Loved this book so very much! Highly reccomended it to my book club as well.
I will probably read this book again next year as well!

Compared to today, things were a little harder for women back in the Depression.

I liked the premise of this book, especially since it is based on real events.

Collette's scrappiness made her my favorite character, but this was a group effort and each character, and some peripheral characters, made it a great story of perseverance and the power of books and reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this draft.

I love the premise of this book. I loved the setting and the love of books displayed here . I loved that this book shows the transformative power of literature in people’s lives even if you are living in a tent camp and your library’ is a boxcar
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book

Spanning the years from 1924 to 1936, this novel is based on the real story of a library installed in a boxcar, thanks to the dedication and persistence of a librarian. In 1924 the fictitious character Alice Monroe, based on Ruth Worden, determined to bring books to far flung mining and logging camps, and convinced the manager of the Anaconda Mining Company to provide a boxcar for a bookmobile. She find the ideal person to staff it in Colette Dunbar. Fast forward to 1936 when Millie is hired by the WPA to supervise the writing of a Montana guidebook which has mysteriously lost the completed first draft. The chapters alternate from Alice to Millie to Colette, and from 1924 to 1936, so the sequence is sometimes confusing. However, the back story of the union tensions and tyranny of the mining corporation make for a fascinating story of the dangers and hardships of the time, juxtaposed with the love of books and learning, and the power of friendships.

I thought this worked well as a Depression era novel, it had everything that I was looking for in a historical fiction book. The overall story worked and enjoyed how strong the characters were in this. I was engaged with what was going on and thought the overall feel worked with what I was looking for. I had enjoyed the previous book that I read from Brianna Labuskes and this had a maturity that I was looking for and continued to feel like it was supposed to. I enjoyed that this was based on a true story and that element worked in this novel.