[bksvol-discuss] just submitted Blue Cotton Gown
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:02:12 -0500
I just submitted Blue Cotton Gown by Patricia Harman.
Heather is pale and thin, seventeen and pregnant with twins when Patricia
Harman begins to care for her. Over the course of the next five seasons Patsy
will see Heather through the loss of both babies and their father. She will
also care for her longtime patient Nila, pregnant for the eighth time and
trying to make a new life without her abusive husband. And Patsy will try to
find some comfort to offer Holly, whose teenage daughter struggles with
bulimia. She will help Rebba learn to find pleasure in her body and help Kaz
transition into a new body. She will do noisy battle with the IRS in the very
few moments she has to spare, and wage her own private battle with uterine
cancer. Patricia Harman, a nurse-midwife, manages a women's health clinic with
her husband, Tom, an ob-gyn, in West Virginia-a practice where patients open
their hearts, where they find care and sometimes refuge. Patsy's memoir
juxtaposes the tales of these women with her own story of keeping a small
medical practice solvent and coping with personal challenges. Her patients
range from Appalachian mothers who haven't had the opportunity to attend
secondary school to Ph.D.'s on cell phones. They come to Patsy's small,
windowless exam room and sit covered only by blue cotton gowns, and their
infinitely varied stories are in equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting. The
nurse-midwife tells of their lives over the course of a year and a quarter, a
time when her outwardly successful practice is in deep financial trouble, when
she is coping with malpractice threats, confronting her own serious medical
problems, and fearing that her thirty-year marriage may be on the verge of
collapse. In the words of Jacqueline Mitchard, this memoir, "utterly true and
lyrical as any novel . . . should be a little classic." "The many moving
stories of the women that Patricia Harman cares for as a nurse-midwife add up
to a remarkable account of a life spent listening, helping, and taking care.
Inviting us into her clinic in rural West Virginia, she shows us the joys and
sorrows of listening to women's stories and attending to their bodies, and she
leads us through the complicated life of a healer who is profoundly shaped by
her patients and their journeys." -Perri Klass, author of The Mercy Rule and
Treatment Kind and Fair "Nobody writes with more candor and compassion about
women's woes and women's triumphs than nurse-midwife Patricia Harman. Her
behind-the-exam-room-door memoir is a bittersweet valentine to every
woman-young and old-who has ever donned that thin blue cotton gown, to every
dedicated healthcare provider, and to every husband-wife medical team. I
couldn't put The Blue Cotton Gown down." -Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots
and Lately "This luminescent, ruthlessly authentic, humane, and brilliantly
written account of a midwife in rough-hewn Appalachia-a passionate healer
plying her art and struggling to live a life of spirit-stands as a model for
all of us, doctors and patients alike, of how to offer good care." -Samuel
Shem, M.D., author of The House of God, Mount Misery, and The Spirit of the
Place "Patricia Harman has opened for us a window, a glimpse into her life as
a midwife and the lives of those women who have entered her exam room. And as
the touch of her careful and caring hands learned the story of their bodies,
into her heart they poured their life stories-stories of joy, of sorrow, those
bright with promise, those dimmed with grief and pain." -Sheila Kay Adams,
author of My Old True Love "As the mother of seven children and veteran of
eight pregnancy losses, I knew when I ran my bath that I would be unable to
resist Patricia Harman's memoir of midwifery. What I didn't realize was that it
would cause me, a
It looks like the summary got cut off but this is the information I got when I
submitted the ISBN number.
Book blog:
http://community.livejournal.com/book_cuddler/
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have
consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give
you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
John Adams
E-Mail: amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx
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