What readers think of Take My Hand, plus links to write your own review.

This was a book I was unable to put down. It is a reality that both shocks me and yet it doesn’t. For women to have to fight for freedom of choice still goes on today. The book is profoundly moving as it is inspired by true events in the south who fought for the freedom of choice. The book is a great reality check.

Take my hand is a heartwrenching and beautiful story of horrible medical experiments being performed on your black girls. Civil is a kind and caring nurse who discovers this atrocity and fights to shine a light on these acts. It's so sad to know that though this was based in 1970, our healthcare system still is full of bias and racism.

Excellent writing, painful true subject matter. Slavery in America is a fact and the history of this country’s founding. White Americans all need to know this fact and accept it. This is a powerful book and I highly recommend it.

Inspired by the real life case (Relf v. Weinberger), Perkins-Valdez's richly observed novel is blistering and incisive story of a Black nurse whose young patients' has reproductive injustices inflicted upon them because of their race and class.

It is 1973, recent nursing school graduate Civil Townsend is excited to be starting her job in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama and do her part to help women in her African American community make choices about their bodies. Civil is alarmed when she is assigned to give regularly scheduled birth control shots to young sisters aged 11 and 13, either who is sexually active. When Civil receives unsatisfactory answers from her boss, she decides to stop giving the girls the shots. Then, without Civil's knowledge, a surgical procedure will forever alter the lives of those involved.

This is an emotional compelling and heart-wrenching storyline that tugged at my heartstrings. As a reader I found that the author's writing superbly drawn characters evoked my emotions and the seamless integration of the meticulously researched historical details provided the outrage that is needed to make sure this does not happen again.

This is a great book club discussion book for groups who like to discuss weighty and timely issues.

A much needed book to understand the legacy of injustice!

Take my Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a tour de force of a novel. Inspired by true events, the story follows Civil Townsend, a fresh out of nursing school woman, working at a reproductive health clinic in Montgomery, AL. Civil quickly discovers that impoverished woman are being sterilized without their consent. When sterilization happens to two young sisters (her patients) she jumps into action and a law suit follows.

As Civil becomes more entwined with the sisters and their family, we also learn more about Civil's family. Each character in this novel is so well developed that you feel as if you know them. Watching Civil, as a young nurse, try to effect change in the sisters' lives is uplifting and painful as she struggles to come to grips with what she should and shouldn't do.

We also get to know Civil as a woman the verge of retirement from a successful career as a doctor. The author is skilled at working between the two eras and weaves the story line between the two.

The novel is ultimately about control and how the best intentions of people and the government can frequently end in tragic circumstances.

Well written historical fiction about another dark moment in American history. This is an open look at medical malpractice brought upon the poor and under-educated among our populace. I was unaware of the procedures that were done at this time in our history. Good for all of us to know.

The fictional part of the story felt very real. I could not stop reading this book.

The beautiful cover on this book hints at the beautiful writing inside. All of the events are not beautiful because this is historical fiction, based on real events which span a wide range of topics, from Civil Rights to gender rights and reproductive rights.

A reader of any background will immediately be drawn into the story of young Civil Townsend who is starting a new career as a nurse in the Family Planning Center of Montgomery, Alabama in 1973. There is a hint of some heartache with an opening statement by the adult Civil, " What we didn't know was that there would be skin left on the playground after it was all over and done with." Most likely, the reader is expecting this, given the location and time period, 1973; George Wallace is the governor of Alabama.

Civil is the first-person narrator, and the chapters occasionally alternate between 1973 -when Civil has recently graduated with her nursing degree- and 2016. The transition between time periods is seamless and easy to understand. There are no jarring interruptions to make a reader turn back a few pages and look to see which characters are being discussed.

For the eight young Black women (including Civil) who are staffing Montgomery's family planning center, there are, incredulously, additional janitorial duties of the building. Overseeing their work is a demanding red-haired woman who may remind readers of another cold-hearted nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Nursed Ratched. Despite Civil's upper-class background (her father is a doctor), she refuses to let any assignment bother her. However, the story is told honestly through Civil's eyes as events unfolded. So when the first home assignment takes Civil to the country, we readers are reminded that "country" back then and there meant outhouses and no running water and unpaved roads. In addition, poverty is neither glamorized (poor but so happy) nor glossed over; Civil is stunned by the ramshackle hut which a widowed father, two young daughters (ages 11 and 13), and an elderly grandmother call home. It smells like urine and "body funk."

I think readers will enjoy discovering this book for themselves, so no plot spoilers will be included. Suffice it to say that Civil has some personal heartbreaks and tough decisions that change the trajectory of her life forever. For anyone who has ever been an idealistic young employee, determined to make things good and right, you will be as outraged as Civil herself. This book is destined to be a modern classic!

Take My Hand by Perkins-Valdez is a well written and interesting novel that brings to light an experimental medical treatment to which poor, Black women and young girls were exposed and, for some their future reproductive health was forever changed. The novel takes place in Alabama and focuses on two Black sisters, aged 11 and 13, and the nurse assigned to them. This abuse took place in the early 1970s, decades after experimental medical treatments were conducted on the Tuskegee airmen and Henrietta Lacks without their understanding and informed consent. I recommend this book to others interested in social justice issues as another glimpse in the struggle between the haves and have nots.