My Name is Mary Sutter

Oliveira, R. (2010). My name is Mary Sutter. New York: Viking.

 

I liked this one a lot, though it got a little boggy in the middle.  The main character is a larger than life midwife from Albany named Mary Sutter.  She wants more than anything to become a surgeon, but no schools will admit her because she's a woman in the 1860s.  She approaches several surgeons, begging them to take her on as an apprentice, but nobody bites.  When the Civil War breaks out, she goes to Washington DC to try and join the nursing corps Dorothea Dix pioneered, but she's not old enough, and is single.  She perseveres and faces tragedy, but ultimately does gain medical training.