Services

Cherry Ames has a great deal of anxiety and anticipation as she begins nursing school at Spencer. After trading her peaceful hometown existence for a hectic hospital environment, she is left wondering if she really has what it takes to be a nurse. Yet she ultimately perseveres, for the Second World War has caused a drastic nursing shortage, and she and her classmates must step up to help fill the vacancies. As Cherry studies, she can’t help but wonder about the mysterious patient who lives in the secret hospital room no one knows about or acknowledges. Should she try and save his life? It might lead to her expulsion from the school!

Following the end of World War II, the nurse Hana continues to care for her patient in a ruined Italian villa. She is joined by the thief Caravaggio, whose hands are maimed beyond hope, and the Indian sapper Kip, who continues to search for undetonated bombs. The enigmatic and provocative man under Hana’s care—known only as the English patient—suffers from severe burns, and as the days go by, more and more of his memories are revealed. They shed light on the great suffering and betrayal that have characterized his life hitherto. Michael Ondaatje won the Booker Prize for this novel in 1992.

A Farewell to Arms is generally considered to be the best novel ever published in America on the Great War—a conflict that is often overshadowed by later wars in spite of the significant global changes it brought about. Hemingway’s tale of love between an English nurse and an American ambulance driver on the Italian front vividly depicts the horrors of World War I alongside the romantic respite these two immortal literary characters seek in each other’s arms. Whether the novel is describing the dreary march of demoralized soldiers during the Battle of Caporetto, or the ecstatic pain of romantic passion, Hemingway’s masterpiece preserves the memory of the First World War for all time.

Sometime following the end of the Vietnam War, a retired army nurse (and the narrator of the novel) receives a letter from Rouenna Zycinski. Rouenna reminds her of their former connection, and asks if they can reunite. The woman tells intense stories of her life in Vietnam as a combat nurse, and asks the narrator if she will collaborate on a memoir. She initially declines to participate, but changes her mind after the unexpected death of Rouenna. It causes her to reflect again on her own experiences of the war—something she has avoided doing until now. As the narrator begins to write Rouenna’s story, her obsession grows, and eventually becomes the only consolation she has left in the world.

While midwife Kate Banner is working to assist flood victims in Nicaragua during the 1980s, she loses a patient who just a day before gave birth in a capsizing wooden boat. She decides at that point to go home. But it turns out the journey will be an extraordinarily difficult one, for while she is traveling through Guatemala, Kate finds herself in the middle of a war. Then, in the middle of this violent and unjust climate, her heart unbinds itself as she gets a surprising chance at love. Henley’s novel was a finalist for the National Book Award upon is original publication in 1999.

This volume collects the best short stories of the late great Lucia Berlin in one place. It serves (as opined by fellow writer Lydia Davis) to finally give her the attention she deserves, but lamentably did not quite achieve during her lifetime. Berlin blends wit and melancholy together into a distinctive style that manages to find miracles in the commonplace. Her characters always vary widely, whether they are ER nurses, hospital switchboard operators, single mothers, hitchhikers, or hypocritical Christians. A Manual for Cleaning Women was named one of the ten best books of 2015 by The New York Times, ensuring that Lucia Berlin is never again overlooked by the reading public.

In this novel from the Golden Age of Mystery, Nurse Hilda Adams has been hired by Inspector Patton to help investigate the death of Herbert Mitchell. Though he seemingly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his locked bedroom, the Inspector thinks foul play was involved. Hilda, who has been nicknamed “Miss Pinkerton” by the bureau for her amazing sleuthing skills, cares for Herbert’s elderly aunt while trying to discover “whodunit.” As she explores the creaking ancestral home and talks with the fearful servants about their former employer, she begins to uncover dark family secrets. It seems likely that Miss Pinkerton will solve another case, but with danger around every corner it is less certain that she will survive the night. Rinehart’s novel was adapted into a 1932 movie of the same name, starring Joan Blondell in the lead role.

During the time of the Civil War, Mary Sutter wants to leave midwifery behind in order to become a surgeon. Aware of the great prejudices that exist against women who work in medicine, she goes to Washington, D.C. in order help tend to wounded soldiers. There she is trained by surgeons William Stipp and James Blevens, who both fall in love with Mary’s determined courage and stubbornness to pursue her dream medical career in the overwhelmed hospitals. Robin Oliveira’s rich historical novel masterfully captures the war-torn atmosphere of the period in which her unwavering heroine lives and breathes. My Name is Mary Sutter won the 2011 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction.

