Reviews for The mountains we call home : the book woman's legacy
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Readers will relish the return of Cussy Lovett, a Blue from Kentucky who was first introduced in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (2019), though author Richardson really puts her through it. It's 1953, and Cussy and her husband, Jackson, who is white, are both in prison for the crime of miscegenation. Cussy has endured cruel medical experiments but when she recovers, she fights hard for the chance to become the prison librarian and the guards are amazed that books are more effective than their punitive measures. Soon Cussy becomes an ambassador of sorts, and is farmed out to the men's prison to teach literacy where she is desperate for a glimpse of Jackson. Another outreach mission introduces Cussy to new horrors while also offering possibility. The plot unfolds at a fast clip, depicting the cruelty of prison life, Black Louisville, and beyond. Though marketed as a stand-alone, readers will want to go back to the beginning in the first novel to get the most out of this story. Still, fans of historical fiction centered on strong women will love this.
