This is one of my favorite books of all time.
Along with about 200 others, yes. But that doesn’t make it any less awesome. And it’s not a re-posting of my book review on the Christy Miller books . . . this is a very different Christy. Please don’t get the two confused–you can tell them apart by their hairdos. And by the fact that this new Christy goes to the Appalachia instead of the Californian coast. And wears long dresses instead of miniskirts and green bathing suits.
This book is a (slightly fictionalized, I believe) biography written by Catherine Marshall about her mother, Christy Huddleston.
It takes place in the late 19th century. A very young and inexperienced Christy travels to a remote location in the Appalachians to become a school teacher. Inspired by her lofty ideals she heads straight into a landscape that is both breathtakingly beautiful and riddled with pockets of poverty and violence the likes of which she never could have imagined. But in the midst of the grime, the moonshine, the shootings, and typhoid fever, Christy comes into herself. As she gets to know the strong spirits of these mountain people, she starts seeing that under the squalor is great beauty.
With two men vying for her love, one a good looking and fervent man of God and one a rugged and hardened doctor, there is no lack of emotional drama. It’s a keeper! I’ve read it so many times that chunks of pages have actually fallen out of my copy.
