Cheryl's Book Nook

Review by Nancy This book has been justly compared to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. No Nurse Ratched - but we do have a Matron Hyacinth Price of the ineptly run St. Christopher and St. Jude nursing home. She and her “employees” are taking care of many elderly residents while happily bilking them out of their money is the process. Mr. Scobie is so much smarter than they, more learned than they but due to his piano teaching skills and his young students has ended her anyhow. He has “issues” with the place, the help and especially the food. Not that all the residents don’t, believe me they need to be very afraid. There is an interesting episode where all the resident’s dentures are thrown together in the sink for washing: then they run around trying to match them back up to their owners! If you are considering facility care for a member of your family you probably shouldn’t read this! The book begins with letters gong back and forth between Matron Price and Night Nurse Shady. ...

Seventeen Vera Wright had other plans for her life than going to college like her parents had dreamed for her. Vera drops out of school and becomes a nurse in the military. This new direction in Vera’s life brings on many interesting circumstances that Vera never imagined. Along the way Vera grows up into a wonderful woman, mother and wife. It is a shame that Ms. Jolley has passed away as I did enjoy this trilogy. This trilogy is an autobiographical novel that spans from the 130s to the 150s. You could feel the passion that Ms. Jolley had writing this stories. Through the course of this book you got to see Vera grow up and become a strong woman, though all that she experienced. This is a plus because most of everything Vera went through was taken from experiences that author, Jolley experienced herself. At almost 600 hundred pages, I read this book with ease. Vera went on an adventure and found love along the way. I plan to check out more of Elizabeth Jolley’s prior work.