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Rachel N.
The book begins shortly before the American Civil War. Mary Sutter is a talented midwife who wants to become a surgeon but no one will teach her because she is a woman. Once the war starts Mary secretly leaves her mother and pregnant sister to travel to Washington D.C. in hopes of learning surgery. She does end up helping a surgeon at the run down Union Hotel Hospital. I thought Mary's story was interesting. What brought my rating down some is all the detours the author takes away from Mary's st ...more
Madeleine
May 09, 2011 rated it liked it
This was surprisingly good, for something I picked up randomly because I had store credit at the bookstore. It's a novel about a young midwife from New York who, denied the chance to study to be a doctor (or so it appears), volunteers as a nurse during the Civil War.

Reading about the main character's experiences as a nurse and midwife was fascinating (though there were a *lot* of gruesome amputations of legs). Keeping all the different love triangles straight in my head was less so. The bits abo
...more
Andy Plonka
Jul 22, 2013 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: src
I'm not a big fan of books about the Civil War , either fiction or non fiction, but this book is exceptional. A fictional account of a woman who is trained by her mother as a midwife, but has aspirations to be a surgeon. Her efforts to save wounded soldiers, while learning a lot of medicine are well worth reading about. ...more
Shannon Wallner
May 29, 2010 rated it really liked it
Shelves: hcbc_list
Very good, though I think would be more enjoyable to those that love all things Civil War. Not my favorite read about era, but very well done and interesting none-the-less.
Gaijinmama
May 08, 2010 marked it as to-read
Stephanie
Aug 30, 2010 marked it as to-read
SarahC
Dec 30, 2010 marked it as to-read
Shelves: 2010-pubs
Jenna
Dec 31, 2010 marked it as to-read
Shelves: physical
Isabel
Feb 12, 2011 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
SandyC
Apr 08, 2011 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Polly-Alida
Apr 18, 2011 marked it as to-read
Amy 💖
Jul 13, 2011 marked it as to-read
Davida "Davi"
Oct 31, 2011 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Janet
Jul 19, 2012 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
Heather-Lea
Nov 29, 2012 marked it as to-read
Kirsty
Feb 26, 2013 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Lorri
Jul 02, 2013 rated it really liked it
Lisa
Jul 15, 2013 marked it as to-read
Beth
Aug 06, 2013 marked it as to-read
Renate
Jan 17, 2016 marked it as to-read
Tracyene
Jul 15, 2016 marked it as to-read
Megan
Nov 08, 2016 marked it as to-read
Tanya
Nov 25, 2016 marked it as to-read
Colleen Chi-Girl
Mar 10, 2019 marked it as to-read
Christina
Jul 31, 2021 rated it really liked it
Maureen O'brien
Dec 24, 2023 marked it as to-read
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