Really enjoyed audiobook. Very much similar to Jojo Moyes-giver of stars ( )

An enjoyable historical story about a pack-horse librarian in 1930s Kentucky. ( )

Historical fiction set in western Kentucky in the 1930s.
It's main character, Cussy, is a traveling "book woman", whose job it is to travel around very remote areas of her community and deliver books and reading material to her neighbors.
Cussy also happens to be one of Kentucky's "Blue People" due to a rare genetic disease she and her family have inherited.
As a result of her color, she and those like her face racial discrimination at almost every turn.
Cussy does have a cadre of family and friends who look out for her and help her in her fight for justice for herself and her impoverished community.
An eye opening book on an area and a history I knew nothing about. ( )

This is a beautiful book that deals with the effects of prejudice, poverty, and marginalization on not only a community, but also the lives of the inhabitants.
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



( )

Truth is stranger than fiction. ( )