Comments on things mean a lot: The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many La...

This is one case in favor of eReaders that I had n...

2012-01-30T12:27:54.119Z

This is one case in favor of eReaders that I had not considered before. It's a strong one, too. You've got me thinking.

Kelly: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm lookin...

2012-01-30T12:11:09.529Z

Kelly: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to ours about the Kingslover book.

Joanna: I know! And they can be tricky to find, which is a shame. It makes me sad that so many of these stories were forgotten too, but I love that changing that is easier than ever these days.

Aarti: Aww, likewise <3

Kathy: Thank you! She was incredibly interesting, even though I kept wishing she had told us more.

Zibilee: Now you know how I feel when I read your and Aarti's discussions :P I can't wait for the next instalment of Middlemarch.

Anastasia: I can't wait to hear what you think!

Heidenkind: YES. So excited about our upcoming project :D

Jodie: Now I'm dying to read No Place for Ladies too, as well as more about Florence Nightingale in general. I didn't know about the tension between them, but the possibilities you raise are so interesting. I want all the books! And yes, you're right about the "I couldn't do it again" sentence. It does seem like an attempt to make herself as non-threatening to male surgeons as possible.

Carrie K: Yes, I think so too. Fortunately she does seem to be talked about more these days.

Jessica: Exactly. I doubt I'd have read it otherwise.

Darlyn: It's such a great resource, isn't it? I'm more grateful for it every day.

Thank you for sharing this book! I understand your...

2012-01-28T03:08:26.709Z

Thank you for sharing this book! I understand your fascination with a woman of color who managed to write a memoir during the Victorian times, and I'm fascinated as well.

Also, I completely agree about Project Gutenberg. There are so many books on that website just waiting to be discovered.

It is books like this that make me so happy I have...

2012-01-27T16:52:20.455Z

It is books like this that make me so happy I have an e-reader now. Will have to check this one out.

Interesting discussion on an intriguing woman! I&#...

2012-01-26T20:49:18.335Z

Interesting discussion on an intriguing woman! I've never heard of her before. I do think that her sex and race colored her writings and her place in history - forgotten.

'I am sure I could not wield the scalpel or th...

2012-01-26T10:52:09.360Z

'I am sure I could not wield the scalpel or the substitute I then used now'. This sentence sticks out to me, because I wonder if as well as being a way of softening the impact of her child autopsy description it's also meant to emphasise to male physicians that she knows her place. Nursing was fine for women (simplistic, but it was accepted that women could be nurses), but surgeory was still a man's domain. If Seacole needed support after her return from the Crimea, might she have wanted to show her achievements, but needed to avoid offending the sensibilities of male colleagues, who might otherwise support a brave woman back from the front?

If I remember rightly there was quite a bit of tension between Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. I think Seacole was accussed of running a unti for women who lacked the necessary stuff to get into Nightingale's nursing ranks and there was some suggestion that she was running a front for camp followers, or at leats a nursing until full of women with loose morals. I can't be sure that Nightingale was the instigator of these kind of accussations, but I seem to remember hearing that she was a good self-publicist, adept at creating an image for herself. Maybe one of the ways she batted off claims that respectable women shouldn't go out the Crimea (or more that they shouldn't be able operate there because respectable ladies would surely faint at the unrespectbale circumstances, so if you were capable you were deemed less respectable) was to set up a rival, who could be easily demonised because of the colour of her skin and the contextual associations people made between that and morals. All of this to say I really need to read 'No Place for Ladies' about those who went to the Crimea.

I haven't read this book--or even heard of it-...

2012-01-26T05:03:58.763Z

I haven't read this book--or even heard of it--but I totally agree about Project Gutenberg. It would be awesome if their website had a browsing feature similar to GoodReads or Amazon so that people could discover more titles.

Oh! :D I need to save reading this (and the post a...

2012-01-26T03:33:39.964Z

Oh! :D I need to save reading this (and the post at Aarti's blog) for after I read the book for myself-- I'd started reading it right before I lost my iPod Touch and I really liked it. I need to redownload it so I can finish reading it!

Wow, this was really an amazing joint review, and ...

2012-01-25T20:50:59.346Z

Wow, this was really an amazing joint review, and both halves of it focused on very different things, but were extremely interesting to think about. I think you both really got a lot out of the book, despite the fact that you expected something a little different, and I can see that had I read this, I would have probably also wondered why she went into the hotel business when her passion was nursing. An exceptional review by two of my very favorite people. So, so awesome.

Mary Seacole sounds like a fascinating woman even ...

2012-01-25T16:15:50.904Z

Mary Seacole sounds like a fascinating woman even if her memoir wasn't the best. Great discussion!

I LOVED reading this with you :-) And I love you,...

2012-01-25T15:51:43.176Z

I LOVED reading this with you :-) And I love you, too!

I've been browsing on Project Guttenberg and c...

2012-01-25T12:19:26.849Z

I've been browsing on Project Guttenberg and can't believe how many utterly fascinating books are waiting for me. This one sounds great - I love reading about real people. There were so many courageous women even in times when they didn't have many rights - it makes me sad that so many of their stories have been buried in history.

This was a very interesting discussion!

2012-01-25T11:35:25.731Z

This was a very interesting discussion!