#37 [2025/CBR17] The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes

CBR17Bingo: "B"

I first thought that The Boxcar Librarian (2025) by Brianna Labuskes might be a good present for my mother, since she was a librarian herself. But I wouldn't give any book to my mother that I wasn't willing to read myself, so I put a hold on it at the library. 

This book takes place around the Depression Era of the 1930's, and the story follows three different women whose lives are unexpectedly intertwined: Millie, Alice, and Colette. Millie grew up on her aunt and uncle's farm, helping to take care of the kids. In the middle of the depression, Millie left because she felt like she was too much of a strain on their resources. She ended up in Washington, D.C., working at the Works Progress Administration. Millie was an outcast amongst the other women in her boarding house, but she was able to send some money back to her aunt and uncle.

When Millie stands up to a nepobaby who is sexually assaulting another female employee, the nepobaby promises to get Millie fired. Millie's boss is very cool, and in order to protect her, she sends Millie out to Montana to oversee the creation of a travel book for the area. Much of the work had been done, but then it disappeared. Everyone was pointing fingers, and the boss needed someone smart and independent to figure out what was really going on.

Alice lives in the small town in Montana where Millie is sent, but her story begins before Millie ever arrives. Alice is the daughter of the town mogul. She lives a very comfortable existence except that she was a sickly child and her father shelters her to the extreme. She isn't able to do anything on her own, but she does work at the small library in town. At some point, Alice decides to create a library on the Copper Mine train that would travel from small camp to camp in order to provide books for the miners and their families. She gets the money together, and talks the mine owner into donating one of his cars for the project.

Colette is the daughter of a mine worker in one of those towns. Her father loves Shakespeare and has many books, so Colette is very well read. Her father is also very active in trying to unionize the mine workers, which is always met with increasing violence. When Colette's father is murdered in front of her, Colette is lost. Eventually she makes her way into town and applies for the job as the boxcar librarian.

As the book continues, we learn more about the characters and how their stories intertwine. Coming into this book, I did not know anything about the Works Progress Administration, but it turns out it was a real thing--the government creating jobs for those in need. Although this book isn't one of my favorites of the year, I thought it was well-written and interesting. Worth reading if you're interested in the material.