10. Choose a character from the novel and imagine what their future would hold.
11. Honey is surprised to find out that Loretta Adams had attended one of Kentucky’s Moonlight Schools, which served the uneducated and the elderly. What do you think it would have been like to learn or teach at a Moonlight School?
12. Laws banning interracial marriage in America were first passed in the seventeenth century. They were enacted in many states until they were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Alabama became the last state to remove laws banning interracial marriage from its statutes in the year 2000. Do you know what anti-miscegenation laws your state passed and when they were abolished? Discuss what the history of these laws can tell us about race and marriage in America, both then and now.
13. How do you think Honey, Cussy, and Jackson’s lives would unfold over the next two decades? What relevant laws will change, if any?
14. If you were to craft a scrapbook for isolated people, as the Pack Horse librarians did long ago, what would you include?
15. What are popular and favorite recipes of your family and region, and how do they differ or stand out from other families and places?
16. Do you think Honey purposely selected books from her personal collection to empower her women patrons? What books would you select to empower the underserved or disadvantaged in your area, and why?
Acknowledgments
To the generous and gracious book bloggers and first readers: Kristy Barrett, Davida Chazan, Pamela Klinger-Horn, Mary Webber O’Malley, Dawnny Ruby, Kathy Shattuck, Tonya Speelman, Carla Suto, Linda Zagon, The Erudite Bibliophile with Wanderlust, Julie Kaminski and The Walking Book Club, and the countless other bookwomen and bookmen who have helped put my books and others into the hearts of readers. I’m so appreciative and indebted to you, and although it seems small, thank you, all, from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you to Janice Kreider, the daughter of Irene, a Kentucky Pack Horse librarian; Eben Lehman, director of library and archives at Forest History Society, North Carolina; Lisa Thompson, librarian II at Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives; Professor Jason Vance; coal miner Sara Vance; and photographer Ted Wathen. To all of you for your generous assistance and the use of these gorgeous historical photographs.
To the fabulous foxes: Gary, Karen, and Hyphen at FoxTale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, Georgia; to Chris Wilcox and Eon Alden at City Lights, North Carolina; the darling and supportive Lizz Taylor at Poor Richard’s Books in Kentucky; and to all the indie bookstores around the country. Thank you bunches and buckets for connecting books with readers and fostering strong literacy; you are neighborhood treasures we love and cherish. Small indie bookstores are one of the strongest cornerstones of communities.
I’m incredibly fortunate and eternally grateful to have the many librarians, the wonderful, wise bookwomen and bookmen across the country who offered friendship and bighearted support and who are community lifelines that selflessly serve so many: Kentucky sisters Laura Adams and Tessa Caudill, and a special shout-out and appreciation to friends Brian Shortridge and Teresa Matney of Virginia for your outstanding assistance with my research and helping me track down female coal miners and so much more. Thank you to special librarians and friends Kelly Ann Moore of Texas, Karen O’Connell and Jennifer Wann of Arkansas, Daryl Maxwell in Los Angeles, and Laurie Aitken in New York, just to name a few, for your tremendous support and warm friendships. I cherish you all. To the many librarians around the country who invited me into their hometowns for Pandemic Zooms, I loved and treasured each and every virtual visit we shared. Thank you so much.
Sincere thanks, immeasurable admiration, and mad love to all educators, and to name a few: Principal Jack VonHandorph, staff, and students at Notre Dame Academy; Professor Robert Stevens, who assigns Book Woman every year, and your wise students （you are so very dear） at University of Texas at Tyler; Kaye Brown and Tonya Northenor of Owensboro Community and Technical College; Nancy Kennedy of Furman University; and so many other educators who’ve been assigning Book Woman. Thank you for entrusting me with your thoughtful, talented, and bright students. It’s an honor and privilege and is always humbling speaking with your future leaders.