The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek cover art

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

A Novel

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The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

By: Kim Michele Richardson
Narrated by: Katie Schorr
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About this listen

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER

A PBS BOOK PICK

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything―everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.

Cussy’s not only a book woman, however; she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.

Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere―even back home.

©2019 Kim Michele Richardson (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Small Town & Rural Women's Fiction Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Feel-Good Southern Historical Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant
Historical novel set deep in the wilds of Kentucky in the 1930’s and it’s written so well you can almost smell the tree sap, the wood burner and coal dust. It’s a beautifully written book with heartbreaking tragedy and heartwarming friendships. This story will stick with me for a long time. And if you haven’t Googled the Fugates by the time you get to page 100, you should!

Grabs you from the first paragraph

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wow!! this story was wonderful and really well read. emotional and thought provoking and clear, it is very well written. At no point was I bored and I was eager to learn the plot. The characters are very readable too.

loved it

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I will read this book again after a while, it had me gripped from beginning till the end.

Loved it

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worth every minute of listening. Cussy Mary ,and all the bookwomen , are my heroes .

Touching

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An engaging and delightful story of a young woman in Appalachia, in Kentucky, in the 1930s, who was afflicted with a blood condition that left her appearing blue. As part of Roosevelt's WPA to create jobs, she was a "book woman," in essence a mobile library who delivered books to people via a mule.

A wonderful and inspiring story of the power of books and hope overcoming societal prejudice. Highly recommend.

Inspiring story

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