bluet by the locals, her father begins sending suitors her way, the most horrifying of all is when she is courted by the kin of Pastor Vester Frazier. Pastor Vester, the preacher that decides who bears the mark of the devil, and ‘chases them out by baptizing those sinners down in the cold, fast waters of Troublesome Creek’, sometimes ending in life or death! Surely her father can’t possible think anyone tied to the Frazier family can save her! This can’t bode well.

The pastor isn’t the only one she has to fear, and her fierce nature has her risking life and limb just to share her love of books with folks. Of course not everyone is thrilled about their wives or children reading, not when there is work to be done, no time for idleness yet clever girl that she is, Cussy finds ways to keep those hungry for books well fed, despite protestations from fathers. Devoted to her deliveries upon her stubborn mule Junia, she meets Jackson Lovett who surprises her with his kind intelligence, but surely she can’t dare hope to ever mean anything to him, can she? Love isn’t meant for a “Bluet” like her. Town isn’t anymore welcoming, “I always felt like a thief sneaking into town”, with the “NO COLOREDS” signs banning her from socializing her life is that of a spectator, filled with longing to take part in gatherings like the Pie Bake Dances. Color could be catching, right? Then there is the doctor who wants to poke, prod, take samples from her to figure out what is causing her strange affliction. Her people hidden for so long up in them mountains, fear of persecution and worse, should she trust him as she is the last? Are her blue folks on the brink of extinction?

This isn’t a happy read, not at all but it remains true to the torment being different rains down on a life. It is exposure of the worst sort of ignorance, which we all know in human beings is completely infinite. Maybe there is a cure out there that can make anyone who is ‘different’ look just like you and me, sadly there is no cure for cruelty, nor human stupidity when a mind seems bent on it. Cussy is full of fight and hope, but the reality of the times made even the fiercest of men and women break. It is a painful Appalachian tale, based on real historical happenings. This intelligent sad little novel piqued my curiosity about the blue people of Kentucky and the genetic component behind it. People always fear that which they don’t understand. The novel reads true, the language made me feel I too was among the folks of Troublesome Creek and I was engaged until the very end. For anyone who loves Appalachian Fiction, Historical Fiction or strange medical conditions this has it all.

Publication Date: May 7, 2019

'Sourcebooks Landmark

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebook Landmark for allowing me to read this book. It is a beautiful story of the power of books and friendship. In the Kentucky Appalachian Mountains, Cussy Mary Carter, was one of the Book Women, who delivered printed materials to the isolated people in the hills. The books provided comfort and knowledge to these people, as well as having a visitor to bring them news and friendship. Cussy also received the friendship she didn’t find in town due to her congenital disease, which caused her skin to be blue. This book takes us into the lives of the hill people and the struggles Cussy faces in doing her job, with the help of her mule, who protects her from all kinds of harm. I read this book in one sitting. I loved it.

I loved this book about the struggles of a young woman in Appalachia during the Great Depression. The character of Book Woman was up against so many obstacles and still lived her life with compassion and love for others. I was really touched by her story. I highly recommend this book.