Week 11 - Historical Fiction Annotation - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Author: Kim Michele Richardson

Title: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Genre: Historical fiction

Publication Date: May 7^th, 2019

Number of Pages: 320

Geographical Setting: Kentucky, Appalachian Mountains, Appalachian Trail

Time Period: 1930s, late Great Depression

Series (If applicable): Yes; Book woman of troublesome creek (1^st book in the series)

Plot Summary: Cussy Mary Carter is Troublesome Creek’s very own traveling librarian. She’s also the very last of her kind, one of the famed and often feared Blue people. Any whiff of trouble and Blues are automatically to blame. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Cussy is able to deliver books to the people living in the most rural of areas in the Appalachians but along the way she’s forced to confront prejudice and racism while holding tight to the belief that knowledge is power and books can take us anywhere while giving readers a powerful story of courage and strength.  

Subject Headings: Traveling librarians – Kentucky – Fiction – Historical fiction – Packhorse librarians

Appeal:

-         Engaging – these books capture the imagination of readers through narrative style, character or use of detail

-         Courageous female character – these brave and often self-sacrificing characters have strong convictions and face challenges with determination, despite the odds against them

-         Atmospheric – these books evoke the story’s setting, whether it’s a gothic mansion or a small, Midwestern town

3 terms that best describe this book:

1.      Moving

2.      Descriptive

3.      Affirmative

Similar Authors and Works (why are they similar?):

Finding relevant non-fiction work on the Pack Horse Library initiative itself was a bit difficult; there were plenty of written articles but not very many books focusing on the subject itself. I found quite a few articles about the original ‘blue’ people themselves, the Fugates, but unfortunately couldn’t find any works of non-fiction focusing specifically on them or their condition and the doctor that helped diagnose and treat it. The non-fiction works I did find were about the creation of the library’s first ever bookmobile which was born from the Pack Horse initiative, if not slightly before, as well as some content regarding FDR’s New Deal as a whole.

Fiction works were much easier, but I thought it interesting that there seemed to be some controversy around Jojo Moyes Giver of Stars novel with many critics drawing comparison between it and the Book Woman series. There were quite a few articles suggesting that Moyes plagiarized the novel as well. The books I chose for fiction feature strong, well developed, independent female characters, moving storylines, and strong sense of place.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

1.      Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile by Sharlee Glen

An interesting and entertaining look at how the bookmobile was born! Mary Lemist Titcomb was the librarian for the Washington County Free Library in Maryland who was determined that the library would reach everyone, everywhere – not just adults and not just those living in town. Titcomb introduced book deposit stations throughout the country, formed a children’s room in the library, and created what was considered her most revolutionary idea for the time – a horse drawn Book Wagon, or the country’s first ever book mobile.

2.      Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt & Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into effect the Works Progress Administration in 1935 under his New Deal initiative, designed to get people back on their feet after the Great Depression. One of his most important and most successful programs was the Pack Horse Library Project. Women came from all over to deliver used and well worn books and magazines on horseback to those living on the edge of Kentucky’s Cumberland Mountains and the Appalachian Trail.

3.      The New Deal by Michael Hiltzik

FDR’s New Deal originally started as short-term emergency relief measures in response to the Great Depression and subsequent economic downfall that eventually evolved into a reordering of the political system that continues to define America to this day. The New Deal explores the challenges FDR faced and what made him such a great leader, how the system evolved into what it is today, and some of the policies and procedures and initiatives, including the Pack Horse Project, that are still in place today.

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

1.      The Last Blue by Isla Morley

Jubilee Buford is a woman who lives in the Appalachia wilderness, isolated from society, and persecuted because of her blue skin. Clay Havens is a photographer who is grasping at one last straw to save his failing career. It’s a story of passion, courage, the dark shades of betrayal, prejudice, fear, and guilt. It’s a story of what it means to be one of a kind and unique, and finding true love in the strangest of places.

2.      The Librarian of Boone’s Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Addie dreams of becoming a novelist and writing books to give readers the same escape books gave her during childhood. When her adoptive father loses his job, she must drop out of school and take the only job she can find – delivering books on horseback to the poor families living deep within the hills of Kentucky. Along the way she meets Emmett Tharp who is the first within his family and community to earn a college degree and dreams of doing something more with his life than joining the coal mining community. When someone starts attempting to sabotage the library program, Addie’s novel is destroyed, and Emmett seeks justice by becoming the ally that Addie needs, deepening their friendship in the process and potentially leading to something more.

3.      Light to the Hills by Bonnie Blaylock

Amanda Rye is a young, widowed mother working as a traveling packhorse librarian in the Kentucky Appalachians. Traveling through the coal-mining mountain communities, she takes a particular shine to the MacInteer family, who remind Amanda much of her own. When Amanda shares a dangerous secret from her past that threatens to catch up with her in the present, the MacInteers and Amanda find their lives crossing in the most unexpected ways as they forge a path of survival, justice, forgiveness, and most importantly, hope.