book review

I just finished an amazing book.  Technically I didn't read it, I listened to it while folding laundry, weeding, exercising and my all time favorite task, putting laundry away.  A great way to entertain myself while doing the mind numbing mundane tasks that occupy a good portion of my life!

My Name is Mary Sutter

by Robin Oliviera

In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, head­strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering-and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.

Like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Robert Hicks's The Widow of the South, My Name Is Mary Sutter powerfully evokes the atmosphere of the period. Rich with historical detail (including marvelous depictions of Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, General McClellan, and John Hay among others), and full of the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name Is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel. And in Mary herself, Robin Oliveira has created a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere.

(synopsis copied from B&N.com, because I'm too lazy to write my own.)

Word of warning: The setting of the book is the Civil War and all things "medical" are discussed.  If thinking about blood, amputated limbs, disease, etc. make you queasy, you better pass on the book!  Technically those things do make me queasy, but listening to it seemed easier to deal with, because I can easily distract myself....
 BOOK: and he screamed violently while they cut off his leg with a bone saw, blood gushing every where....
ME: "Oh! Look a pretty flower! La, la, la! I can't hear you!"

2 Comments

undefined:

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm needing some good stuff to get me through this summer!

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I'm thinking it's possible I'll be temporarily laid off my job for the summer again, since work's slowing quite a bit again. IF so, I plan on going through your blog and reading all your recommendations. I think I've already got THE HELP requested from the library and maybe in 5 more months I'll actually get to read it.

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