On Thursdays, I review books that make me grow as a writer and as a person.
Graduating from the Woman's Medical College of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania as a full-fledged, documented, accredited physician, young and energetic Cheney Duvall assumed that she would immediately find a suitable position. But after two months of applying and interviewing for several different openings, then being summarily rejected because she was a woman, she had almost given up hope.
The Stars for a Light by Gilbert and Lynn Morris
No Medical School Ever Could Have prepared Cheney for Her First Position
Graduating from the Woman's Medical College of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania as a full-fledged, documented, accredited physician, young and energetic Cheney Duvall assumed that she would immediately find a suitable position. But after two months of applying and interviewing for several different openings, then being summarily rejected because she was a woman, she had almost given up hope.
When Cheney hears that a man named Asa Mercer is looking for a doctor to care for the two hundred women he is transporting on an extended sea voyage from New York to Washington Territory, she grabs the position. Mercer is actually delighted that Cheney is a female doctor who can also help chaperone these potential brides-to-be for the frontiersmen in the West.
But even before the journey begins, a foreboding shadow darkens what Cheney had thought was a great opportunity to finally use her talents and education. Was she really prepared for what this responsibility requires?
Just after the Civil War, Cheney Duvall graduates from the first American college to allow women to obtain degrees in medicine--and quickly discovers the extreme prejudices that have kept other women from practicing medicine. When she accepts a job as ship's doctor on a three-month voyage around Cape Horn, she encounters a whole new set of problems--and adventures.
You ever read a book or series of books that changes the direction of your life? When I first read The Stars for a Light back in the mid 90s, I was a thirty-something mom, busy shuffling kids and helping my mother with my sick grandfather. But something about this book, and the ones that followed ignited a dream I’d buried deep, the dream of writing my own books. Maybe that’s why my first baby steps into writing was creating fan fiction on the Cheney Duvall website.
A few months ago, I found the the first four books in the series on Audible books and download it to my iPod. Yes, the Point of View is written more in omnipresent rather than the more popular first or third person of today, but the story is still enjoyable even all these years later. And I've got to say--the new covers are absolutely gorgeous!
What is one book or series of books that made you want to sit down at your computer and write the first time? Why?
What is one book or series of books that made you want to sit down at your computer and write the first time? Why?
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