A story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond in Depression-era America.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve, hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.
The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.
These women face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.
This is the book which sparked a lawsuit from the author of "The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek" I am finding this one to be different enough that I don't feel as if I am reading the same book twice. Having said that, I did see certain similarities which make me wonder just how the author came up with them if she had not read "Bookwoman".
I won't discuss them here because they could be construed as spoilers. I will say that I do like this book.
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