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, British combat nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall goes on a second honeymoon with her husband in the Scottish Highlands. One moment she is walking through the ancient standing stones of Craigh na Dun, and the next she finds herself in the year 1743, an “outlander” in a country that is being torn apart by warring clans. When Claire meets the young Scots warrior Jamie Fraser, she finds herself involved in intrigues that put her life—and heart—in peril. Claire feels compelled to seek safety with him—a compulsion that grows into an urgent romantic obsession. Yet she still is in love with her husband in another, irreconcilable life.

In 1854, Rosa Barr joins Florence Nightingale’s nursing corps and undertakes the journey to the city of Sebastopol in the Crimea (now Sevastopol, Ukraine) to tend to the wounded English troops as the Crimean War rages on. Her soon-to-be brother-in-law Henry, a noted surgeon, joins Rosa and writes home to her cousin Mariella Lingwood about the course of the war. The moment Mariella learns that Henry has fallen ill, she goes posthaste to the Crimea to care for him. There in Sebastopol, her life begins to unravel as she is confronted with the true nature of faithfulness, secrecy, and love.

This biography tells the exciting life story of American Red Cross founder and nursing pioneer Clara Barton—known as the “angel of the battlefield” during the American Civil War. Barton also served as a nurse in the Franco-Prussian and Russo-Turkish Wars, and while president of the Red Cross she coordinated a great deal of relief work. By the time of her retirement she had a global reputation, and like her contemporary Florence Nightingale she did much to promote the professionalization of nursing and raise its public esteem. Author Ishbel Ross has included an appendix with writings by and about Barton, including letters, book excerpts, poetry, and newspaper articles.

During her long life, Florence Nightingale was a global celebrity who played a pivotal role in the professionalization of nursing. She was (and often still is) thought of as a saint, but as Nightingales reveals, both she and her story are far more complex and fascinating than that. Growing up in a world of privilege, her family was well-connected and valued hard work and morality. Therefore, it was not surprising that Nightingale was drawn to the nursing profession; she refused to marry as a declaration of her independence, and dedicated herself completely to her vocation. Her fame began when she served as a nurse on the battlefields of the Crimea, and it continued long after her decision to retire at the age of 37. Weaving together biography, social history, and politics, Gillian Gill’s work is beautifully written, witty, and irresistible.

The involvement of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati as nurses during the Civil War was the continuation of a long tradition of caring and service. They were first summoned to Camp Denison near Cincinnati to help care for sick troops just two months after war was declared in April 1861, and throughout the course of the war went to hospitals in other parts of Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland, where they ministered to the sick, wounded, and dying. This volume uses journal entries, newspaper articles, and letters to tell the amazing story of the Sisters’ involvement in the war effort, who often went unpaid and unrecognized for their ministry. Editor Judith Metz, SC, is a Mount alum (’66), and the community historian for the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.

In 1914, Vera Brittain entered Somerville College, which was one of the first two women’s colleges ever established at Oxford University (along with Lady Margaret Hall). The First World War had broken out not long before, and by the summer of 1915 she decided to become a voluntary aid detachment (VAD) nurse. She first worked at Devonshire Hospital, and then went on to care for wounded soldiers in London, France, and Malta. By 1918, the British Empire had lost over 900,000 of its subjects in the war, including Brittain’s lover Roland Leighton, her brother Edward, and many of her friends. Once the war was over, Brittain returned to Somerville to complete her BA degree, and then started a career as a journalist. In 1933, she was launched into literary fame through the publication of Testament of Youth, which she wrote out of an urgent need to process the time before, during, and after the war, and communicate what it meant to her generation—known infamously as the “Lost Generation.” Brittain’s firsthand account of the changes the war brought about in the lives of her contemporaries is one of the most famous ever published during the first half of the twentieth century.

In this reissue of the 1973 Feminist Press edition, Ehrenreich and English trace how patriarchal power structures delegitimized woman-led healing centuries ago. They discuss the demonization of women healers as witches, and the gradual economic and political monopolization of medicine by a corrupt, male-led medical establishment. The authors also delve into changing modern attitudes towards childbirth and alternative medicine, while expressing that there is still much work to be done. Witches, Midwives & Nurses remains a classic of the women’s health movement.