Title: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Author: Kim Michele Richardson
Pages: 286
Rating: 3.5
Cussy Mary "Bluet" Carter is a member of the blue people of the Appalachian mountains in Kentucky. She is also part of the Pack Horse Library program that was started during The New Deal. It's Bluet's job to make sure that rural Kentuckians have books to read, and if her patrons can't read, she will read to them. Bluet is a compassionate woman that was born with everything stacked up against her.
During the novel the author brings you deep into the Kentuckian mountains and the stigma that goes with being so isolated from society and uneducated. The stigma is heavily shown with Bluet and her blue skin; the blue people are viewed as lower than African Americans in the 30s. The novel shows how Bluet was hunted by a preacher to "baptize her", to a doctor who tried to give her a pill that would make her skin white.
Kim Richardson grew up in rural Kentucky in a orphanage and grew up with the mountain folk. She goes into great detail about that language of the mountains and how poorly educated they were. She had characters speak in the Appalachian dialect and it was hard to understand at some points. Richardson also highlighted how important the Pack Horse Library program was in rural Kentucky. Without Bluet and others who delivered books, these people would never have access to books or any kind of reading material. Richardson went on with the program to describe how the librarians would read to her patrons and teach them how to read if that's what it took to keep them.
I read this book for my local book club and I'm glad it was chosen. It's a book I would never pick up on my own and I'm so glad I decided to read it. It was eye opening to the Appalachian culture during the 30's and how desperate they were for reading material.
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