Part historical novel, part love story, part courtroom drama, part feminist fiction, this story throws you into Depression-era eastern Kentucky, where you become fast friends with the “Packhorse Librarians” of the 1930s and 1940s who brought information, education and culture to backwoods country folk miles from any school or town by carrying books to borrow up narrow mountain trails on horseback.
I’m familiar with this part of the country, having married into a family of West Virginia mountaineers who called a county with no four-lane highway home. So when you read about the suspicious hillbillies who don't want no dang-fool books corrupting their kids, the mining company that shortcut safety, the fast-moving flood that swallowed a car, and the household ruled by the fist of the patriarch, I can attest that yes, all of that really happens in that part of the country.
This is a reasonably good read, albeit a little predictable, with characters I'd describe as just OK. That said, I do recommend this book, as I did enjoy it for the most part. Just don’t go in expecting any more than some interesting history on rural libraries and a lightweight little story.
3 out of 5.