Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Clara Maass

She was a nurse in the late 1800s, one of the first to graduate from Newark German Hospital's Christina Trefz Training School for Nurses in 1895 at the age of nineteen. Within three years she was a head nurse. 

She served as a voluntary nurse in the Spanish American Civil War. She ended up in Cuba, where yellow fever was a raging epidemic. She and a few others voluntarily donated their very own lives for the purpose of finding the cause and manner in which the disease was spread. Volunteers only received a hundred bucks with an extra hundred added if they became ill. Now, as you can see, that would have bought quite a few stamps back then, but still... (stamp was made after her death, but you get my drift. I believe stamps were one cent in the early 1900s)

After her second infectious mosquito bite, she died, putting a stop to the human experiments on American subjects altogether. She was only 25 years of age. She was not the only one to die, but she was the only woman to die from this.

There is a medical center in New Jersey named after her and she was buried with full military honors for her sacrifice and service.

I must say, that seems awful brave to me, to give your life in the hopes of saving others, to sacrifice the chance of family, love, children.

Find more information on the following sites:

http://www.aahn.org/gravesites/maass.html

http://www.nurses.info/personalities_clara_maass.htm

Saving the Rifleman by Julie Rowe

It's the Great War and Maria is a British nurse in  Belgium. Naturally, she sympathizes with the British. When a handsome wounded British soldier appears hiding in a closet of the hospital, she struggles to save them both... He needs to get home with some special information and after getting caught and almost raped by a German officer as she tries to save John, she has to run too.

But John has a wounded leg, Germans are stalking him after the Officer's humiliation, and Maria is falling hard for a man she feels is above her in society. Dare she part with the one thing of value she has on her person...her heart and her female charms?

Things happen in the heat of the moment...

The story was action packed with cute dialogue. There were moments of intense suspense when I thought they were going to die or not get away. The run doesn't stop with leaving the hospital. They have quite a few intense moments as they try to reach the border.

What I didn't like: At times it was TOO easy. I mean, really, the Germans didn't take us war twice and for so long by being stupid. Nobody looks in the closet? The chickens in the coop don't make a bunch of racket and alert the soldiers to the intruders? After his gunshot wound, already sewed up twice is kicked repeatedly, he can walk?

Some things didn't make sense to me, but in all, it's a good story, and the ending was fantastic! I love how Maria handles herself against a cousin. That is all I'll say.

Four bikes. I got this from netgalley.

Virtuous Women by Margaret Karlin

Think Chick Lit... 1950s style.

The 1950s were a time of diners and poodle skirts...

horned rimmed glasses and fabulous cars...

and an era in which women were facing a new and tough choice: be a housewife or have a career?


This is about a group of four nurses fresh out of graduate school. They each want to find love and some are so desperate to find it, they look for it in the wrong places.

Picture caption: Washington University School of Nursing students in the early 1950s. This new style of student uniform, a jade green dress with a one-piece, button-on apron-bib combination, was introduced in June marries right out of nursing school. She deals with a meddling mother in law, converting to Judaism, and hiding her troubled past from her husband and friends. Tho her past is not her fault, she feels ashamed of it and worries what others will think. She must come to terms with it herself before anyone else can. It may be best that she do that before her baby is born as well.

Rebecca is very self absorbed. She takes up with a professional baseball player and fancies herself living a life of wealth at his side. The problem is the man is married already. Even if he leaves his wife, how does she know he is limiting his playing to the baseball field? Is he playing her?

Sue Ann is a very passive submissive character at first and I couldn't stand her until the last half of the book. A drive in movie leads to a shotgun wedding and an abusive marriage for her. I thought her TSTL for a while there but she surprised me in the end. In her case, marriage was not what she expected. Perhaps she should have stuck with a nursing career.

Kate is the star of the story. She is focused on a career. She works in the psych ward with violent patients. From the man with a whole in his throat to a food throwing woman who insists she is either Marie Antoinette or Mary Queen of Scots, there is much entertainment in the psych ward. Kate begins to wonder if she is having psych problems herself and starts seeing a psychiatrist herself which leads to a surprise turn of events and her finding herself.

Each woman has secrets. Each woman experiences terror in some way, either from their past or in their present. There are stalkers, abusive men, and potential rapists. But each woman must realize in their own time... that they don't need men. They can do it on their own.

A great look at Chicago in the 1950s and the nursing profession. It doesn't hit the 5 star mark because of my irritations with Sue Ann and it was just enjoyable entertainment. I can't say I learned anything amazing or cried or laughed. But a good read. 4 stars. I bought this on Amazon.