Reading Journal 2024: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Reading Journal 2024: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Author: Kim Michele Richardson

I became aware of this book on a recent trip to the American south. One of the places I spent some time in was Louisville, Kentucky, and while there I visited one of their famed local bookstores named Carmichaels. I asked the shop to pick out some recommended reads of local authors and books set in the area. This was one of them.

Which set me in good company, as apparently this was a popular and beloved read for many. Finally diving in to it, I can see why. Consider it my own due ignorance, but the historical context behind this book is one I had never heard of and didn’t know existed. I had no idea about the phenomenon of blue skinned people or that it had ties with Kentucky, something that paralleled the larger American issues with racism against blacks in the 1930s.

I also had no idea that such a thing as the Kentucky Pack Horse library existed. What an inspiring story, made all the more alive by being a movement led by strong woman battling against the discriminatory policies of their day, shockingly some of which remain today.

At its heart, it is perhaps mostly about the power of books to reshape our understanding of this world, to capture our imagination, and to inspire us to think, grow, challenge and understand. A portrait of those seen as lesser thans delivering books into the Kentucky mountainside to those also seen as lesser thans, fucntioning in the midst of a society which insisted on upholding a society of lesser thans so that the ones with power might be seen as greater.

Into this comes an unassuming but driven and intelligent young woman and her mule, someone who comes face to face with a world telling her that she cannot be any of these things because of her gender and the color of her skin. It’s a reminder that sometimes even one person can take on the world, and where there is a willing one, pull back the curtain you’ll find the many.