Kim Michele Richardson
Autor(a) de The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
About the Author
Image credit: Photo by Andrew Eccles, Andrew Eccles Studio NY, NY
Séries
Obras de Kim Michele Richardson
The Book Woman?s Daugher 1 exemplar(es)
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1950s or 1960s
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Locais de residência
- Kentucky, USA
North Carolina, USA - Organizações
- Habitat for Humanity
Prevention of Child Abuse - Pequena biografia
- NYT and USA TODAY bestselling author, Kim Michele Richardson resides in her home state of Kentucky. She has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, building houses, and is an advocate for the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence, partnering with the U.S. Navy globally to bring awareness and education to the prevention of domestic violence. She is the author of the bestselling memoir The Unbreakable Child, and a book critic for the New York Journal of Books. Her novels include, Liar's Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field and The Sisters of Glass Ferry. Kim Michele latest novel is The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, a NYT bestseller about the fierce and brave Kentucky Packhorse librarians of Kentucky.
Membros
Resenhas
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Cussy Mary Carter is a Blue, a member of a family in extremely rural 1930s Kentucky that has an inherited genetic disorder causing blue skin. She lives with her father, a miner, and has a job as a Pack Horse Librarian - a federal program that pays local residents to share donated books, magazines, and newspapers among remote homes. Cussy is ostracized from the rural society, with some people thinking her color is a contagious disease, it is a sign of the devil and she needs to be “saved”, or associating her with “colored” (i.e. Black) people. Life in the mountains, in extreme poverty, is very hard, but the joy that she can bring people with a novel or magazine or pie recipe pasted in a scrapbook are worth it.
The true stories behind this fictional one are fascinating. The Blue Fugates of Kentucky were a real family, descended from a real French immigrant in 1820, who carried a real gene that really made their skin blue. The Pack Horse Librarian Program was a New Deal project which really employed women to deliver materials and read to rural people. There is no evidence that any of the Blue Fugates were Pack Horse Librarians. The details of Cussy’s father’s life as a miner were accurate and detailed - the mining company paid the workers in chits that could only be spent at the Company store, thus keeping them in debt, and was constantly threatening to pack up and leave (as one of the few employers in the area). Pa suffers from black lung disease, tries to organize a union with his fellow miners, is forced to take on the most dangerous tasks due to his blue skin, andeventually dies in a collapse . There is no doubt that the blue people of Kentucky suffered real discrimination, isolation, and violence. However, the book (in Cussy’s first person perspective) frequently asserts that the lives of blue people are equal to or harder than those of Black people. The one Black character in the town is another librarian who moves to Philadelphia, leaving Cussy jealous: “Maybe there was opportunity and blessings for her color, but I’d never once seen one for mine.” and Cussy constantly mentions the “No Coloreds” signs which she knows refer to her. In the end, her happily-ever-after is semi-thwarted by anti-miscegenation law, without any concern for who else the law might affect. It’s not clear if the reader is to believe that Cussy believes these things are true, or if the author does. I’d cautiously recommend the book if you’re interested in the real-life subjects, but I wish there was a better book about them.… (mais)
The true stories behind this fictional one are fascinating. The Blue Fugates of Kentucky were a real family, descended from a real French immigrant in 1820, who carried a real gene that really made their skin blue. The Pack Horse Librarian Program was a New Deal project which really employed women to deliver materials and read to rural people. There is no evidence that any of the Blue Fugates were Pack Horse Librarians. The details of Cussy’s father’s life as a miner were accurate and detailed - the mining company paid the workers in chits that could only be spent at the Company store, thus keeping them in debt, and was constantly threatening to pack up and leave (as one of the few employers in the area). Pa suffers from black lung disease, tries to organize a union with his fellow miners, is forced to take on the most dangerous tasks due to his blue skin, and
Follow up to previous novel. This one follows Honey, the daughter. A sweet story of 16 yr old Honey who has just been granted a Guardian to Loretta, a 92 yr old friend of the family and someone Honey is very close to. However, Retta passes away leaving Honey with no one looking over her. She moves into her family?s old cabin, hires on as a Book Woman, and hopes to earn her emancipation from the courts with the help of her lawyer. Lots of stories and descrimination against women shown. Goodreads: Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free.In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.Picking up her mother?s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn?t need anyone telling her how to survive, but the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren?t as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom that books provide to the families who need it most, she?s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.… (mais)
Listas
Books to Read (1)
Prêmios
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 8
- Membros
- 3,805
- Popularidade
- #6,664
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Resenhas
- 265
- ISBNs
- 77
- Idiomas
- 4
- Favorito
- 2
Cussy Mary is a "blue Kentuckian" who faces poverty, abuse and discrimination, and the early death of loved ones. She brings hope by delivering library books on muleback to her patrons in an isolated, despairing community during the depths of the Great Depression. Through their love of books, she and her patrons find a common "language" and begin to forge a tentative friendship that helps overcome differences.
Cussy longs for the deeper connection of a family, but as the last of her kind, she believes that "dreams are for books" and is determined to become self-reliant, finding her purpose in her work.
In an interview, the author observes that "knowing one small piece of this world- the earth, the sky, the plants, the people, and the very air of it- helps us to understand the sufferings and joys of others ourselves." This novel certainly helps readers do just thatl
… (mais)