Book wars

         VS        

    Since I was an adolescent I have been fascinated with the Appalachian culture.  I have many books in my personal library and like to keep them on the shelf by subject. My interest in the area started with Catherine Marshall's book Christy and never left me.  A particular part of the region's history is really fascinating.  During the Depression of the 1930's Eleanor Roosevelt worked hard to promote getting books to people who lived deep in the hills and hollows of the mountains. The people were desperately poor and didn't have the means and opportunity to access books.  Enter the book horse librarians.  These women would pack saddle bags with books and by horse or mule, get reading material to book starved people. I have some picture books for children about these women, I have some photographic books and I was very excited to hear of and receive an advance copy and do a blog post of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson.

  The historical record in her book was fascinating, I learned a lot about how the system ran,  I learned about the blue people,  and that the book women carried more than reading material into the hills.  They also carried medicines, messages, food, and seeds between the families.
   Not long after reading that book I saw publicity for a book called  The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes.  I haven't read one of her books before but was, at first, excited to see there was another book on the subject of the book women.  I put the title on my bulletin-board-for-remembering-things.
   And then, because I read book reviews and trade journals I started hearing things about Moyes' book.  Things that I didn't like.

 There was this:
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/1202348/Jojo-Moyes-Giver-of-Stars-Book-Woman-of-Troublesome-Creek-books-kim-michele-richardson

and this

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomiobaro/jojo-moyes-the-giver-of-stars-kim-richardson-bookwoman-of

    I took Moyes' book off my bulletin board, not planning to read something that was so questionably presented to the readers.  A book I had planned to purchase and add to my library was now persona-non-grata in my life.      Until.  Until I started to see her book everywhere.  Absolutely everywhere...grocery store book shelves, bookstore feature displays, features on internet selling sites, in warehouse book sections, magazine features, newspaper articles and then Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book of the month.
      I was both curious and upset.  A book I had decided on moral principles not to even read was sitting front and center at the library, available.  I checked it out, and immediately, immediately saw what the hub bub was all about.  In my opinion, I don't think there was a way in the world Ms. Moyes didn't know what was in Ms. Richardson's book. You don't write an "original" book and put the same people in it from another book. 
     I was disappointed, too, because I didn't see Ms. Richardson's book anywhere.  Not in bookstores, not in libraries, not featured anywhere.  If you knew it existed you could order it or get it online but you had to know it was there to ask for it.  Not so Ms. Moyes' book.  You couldn't help but trip over it everywhere you went.  Quite obviously the publisher's marketing department was doing its job and Ms. Moyes' name was an asset.    I was also disappointed in Reese Witherspoon.  Clearly the controversy was out there before she chose the title, which gave the book even more attention and publicity, recognition and acclaim.   It makes me suspect all of her choices.  It made me suspect her respect for us as readers.
     I also felt a little insulted as a woman.  Ms. Moyes' book made me feel like I was reading fluff, the kind of thing you see featured on display tables for Mother's Day (  I'll tell you another time about THAT.)  This was a "girl book" set in 1930's  Appalachia featuring women who rode horses and mules to deliver books to the far flung.  It barely skimmed the surface in character development. I didn't learn anything and I didn't care.  The only feelings I had was anger, disbelief and disappointment at this story and author for thinking her story was all I was capable of understanding.
     But you know what?  If you got this far in this little tirade of mine, I want to tell you, this dissing a book publicly is new for me. Once publishers started sending books to me for my opinion I decided I was not going to post negative reviews.  If I couldn't find something I liked I wouldn't post.
      If you are out looking for something and you trip over JoJo Moyes' book, skip it and go to the help desk and order The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. It's written better, it is researched with purpose and depth,  it teaches us more,  the characters are people we want to know.  Give your reading time to a book and author who respect YOU as a reader.