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A Novel
by Kim Michele Richardson
Book Reviewed by:Honey 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 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.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was a BookBrowse Top 10 Book Club Favorite in both 2020 and 2021.
Richardson's conveyance of time and place is exemplary, and her descriptions of the beauty and remoteness of Kentucky's hollers almost make them characters in their own right. She's also skilled at painting a complete picture of what life there may have been like — a life that could be grim at times. She fully captures her subjects' prejudices and superstitions, their fears and their loves, and their generous spirits; indeed, these three-dimensional portraits of her characters are perhaps the narrative's highlight...continued
Full Review
(647 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
At one point in Kim Michele Richardson's novel The Book Woman's Daughter, protagonist Honey Lovett discovers that a family friend attended a Moonlight School. The Moonlight Schools were the brainchild of Cora Wilson Stewart (1875-1958), an elementary school teacher and school superintendent in Rowan County, Kentucky. Born in the community of Farmers, Kentucky, she attended the Morehead Normal School (the term "normal school," derived from the French "école normale," referred to a teacher-training college), later known as Morehead State University, and the University of Kentucky before beginning her teaching career at the age of 20.
Stewart quickly discovered that the parents of many of her students were illiterate, and she ...
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