GodPretty in the Tobacco Field

By: Kim Michele Richardson

Narrated by: Katie Schorr

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

Atmospheric and searingly honest, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field is Coal Miner's Daughter meets Winter's Bone in a gripping tale of tender love and loss.

Nameless, Kentucky, in 1969 is a hardscrabble community where jobs are few and poverty is a simple fact - just like the hot Appalachian breeze or the pests that can wipe out a tobacco field in days. RubyLyn Bishop is luckier than some. Her God-fearing uncle, Gunnar, has a short fuse and high expectations, but he's given her a good home ever since she was orphaned at the age of five. Yet now, a month shy of her 16th birthday, RubyLyn itches for more.

Maybe it's something to do with the paper fortune-tellers RubyLyn has been making for townsfolk, each covered with beautifully wrought, prophetic drawings. Or perhaps it's because of Rainey Ford, an African American neighbor who works alongside her in the tobacco field and with whom she has a kinship despite her uncle's worrisome shadow and the town's disapproval. RubyLyn's predictions are just wishful thinking, not magic at all, but through them she's imagining life as it could be, away from the prejudice and hardship that ripple through Nameless.

©2016 Kim Michele Richardson (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Beautifully and powerfully written!

This book is so descriptive and beautifully written, you feel like you are sitting along side RubyLyn while she tells her story. You can feel the summer heat in the tobacco field. Your heart swells along with hers on her journey. The narrator’s voice is melodic, and perfect for this prose.

A Forbidden Love Story in Rural Kentucky

A sad story of a Black & White romance in the impoverished tobacco fields of rural Kentucky. It’s the early 1960’s. Told in the first person by the young trapped heroin, Godpretty tends to be sad and, at times, painful to read. The story includes dirt poor neighbors, alcoholism, sadness, and coping. The story of their romance weaves through their childhood and late adolescence to getting out of the fields, seeking a life without the poverty found back home.

Learn interesting and new facts while reading Kim Michele Richardson’s books!

Another wonderful book by Kim Michele Richardson. Her stories leave me satisfied yet wanting more. Now off I go to another one of her books!

Beautiful story, beautifully read

I loved this story about girls becoming women in the Kentucky Hills. I think it’s so important to understand the struggles that America has faced in her 300 years of becoming a country,; poverty, racism, class issues, gender inequality...Listening to this story, I gained insight into the rural poor, their values, their pride. Beautiful words and a compelling story.

Story w a Twist

Very interesting characters and plot. Too much sadness, but accurate prejudice for the time period.

A good old time story line similar to Sue Monk Kidd’s
The Secret Life of Bees.

Slow start

The narrator was superb sounding. The story had a slow start, but a powerful ending.

Just OK

I enjoyed the book but I have to say it's just OK. The story is a simple one and very straight forward. The social realities were a surprise to me given the year in which the story takes place. The level of ignorance, perspectives on education, sex education, and prejudice was surprising.

From a Farmer’s Daughter

A story about a young artist with a kind soul coming of age on a Kentucky tobacco farm with her uncle. Love, family, and friendship are at the core of this sometimes painful and often beautiful story.

Richardson’s imagery is especially charming. I found myself delighted and amused by many of Ruby Lyn’s descriptions and sayings.

loved it

I must look to see if there's another book written by this lady because this book was absolutely wonderful.

Sad but uplifting.

The reader does an amazing job at telling this story, making you feel you know the characters in a back woods Southern town in Kentucky. Ruby, the protagonist, somehow manages to persevere through very difficult times in the 1960’s, where girls weren’t valued very much, and black people were still viewed as under class. So awful to think about the way some white people acted, and so thankful things have improved for black people and women. Although the story is so depressing at times, it gives you a glimpse back in time and is worth reading. It shows that you can still do good & be a good person, even when the odds are against you.