Our walking book discussion meets at Nepaug Reservoir at the Route 202 gate to walk together and discuss our latest read. You can join us by registering if you have not yet attended the group. We will then put you on our mailing list if you enjoy this monthly walk and discussion. Use the registration link or you may email Beth Van Ness if you have questions or comments. All adults are welcome to join our discussions and copies of the current book are available at our circulation desk.
In March we had a brief discussion of The Doctors Blackwell and decided we needed more time to discuss this book. We will also give each other recommendations of another book we each enjoyed. Please bring a favorite book to the walk.
The vivid biography of two pioneering sisters who, together, became America’s first female doctors and transformed New York’s medical establishment by creating a hospital by and for women. Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for greatness beyond the scope of “ordinary” womanhood. Though the world recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity won her the acceptance of the all-male medical establishment and in 1849 she became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. But Elizabeth’s story is incomplete without her often forgotten sister, Emily, the third woman in America to receive a medical degree. Exploring the sisters’ allies, enemies and enduring partnership, Nimura presents a story of both trial and triumph: Together the sisters’ founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary; they were also judgmental, uncompromising, and occasionally misogynistic–their convictions as 19th-century women often contradicted their ambitions. From Bristol, England, to the new cities of antebellum America, this work of rich history follows the sister doctors as they transform the nineteenth century medical establishment and, in turn, our contemporary one”–Publisher’s Summary
Inclement weather policy: If Canton schools or afterschool activities are cancelled for weather-related reasons, so too are events for teens and children at the Canton Public Library. The library is often still open, please contact us with questions or concerns at 860.693.5800.