Tuesday Sundries - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

I am not normally one who has to read the latest Oprah pick. Or really any book which has won multiple awards. In fact, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson was actually a book I stumbled across by accident because I needed an audio book to listen to while driving to and from work.

Set in 1936 in the hills of coal mining Kentucky, Cussy Mary Carter is a Pack Horse Librarian. At 19, living with her father who is a miner and in ill health, the extra money each month is secondary to her 'patrons' she reaches in the nooks and crannies of the hills and her love of books. 

The abject poverty of these people during the depression is felt in this story narrated by Katie Schorr. To add to the narrative, Cussy Mary is one of the "Blue People", the last of her kind, according to her pa. The fact her skin is blue makes her 'colored' and looked down on by the people of Troublesome Creek. However, the love of the families on her route delivering books and her tenacity of guiding her mule over the narrow paths to their homes makes it all worthwhile.

I have to say this book really touched me. The narrator does an excellent job of reading the story with a believable accent - so much so I felt Cussy Mary was directly telling me her story.

Laced with lots of historical details about the depression, the WPA, the superstitions of the hill people, this is one book I can recommend to just about everyone to listen to.