Parsons Public Library will host a book discussion of “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michelle Richardson at 6 p.m., Monday, March 9. Stan Basler will lead the discussion. Copies of the book are available now in both regular and large print.
“The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” is based on the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky, a program of mostly female librarians who delivered books to remote, impoverished Appalachian families in the 1930s as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal Acts. Troublesome Creek gets its own book woman, Cussy Mary Carter, who is also the last of her kind: a family of Kentuckians with a blue tint to their skin because of a blue-blood recessive gene known as methemoglobinemia. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as Appalachia and suspicion as deep as the holler.
Basler is the pastor of Galesburg United Methodist Church. He is an ordained elder (retired) in the United Methodist Church. He is also a retired attorney and former Montgomery County Commissioner.
For six years, he served as Visiting Professor of Restorative Justice and Prison Ministry at Saint Paul School of Theology and for 20 years was an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City University School of Law. For 16 years, he was an instructor at Saint Paul School of Theology Course of Study School. He taught courses in restorative justice, church mission, systemic sin and leadership. For 13 years, Basler practiced law. For 18 years, he served as Director of Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries, Oklahoma Conference, United Methodist Church. Dr. Basler has served as a volunteer to the Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University School of Law since 2018.
Parsons Public Library is located at 311 S. 17th. For more information, contact the library by calling 620-421-5920.
