Sunday, March 13, 2011

My Name is Mary Sutter


Book Review: So I just finished reading the book by Robin Oliveira called My Name is Mary Sutter. It was a very interesting look at a woman in Civil War times that wants to become a surgeon. At the beginning of the book, Mary is a midwife who falls in love with her neighbor, Thomas. As the men go off to war, Mary too leaves home in hopes of learning more about medicine and hoping for a chance to become a doctor. It was amazing to me how much medicine advanced in the few years following the Civil War. And, it makes me so grateful for what we know about the human body and the spread of disease. If only they had antibiotics, so many lives would have been spared.


After some gruesome descriptions of amputations, the harsh realities of the unsanitary conditions and a bit of a love story along the way...it was a book I was sad to put down at the end. Great historical fiction novel! I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5!


Here's my new vocabulary words I learned, after looking them up. I doubt they will become regulars in my rotation of "smart" words...

Quotidian, enteric, icterus, paucity, dyspeptic, pugnacious, recalcatrant, parsimonious, officious, abstemiousness, suppuration, desultory, quiescent, temerity, petulant, truculent, detritus, phalanx, truculent, intransiqence, timorous, tincture, sputum, sinnous, denizens and perspicacious. Whew! I bet the author was tired after looking all those fancy words up in her thesaurus!
Any good recommendations for my next book?

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